There’s a ferry that runs from Evian, France (like the water) across Lake Geneva to Lausanne, Switzerland. I’d spent a week in Evian catching up on work and enjoying some calm days and was now heading back on the road. I jumped on the ferry across the big lake and then pedaled down the coast from Lausanne to Geneva. I was feeling a bit out of it, maybe almost sick, and so pedaled easy and slowly. That felt good and it cleared my head.  

The Swiss side of Lake Geneva has much better bike lanes than on the French side. My route hugged the water or followed quiet roads not far inland. I ran across a skatepark and lots of normal parks and the weather was perfect. 

In Geneva I met some friends who were visiting Switzerland all the way from the U.P. of Michigan where I used to live. We spent a while talking about how cringey it was to see social media obsessed kids posing and posting their lives away so I felt too embarrassed to ask them for a picture, but good to see you Jess and Dave! 

I spent a few more days in Geneva mostly working (had a great breakthrough with my book project) and did some short rides and walks to explore. I also met up with Stephane. I first met him while I was doing a Hoffman Bikes demo in Geneva in 1995 or something like that! He teaches, sculpts, is a cycling guide and runs bike classes for kids here in Geneva. He talks about bikes with more romance and passion than almost anyone I’ve met and it was refreshing to be around him after all the doom and gloom in the news lately. As I’m heading out for the next phase of my journey I figured he was a perfect person to donate my Fairdale Weekender bike too. I’ve grown really attached to that bike but it is passing into very good hands who will find it a good new home. I did keep the cranks from the bike as SRAM had given them to me for my MTB (which I don’t own one of at the moment). They worked well on a touring bike and I’ll bring them with me for a future bouncy bike build.