18 May 2023
The wind had died down from the horrors of the previous day when we took shelter in the Founex Auberge for a GINClub lunch. PeterD organised this outing – a prize to him for 2 days in a row !
A new member attended (for the second day in a row), Richard Flett, or E-Richard as our BOOT-bound BLeader would call him, with connections to South Africa. Welcome Richard.
Attending – PeterD, PeterT, Paul, MikeM, Mervyn, Mark2ts and RichardF. Three e-bikes and four pushers.
We set off slightly into the wind on an anticlockwise circuit cunningly designed to have the wind behind us on the worst uphill section (Vesancy Hill). Tracking past Lac Divonne, skirting round Crassier in France, up to La Rippe and glancing at the Bonmont Hill before turning left for the traverse to Vesancy under the Jura forests.
An almost good weather day which turned a bit chilly, and was slightly marred by the coffee stop in Vesancy being closed for Ascension.
So, we trekked on down to Gex before heading back up and across through Echenevex to Maison Blanche, avoiding the down-the-field approach.
Lunch was served at a fine circular linen-laid table – this is how golfers expect to dine. Mark had celebrated becoming Swiss the day before, and he was keen to buy the beers. Affligem from Belgium went down well but a second glass was needed to verify its excellence.
Conversation seemed to settle around religion, atheism, Dawkins, UK non-resident banking (Barclays is throwing us out), Darwin, memes and memeplexes (religion again), natural selection and mortality. Paul’s excellent new book on Wallace’s unheralded but vitally essential bird-collecting Indonesian assistant, Ali, is coming out shortly.
Paul tells us that he believes we have all must have had an “Ali” in our lives, getting us through to where we are today. Something for us all to ponder..
We drank the health of our absent BLeader, resting up at home.
The nems were excellent as were the burgers and triple fried chips. We actually met a couple of GIN members (well at least one – Werner) who had come in from their golf round.
All too soon it was time to take off back home via an interesting riverside path below Gex with a bike staircase, before saying farewell to Paul and exiting Gex on the beloved bike path to Divonne, as we pondered on “who was my Ali ?”.
I made it 49km and 479m from Coppet.
Sounds like all is continuing well without the usual BLeader. Some concern though about deliberately detouring the Bonmont climb…….