Sabbatical in Geneva - Biking in France and Switzerland

A bicycle (un velo) in France and Switzerland is a regular site everywhere as they are used for racing, exercise, and transportation. It amazes me that with the small streets and roads here, there is room for cars (small ones), many motorcycles, bikes, and giant buses. They all seem to get along and the cyclists are treated as just another vehicle. The city is full of bikes as are the small towns and the countryside. What surprises me more than any of it are the number of Swiss and French who bike to work riding at breakneck speed in their colorful lycra carrying their work clothes in a small backpack. At about 7:30 am, the road in front of our house has multiple bikers zooming toward Geneva. On the weekend, obvious racer types zoom by going the other way and last Saturday, a group of beyond middle age portly Americans came puffing up our hill on what appeared to be a bike tour. The Swiss and French are crazy about their biking. The men tend to ride racing bikes or sometimes working bikes with large platforms or trailers while the women mostly ride a city bike in an upright position wearing street clothes. Judy will appreciate that electric bikes are the rage and they are seen all the time – again bikes are used for transportation.

I haven’t attempted riding to work yet because of the traffic going into Geneva but I heard one of my fellow workers, Henrick, does ride from my area and I’m thinking of getting him to show me the shortcuts. I have been riding in the country and what a pleasure it is. The roads are lined with fields of wine grapes on one side and fields of apples on the other. Just across the Swiss border from our place are the small towns of Collex and Bossy each containing bike trails or paved singletrack cutting through the fields, mountains, and towns. On those, people walk or bike and they are used for agricultural machinery but generally not for cars. I’m uploading some pictures going through Collex on the 50 km bike road that winds through the country. I’ve yet to make it to the end to see where it goes but it’s a pleasure to ride due to the lack of automobiles and scenery. Rolling through the centuries old villages inspires the illusion of being in the Tour de France at least as much as it can riding my slow pace.

I looked at bike carriers so that I could bring the regular sized bike however taking a measurement summing the width, length, and height of those put me over 87” which is the maximum allowed by U.S. Airlines. Some of the other airlines allow this size and more and probably would have influenced the fight I booked had I known. I then checked with UPS to see about shipping the bike and they would for $600. I was advised by Kirk to just purchase one here and I haven’t given up on that idea but I haven’t yet been in a bike shop. Fortunately, I have a Bike Friday that folds into a suitcase and even though it has small wheels it rides fine and didn’t cost me extra to bring.

The attached pictures show some of the route of the bike road and will give you a feel for what the countryside here looks like. Enjoy!