first pass

16.9.03    Pontarlier (france) - lac de joux - col de mollendrux - lausanne, 130 km, 6 h

I had a look in my wallet and it was quite empty. I spent the rest of my money the day before for some food, I had only 8 € and a lot of swiss francs but swiss was 30 km's away (with also a hill between, not really good with an empty stomach). I thought about if I shouldn't pay for the camping ground, well I did that when I was younger but not anymore, so I paid and had 2 € left for at least some fruits in town.

Pontalier

Pontalier is a nice quite town in the Jura. The Jura is a low mountain chain in france next to the swiss boarder.

along the road

 

After a while I passed a nice castle on the mountain. I hadn't the time to stop (I didn't want to go up hill but I guess I would have been worth).

castle

 

After a while I had to go up to three passes. The first one was the lower but I also started at a lower level. I reached Vallorbe and took a right turn to Lac de Joux, a really nice spot which is not as busy as Lac Leman (Genfer See).

going down towards Vallorbe

 

boarder between france and swiss

 

Lac de Joux

map

lakefront

 

highest point so far

I was tired after getting up to Col du Mollendrux. I didn't thought that it is so difficult to ride up with luggage. From there I had to ride down all the time, that was cool, riding 60 km/h without doing anything.
After another hour I arrived in Echandens, a suburb of Lausanne. I found the house of Werner fast but he wasn't there (well, I didn't tell him when I will be there). I was walking around and after 5 minutes he came, funny. After a talk and some food we went for another bike ride.

 

I cooked in the evening

having dinner

This night shouldn't be cold, but I had to fight with another problem. I slept on a sofa, the landlord said to me:" no worries if you want to sleep her, there is enough space, perhaps you want to sleep on the sofa, if it fits you". Well, it is really small and so I fall off a couple of times, but that was okay, better than being cold.

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