Alpine Panorama Weg #19

In my last outing on the Alpine Panorama Weg, I had finally reached the Lake Geneva, Lac Léman, or Genfersee, depending on your linguistic preferences. I will continue to call it Lac Léman in these pages.

There was a time in my life that I would have said that’s it, the hard work is done, and I don’t need to do the rest. After all, it is just a case of following the lake shore to Geneva, and there is no great feat in that. But as I have got older, my approach has changed. Now, as I get towards the end of a task or project, my approach is to close it out quickly and finish the job. This it was that just four days after the last outing, I was back on the trail again. Time was short, not so much in terms of days to the end of the year, but juggling work commitments and my determination to finish the trail meant that every day not walking was a day lost.

A combination of trains brought me back to St. Saphorin, and I started out from there on a cold but sunny morning. The route goes back up the hill before levelling out. Then it follows what seems like a service road through the vineyards to reach Rivaz.

It was cold and sunny when I started out, and as I went on, the day brightened up even more. Looking back towards the east, the clouds were flying off in that direction. It promised to be a sunny day.

Going on from Rivas, the trail continues to follow the service roads through the vineyards. For several kilometres, there are no villages, just an occasional farm along the way. In other circumstances, that might be boring, but with magnificent views of the lake and beyond, it remained interesting all the way.

Eventually, after those kilometres of walking through the vineyards, the route turns and goes downhill to join the main road along the lakeshore. The trail does not stay on the road, but goes along the shoreline. My views of the lake were therefore from the shore level rather than the hills above as before, but no less interesting.

That brought me to Cully, which I went through quickly, with the trail once again taking to higher ground on the western side of the village.

The trail stayed on the higher ground for a few kilometres, but then dropped back to lake shore to go into Lutry. At Lutry, the trail follows the shoreline, but I chose to go through the centre of the village instead. It is a quaint place, though it is now becoming part of the Lausanne conurbation.

I went on through Pully, where there were great views of the lakeshore to both east and west. And then I came to Lausanne itself, though perhaps more precisely the Montchoisi district. This is where the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee is situated, complete with a museum. I was reminded of the Olympic motto: “faster, higher, stronger”. My pace of moving is not fast, but it does take me farther than many people go.

And then I arrived in Lausanne. Or perhaps I should say that I arrived in the district of Ouchy. This is where the port of Lausanne is situated, and the ferries and tour boats leave from there. Once again, the trail goes right out to the shoreline, and once again, I decided to go through the town. I was looking for somewhere to have lunch. According to the guidebook, Lausanne is the end of the stage, but I was intent on going further. I wanted to get as far as possible towards Geneva in order to reduce the distance on subsequent days.

I went through Ouchy, but didn’t find a place for lunch until, just on the edge of town, I came to a harbour area with a pizzeria. That was enough for me. I enjoyed a good pizza and a beer, and then I was on my way again.

The walk continues along the shoreline, actually on a beach in places. Not far out of Lausanne, another trail joins from the north. It is the Via Jacobi, the Swiss trail that feeds into the Camino route to Santiago. The Via Jacobi and the Alpine Panorama Weg are joined for the next few kilometres. I crossed over the La Chamberonne, a brackish stream that seemed to mark a communal boundary, so that crossing it brought me into St. Sulpice community. The playground in St. Sulpice gave excellent views back towards Lausanne, but I only stopped long enough for one photo. I was still going at a good pace, though perhaps not as quickly as earlier in the day.

There is a small church in St. Sulpice that dates back to the twelfth century. I would have liked to go inside, but unfortunately, it was locked, and I kept on going. With hindsight now, looking back at the distance for the day, that was probably just as well, as it might have left me short of time if I had visited the church.

Leaving St. Sulpice, I crossed over another stream, La Venoge, and that brought me into the next community, Préverenges. Continuing to walk along the shore, I could see Morges in the distance.

I wasn’t sure how far I could go in the day, and I resolved that if I got to Morges by half past three in the afternoon, I would go on to St. Prex. As it happened, it was a few minutes after that when I reached Morges, but I decided to go on anyway. At Morges, the trail continues following the coast, but after a little while, it enters some woods and turns inland.

In the woods, I met a man who asked me how far I had come. I told him that I had walked from St- Saphorin that day. When he asked me how far I was going, and I explained that I wanted to get to St- Prex. As we talked, I explained to him that this was part of a project to walk all the way from the Bodensee to Lac Léman. He said he was impressed, and wished me well in my quest.

In the woods, the trail turns northwards and follows a stream called Le Boiron. At the railway line, the Via Jacobi and the Alpine Panorama Weg, which shared the trail since Lausanne, parted ways. The Via Jacobi takes a slightly shorter way to reach St. Prex, while the Alpine Panorama Weg goes a little further north. With the afternoon advancing towards evening, I decided to take the slightly shorter route. It follows the railway on the southern side at first, then crosses over to the northern side. The light was fading as I reached the road going into St. Prex, and I entered the village under streetlamps. Night had indeed fallen by the time I reached the train station. But that did not matter, I had gone as far as could reasonably expect, and I was well set up for the next stage.