16 Pontarlier to Lausanne

982 m climbing
8h 05m elapsed
25°C, sunny

80.01 km
5h 31m moving
49% off-road

Château de Joux and the ski areas

Coming out of Pontarlier, you’re presented with one of the great sights of the Via Francigena - the Château de Joux, perched high on a rocky outcrop like some extra from a WWII movie. Its also the way it comes into view… quite suddenly from between gaps on the side of the path.

You’re also now presented with one of the great dilemmas of the Via Francigena - what route to take. There’s a route through Jougne and a route through St. Croix; today I chose the route via St. Croix so that I could “do the opposite of yesterday” and go down the Gorges of Covatannaz.

Early morning outside the hotel in Pontarlier. There’s a good bakery just on the left.

The official route I think goes up high directly out of Pontarlier and likely has some great views of the Château de Joux, but I stayed in the valley out of laziness and was rewarded with the views looking up to the Château.

After the Château I quickly diverged from the official route. The official route actually goes up the side of the Château but I wanted to take a different direction and headed off on my own towards the tiny ski area at Les Fourgs.

INTO SWITZERLAND

Just after entering Switzerland my route was going to take me across what looked (at least in Google Maps) like perfect gravel tracks and they indeed started out like that. I was pedalling full speed because, you know, it was fun, but... after a few hundred meters of fun I found myself on the floor extracing myself from an electric fence that had been strung across the track (you know the "springy" kind of fence). This wasn't that pleasant but did force me to reconsider the speed I was going at and also to perhaps increase my awareness of where I was going even on what seem like pretty decent tracks.

The Swiss side of the border, looking back into France.

The second highest pass on the Via Francigena, higher than Cisa Pass (1041m).

The area around the pass feels like something out of “The Great Escape”

Gorges of Covatannaz

There are two major Via Francigena routes over the Jura, one is via Sainte-Croix and the other (the official route) is via Jougne, with the routes converging somewhere around Orbe. After the gorge yesterday I wanted to see if there was anything similar on the way down... and sure enough there are the Gorges of Covatannaz between Sainte-Croix and Vuiteboeuf.

St. Croix is a pretty place to stop and fill up with water.

The views from just south of St. Croix are amazing as you head down into the main valley.

Excellent and vey easy off roading, much easier than on the way up yesterday.

Agriculture and burgers

There's a lot of farm land between the bottom of the Jura and Lausanne.

Just after the town of Pompaples I was getting seriously hungry and I spotted a sign at what looked like an old mill saying "burgers". The mill doesn't really look like it would sell burgers... it has more of a digital startup trendy loft style office kind of vibe but I was getting desperate.

But sure enough, hidden away up an elevator on the 3rd floor is one of the best burgers I've ever had. I required a few directions from regular patrons once in the building but Bolama is a must stop if you're in the area in need of some serious refueling (and even if you're not); this was arguably the second best meal I've had on the Via Francigena so far.

The idea behind Bolama is to be hyperlocal, sourcing all the ingredients from within 15km of the mill... which is pretty easy to believe if you've been cycling through all that farm land.

Crossed over the official route here. Today I hardly followed the official VF route at all.

Must stop at Bolama (if its still open in the future)

Down to Lausanne

The route I took roughly followed the Venoge river down to Lake Geneva. It is very pretty especially in the later stages where it gets a little busier as a source of nature for the local residents.

Lausanne isn't however a very cycle friendly city (its hilly and there are many places even along the fronts where bikes are banned). So between the hills and the wish to avoid being with cars it can get problematic to plan a route:

Its easier and safer to pass under the roads in Lausanne

A typical cycle path in Lausanne - not much fun

Overnight: Lausanne, Hotel d'Angleterre

So this was the most expensive hotel I've stayed at even with the "pandemic" discount of 2 nights for the price of one. It was a great place and I'd recommend it since the rooms are so large.

Lausanne was my "first" rest day for the VF and I got to spend time in the city and by the lake. The city is so hilly that the local "metro" is effectively a funicular so I took that into town and walked back to the lake.