Cycling UK Forum

I’m riding the Rhône from its source to the Med this summer. Seems to be a generally clearly marked route (and in any event I can use a map!). But there’s a choice of going round the North or South side of Lake Geneva. Does anyone have views of which is likely to be more pleasant/interesting? Thanks

Nhammy wrote:I’m riding the Rhône from its source to the Med this summer. Seems to be a generally clearly marked route (and in any event I can use a map!). But there’s a choice of going round the North or South side of Lake Geneva. Does anyone have views of which is likely to be more pleasant/interesting? Thanks

I’ve ridden the north and driven the south( both about 20 years ago ) and I think the south is more interesting with better views. You also get to visit Geneva itself, the water plume is impressive if it’s still in operation. Are you planning to go over the great St Bernard? It snowed on me on that in August, the weather was horrendous then the next was beautiful ( I was cycling south to north). Great trip, and will be a good cycle which ever way around you cycle. I’ve just had a thought though, I cycled it anti clockwise, you’ll be cycling the other way and will have a view of the Alps, depends if you want to visit Geneva or not. Someone will have done it clockwise so wait for their advice. Nigel

Wag67 wrote:

Nhammy wrote:I’m riding the Rhône from its source to the Med this summer. Seems to be a generally clearly marked route (and in any event I can use a map!). But there’s a choice of going round the North or South side of Lake Geneva. Does anyone have views of which is likely to be more pleasant/interesting? Thanks

I’ve ridden the north and driven the south( both about 20 years ago ) and I think the south is more interesting with better views. You also get to visit Geneva itself, the water plume is impressive if it’s still in operation. Are you planning to go over the great St Bernard? It snowed on me on that in August, the weather was horrendous then the next was beautiful ( I was cycling south to north). Great trip, and will be a good cycle which ever way around you cycle. I’ve just had a thought though, I cycled it anti clockwise, you’ll be cycling the other way and will have a view of the Alps, depends if you want to visit Geneva or not. Someone will have done it clockwise so wait for their advice. Nigel

Just had a look at the map and have seen my ignorance. You’ll be cycling the same direction as i did so I would cycle the south. I’ve been in the Camargue area in the evening/night, which is not that far from the Rhône estuary and is possibly as marshy. I used mosiguard which worked well. Don’t go without it, they are prolific and savage. Nigel

I've ridden about a 1/3 of the North side from Nyon to Geneva (anti-clockwise). Just a fairly busy road with a not great cycle path next to it. You can't see the lake as there are large houses in the way.

As for Geneva itself. There's a small old section which is quite nice but most of the rest is just your average car dominated city. The one good feature is the lake which is nice to swim in. There's a beach in the centre of Geneva but you may need to pay. We went to one a little to the East of the North shore accessed via an underpass (with graffiti and rubbish/broken glass on the floor, Switzerland being pristine is true of small villages but that's also true of the Cotswolds), possibly William's Bay or just to the West of there. There was a grass area to sit and a public toilet.
Stock up on food and supplies in France it will be way cheaper.
We were at the end of a trip and flying back from Geneva. We stayed a couple of days in the Premiere Classe at Airport (which is just on the French side of the border) stocked up with enough food and drink for the entire day at the nearby Le Clerc and then cycled across the border to the lake.

BTW I don't rate Swiss drivers in terms of their attitude to cyclists, they are on a par with British ones

On a previous trip we were planning to go over the Gran Bernard into Switzerland in mid June but it was closed due to snow so we went over the Petite Bernard and on to Albertville.

I was in Switzerland with the bike over Xmas, didn't have any problems with Swiss drivers, it was the furreners from Lichtenstein that you needed to watch out for!

We rode the north side of the lake a few years ago, but between Montreux and Geneva we detoured away from the lake shore a bit onto some nice minor roads and didn't get back to the lake until almost in the centre of Geneva. We followed the Rhone as far as Avignon before heading off towards the Pyrenees - there were a few places where the Via Rhona disappeared and we were shunted back onto roads, but maybe those sections have been improved since then. The worst part was leaving Lyon heading South - we started at 6am to try and avoid the traffic. By contrast, coming into Lyon from the North was a breeze - the bicycle route along the bank of the Rhone took us all the way into the centre of the city.

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Thanks for the advice. You confirm what the map suggests, which is that the northern route spends quite a lot of time picking its way through suburbs. South is shorter too (ignoring the little voice that says that means it’s cheating). I’m not going over any cols, except perhaps up to the Rhone’s source at Furkapass from the nearest station (30% of the river’s total height difference in 14km!), and yes I’ve heard about the Camargue mozzies - I’ll be taking industrial grade chemicals with me! Thanks again

I did EV17 this summer but started at Geneva. The route goes south and there are notes on the via Rhona website for France about the various routes and busyness so you can have a look and see if it apeals. For Switzerland the info is here. I used cycle.travel and it sometimes routed me away from the standard path. https://www.schweizmobil.ch/en/cycling- ... -0927.html

Nhammy wrote:Thanks for the advice. You confirm what the map suggests, which is that the northern route spends quite a lot of time picking its way through suburbs. South is shorter too (ignoring the little voice that says that means it’s cheating). I’m not going over any cols, except perhaps up to the Rhone’s source at Furkapass from the nearest station (30% of the river’s total height difference in 14km!), and yes I’ve heard about the Camargue mozzies - I’ll be taking industrial grade chemicals with me! Thanks again

Mosiguard worked for me there, and is based on citronella oil I think, doesn’t smell too bad ( I quite like it ). I preferred the stick type, like a deodorant rather than the roll on, which stayed a bit tacky

MrsHJ wrote:I did EV17 this summer but started at Geneva. The route goes south and there are notes on the via Rhona website for France about the various routes and busyness so you can have a look and see if it apeals. For Switzerland the info is here. I used cycle.travel and it sometimes routed me away from the standard path. https://www.schweizmobil.ch/en/cycling- ... -0927.html

Thanks for the link. I’d found the French via Rhône site, but not this one

MrsHJ wrote:I did EV17 this summer but started at Geneva. The route goes south and there are notes on the via Rhona website for France about the various routes and busyness so you can have a look and see if it apeals. For Switzerland the info is here. I used cycle.travel and it sometimes routed me away from the standard path. https://www.schweizmobil.ch/en/cycling- ... -0927.html

Thanks for the link. I’d found the French via Rhône site, but not this one