Today is the last day of my walk along the Via Francigena – at least for now. Arriving in Lausanne, I will have walked between between Lausanne and Rome, over three stages. Whether I continue through France to Canterbury, time will tell.
It was a beautiful walk to end on – partly along the banks of Lake Geneva and partly walking through the vineyards on the south facing slopes of the lake.
I had set my alarm on my phone, but given that I slept with earplugs and the phone was on silent, I slept through the alarm for 37 minutes! I rushed up, washed, packed, had a quick breakfast and was out of the door by 8.15.
Between Montreux and Vevey, I walked along the lake. It was relatively quiet, at least initially, apart from some joggers and dog walkers. As I got closer to Vevey, more and more people were out enjoying the beautiful weather.
The path was lined with flowers and lots of art work, some of which I took pictures of. I passed the sculptures of Freddie Mercury, Miles Davies and Charlie Chaplin and the fork in the water – but there was lots more to see.
It was relatively easy going until the path was blocked by an electronic music festival. I had to retrace my steps.
At Vevey many people filled the cafe’s or were taking a stroll, many looking at the photo’s on exhibition along the path. Vevey has both a game and a photo museum, both of which could have been interesting to see – if I had the time. I didn’t. Vevey is also headquarters of Nestlé and the head office was massive.
From Vevey, the route went up into the hills north of the lake, into the vineyards. It seems to be a popular pass time to walk through them. Given the number of people I met today, I suspect that there is a wine route with wine tasting. Based on what I could here, there were many nationalities walking the route.
It was an interesting time to walk through the vineyards, as many workers were out plucking the ripe grapes, putting them in baskets and carrying them down to the road, where they were loaded on lorries. Some even had rail tracks down the slope, although I didn’t see any in use.
I passed through villages where the grapes were being pressed and the skins put into large tanks and in one village the workers had congregated for lunch.
It was s beautifully picturesque walk with views across the vineyards down to the lake and beautiful houses above and along the shores. A couple of railway lines crossed the area, one next to the lake and another higher up beyond the vineyards.
After the small village of Epesses, the route led me back down to the lake, before moving inland to Cully, where I bought lunch at a supermarket. I walked along a quiet road to Villette and then crossed the main road to continue next to the lake, which was packed with people. The weather was beautiful.
For the most, I was following a path between the water and people’s homes. With the odd exception houses didn’t have direct access to the lake. It wasn’t a very interesting path as most houses had high hedges or fences. At Lutry I was back to a promenade and lots of people.
I walked next to the coast all the way to Lausanne, passing the Olympic museum. The final kilometer was uphill to the station, hard on my legs after 32kms.
Today’s walk a fitting finale to my Via Francigena experience – after walking from Sarzana to Rome last fall, Sarzana to Pavia in spring (the Grand Saint Bernard was closed)and Pavia to Lausanne this time around.
I saw many walkers, of which 4 or 5 were doing the Via Francigena- one couple I spoke with were walking to Aosta this time.
Tomorrow I start in Chur where I ended on the Via Francisca in May. So as I write this, I am sitting on a train on an almost 4 hour journey from Lausanne to Chur via Zurich. A ticket that just put me back 105CHF (ca120€). Everything is expensive in Switzerland. But at least the trains run on time!