Left Switzerland for France today, which was probably good timing for the French nationals in our group after last night’s 5-2 thrashing of Switzerland by France at the World Cup.
Straightforward ride from the farm we were staying at near Möhlin, along the Rhine through Basel, a half-kilometer trip through Germany to the “Bridge of Three Nations” (an elegant EU-funded footbridge over the Rhine) and into la belle France, and also back into the Eurozone – no more messing around with Swiss francs!
The rest of the ride to Mulhouse (pronounced something like “Mull-ooze”, if you wondered) was mostly along old canals and through small villages. It was hot but not unpleasantly so, but the dust on the unpaved stretches of the old canal towpaths was the worst we’ve seen so far – we all arrived at the Mulhouse hostel covered in fine white dust. I just washed the bike off in Switzerland, too…
Now that we’re in France the official receptions have started, the AF3V being a French organization. We got to listen to the mayor of Mulhouse go on in French for a while, had a couple of mercifully brief remarks from others, then got some free samples of local beer and wine. We have a bunch of these over the next weeks in France; providing the alcohol supply and quality are kept up they’ll be survivable!
Off to Belfort tomorrow and Baum-les-Dames the day after, but internet is likely unavailable so expect another flurry of backdated posts in a few days!
(The title comes, of course, from Casablanca, and no, the line is not “Play it again, Sam”. Go watch the movie again if you don’t believe me…)
