August 28, 2012
After a day spent lounging in my little chalet apartment,
catching up on reading but also going outside to walk around and do a bit of
shopping in downtown Charmey, such as it is, and managing to locate an adapter
which would allow me to plug in my espresso machine and my computer into the
really weird and totally unique another-argument-against-European-integration
Swiss electrical sockets (were they designed so that invaders would not be able
to use their coffee machines?), I felt fully recovered from my exertions at the
Gruyère
Cycling Tour and on Tuesday I decided to take advantage of the fine weather and
do an easy ride to the east, involving no navigational effort whatsoever since
I would be riding a stretch of the Cycling Tour again. I particularly liked the flattish bit that
commenced just outside of Charmey.
Leaving my chalet, I rode past a little chapel directly in the
neighbourhood and stopped to take a look.
It was constructed in 1633 and the various wall paintings had been
restored fairly recently but what was especially interesting was the ceiling,
which had been plastered over during the centuries but which restorers had
cleaned up to show the original painting on the barrel-arch ceiling.
Riding another 200 m down the road, I came to, surprisingly,
another chapel on the main road in Charmey.
This was smaller than the first chapel I visited and there was no sign
informing about its history. It was
located directly across the street from the large church that dominates the
village.
Turning east along the main road, I passed though Charmey proper
(891 m ASL), passing the tourism office on the left and the adjacent cable car
station, and a short descent took me back onto the straight road running
alongside the Jogne River through the Swiss countryside. Shortly after leaving the village, I came
across yet another chapel, the third one within 3 kms of my start! This one boasted a nice altar but also some
very nice plantings outside, particularly around a nearby water trough, an
omnipresent and very useful fixture in Switzerland. I noticed that many of the participants rode
with only a single water bottle at the Gruyère Cycling Tour, which saves a bit
of weight on all those climbs but I would only risk if assured of a regular
supply of water, which is the case here.
The Jogne Valley takes you past some impressive mountains, with
the Hochmatt on the right reaching 2152 m ASL and les Dents Vertes (“the Green
Teeth”) formation on the left. I rode
quietly along in the sunshine, enjoying the superb road and looking at the remarkable
flower displays on the farmhouses I passed.
There were occasional sawmills along the way but not much in the way of
traffic. At some point I crossed a
linguistic barrier as the village names were now much more German as I noted
when I passed Im-Fang and Zur-Eich (“In the Trap” and “At the Oak”
respectively). At this point I returned
to the section where the road was under construction that we had been delayed at
during the Cycling Tour. I was able to
cycle a good part of it but as I made my way between the graders and rollers I
came across some very soft dirt and had to walk again.
Soon rolling once more, I went through the slightly larger
settlement of Jaun and then passed a little waterfall in Kapellboden I had not
noticed on the previous ride. There was
the turn on the road towards Abländschen and the Mittelberg that had been the
hardest stretch of the Cycling Tour.
Instead today I continued straight ahead.
Now began a serious climb of around 5 kms through the green
countryside as I worked my way up the Jaunpass.
There were some sections that must have been around 10% at the start but
then the grade became more reasonable. I
passed an attractive stone marker that had been set in 1878 showing the
distance to Broc on one side and to Boltigen, in the direction I was going, on
the other. There was very little
traffic, except the occasional motorcycle, for which I was grateful as after
the stone marker the road became quite narrow.
I rode at a fairly steady rate and soon enough I came to the top
of the pass (1508 m ASL), which had the usual selection of restaurants/sporting
goods stores that you find at the top of a pass in the Alps. I had to ride a little further to find the
col sign for the obligatory photo and as I pulled up a group of four cyclists
arrived from the other direction. There
were two older men and a girl and a youth; one of the older men (who was
missing an eye) offered to take my photo in front of the col sign and did a
commendable job. He told me that going
further along the road I would be able to see a glacier in the mountains so I
took my leave and began the descent of the pass, crossing into Canton Bern and
the Simmental.
Sure enough, after 500 m or so I could see the ice on the
mountains across the valley. I took some
photos and turned around as I had not intended to go on towards Boltigen and
climb both sides of the pass today.
Instead, I stopped at the summit for a coffee in a Fromagerie, where all the signs were in German but the lady spoke
French. There was a sign with a photo
showing an old style cheese vat with a man in local costume stirring it with a
big paddle which pointed out that they don’t make cheese like this
anymore. In fact, behind a glass wall
was a modern spotless cheese operation with the usual stainless steel
equipment.
In addition to cheese, there were a number of other local products
available, including the meringues which are sold everywhere around here. I bought a small jar of local Simmental
mountain honey to give to friends I was going to see in Bern that evening. I had a really excellent latte macchiato
while I sat outside in the sun. The lady
in the shop came out and we chatted for a bit and our conversation was
interrupted by the appearance of two wonderful old stake trucks, probably from
the late 1940s or early 1950s. One was a
startling turquoise colour and had a large cow sculpture on the bed while the
other was a pleasing coffee-and cream combination (no cow though). The drivers tooted their horns at us as we
waved and they then drive up the short climb behind the Fromagerie to a restaurant.
Looking at my photos, I saw that the trucks were decorated to
celebrate the centennial of the Chevrolet marque. This was fitting as I am quite certain Louis
Chevrolet actually was French Swiss. The
lady told me that the day before a whole group of beautiful Ferraris had come
over the pass and that it is not uncommon to see vintage cars on these roads.
Coffee finished I gingerly headed back down the Jaunpass, which
seemed a lot steeper going down that when I had come the other way. My descending skills have not improved with
time but have rather declined in inverse proportion to weight gain. If I lived around here I am sure that I would
be a better descender but I am very conscious when riding alone to put prudence
first.
An easy ride back towards Charmey (well, minus the
construction section where I had to walk
again!) and I was soon back in the chalet.
A relaxing 37 kms with 675 m of climbing (not always so relaxing) and
some great coffee for a successful excursion.
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