The Vosges to Lac Leman

Luxeuil-les-Bains to Le Bouveret - 151 miles

Friday, yet again developed into a hot sunny day after a peaceful night, if a little chilly early morning – it is still April of course. After breakfast and servicing the van we called round to Lidl for a bit of shopping then headed south again.

Today is mainly off-motorways and we had a lovely run through the hills and forests of the Vosges, with just the odd detour when our route map and the roads didn't seem to agree. At one point we found ourselves on a minor road behind a huge tractor seemingly for miles. Of course he turned off just after we had managed to get past!

Lunch in a layby near the oddly named village of Nods; what a shame that the travelling public have no respect for the countryside, the woodland just off the layby looked to have been used more as a public toilet. Disgusting.

But ever onwards and in mid-afternoon we crossed the border into Switzerland, the very nice police lady amused by the moustache on the bonnet – but she still checked our paperwork! Then onwards to Lausanne where we got our first glimpse of the snow-topped mountains (we noticed that they still had the “snow chains required” signs out) and then joined a motorway which ran along the north shore of Lac Leman, or Lake Geneva as it is better known as in the UK. Switzerland seems to be doing a lot of road replacement and repairs – they're making an excellent job of it but don't appear to be in any rush!

We'd picked out a campsite for our stop tonight at the far eastern end of the lake so TomTom was tasked with finding it and we ended up on Camping Rive Bleu – well somewhere that was called that but was just a holiday chalet site! In fact the place we wanted was across the road and so we checked in there instead. Quite a steep tarif, even if it does have all facilities, but Switzerland is much more expensive than elsewhere in Europe so we just have to grin and bear it. It is very nice though and reasonably quiet this early in the season, well except for lots of young children running around that Jamie decided needed shouting at!

Pitched up, chairs out and cold drinks while we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon sun. The lady on reception told us that it had been very warm for the last couple of days and was expected to continue. However just a week ago it had been freezing.

One night here then we'll carry on over the pass to Italy. We've only got a small amount of Swiss coinage and it's not worth changing any more so thank goodness for plastic!

We stayed at:

Camping Rive-Bleu, Le Bouveret. All facilities  CH39.35 (approx £30) per night. This also included a “rubbish tax” which apparently now applies throughout Switzerland – they did provide a bag though!