JURA MOUNTAINS: A ride from SWITZERLAND to FRANCE – KICK OFF to my new adventure

Welcome to a new trip. Welcome to a new ride. Instead of going to countries far away, we will start at home and ride into the unknown. We will visit some of the most stunning routes in Europe. Are you ready for the journey? This time, the kickoff to our trip will be as close to where I live as never before, in the Jura Mountains between Switzerland and France. What happened so far? In spring 2021, my travel partner and I flew to Mexico, quarantined for two weeks, and were then able to enter the United States of America. I took off from Los Angeles to ride across the United States, and my travel partner wanted to join about half of the way. But then ---- happened. My travel partner fell while riding off-road in Utah and injured his ankle badly. I continued to ride alone much earlier than planned. On my way to Miami, I got bitten by three ticks, but was able to finish my ride across the country. Back in Europe, my travel partner and I both struggled with the aftermath of this journey. Recovering the broken ankle took much longer than expected, and I got several infections from the tick bites that forced me to take antibiotics for several weeks. Initially, we had planned to take off for about two months in summer and early autumn to ride all the way to Turkey and the country Georgia. But due to our health, our departure got delayed week after week. So there are some good and some bad news. The bad news is that I wanted already to take off to a trip with my motorcycle about a month ago, and now I'm still in Europe. I had some health issues. My travel partner had some health issues too. And so we lost a lot of time now that we actually wanted to spend traveling. The good news is that meanwhile, both my travel partner and I feel a little bit better. So we hope that we can take off soon. When we finally decided we would be okay to travel again, it was August, and temperatures in the Balkans were rising to 40 degrees Celsius with many forests burning due to the heat waves and dry summer. Both of us not fully recovered yet. My travel partner and I realized that we would have to change our plans. According to my travel partner's doctor, he was not allowed to ride any off-road yet anyways. And according to mine, I should take it easy and not stress my body with riding in a crazy heat wave. Without telling you too much about the future adventure, we might not have followed all of our doctor's advices. But wait, let's start where it all began, close to Zurich in Switzerland. Good morning, we are off today and we probably don't go to the Balkans because this heat wave is coming. And so we rescheduled a little bit and looked at temperatures in Europe and found out that France, Spain, Portugal are not that hot. So we will head in that direction, but we go from day to day, so everything is possible. So I had figured out all these nice routes for the Balkans and now we're probably going to France. Or where are we going? Portugal. We will see if we come that far. Eventually Portugal. Hello guys and hello everyone who is back here and joining the journey again. Welcome to this new adventure. And look at this fantastic weather. Do you remember when we took off to West Africa and to North Cape? It always rained on the first day of the ride. So it seems like we are breaking the spell today. What a beautiful day to go on an adventure. Instead of turning east to ride to the Balkans, our ride started very adventurous with riding through the city Zurich and then taking the Swiss autobahn direction west. So now we're going to figure out where we're going and she's in such good mood this morning. First ride of this summer and she's all smiles. You know, Switzerland is quite small, so you never need to be on the highway too long if you don't want to. And since we now decided to go direction Portugal, our destination for today is the Jura Mountains between Switzerland and France because we don't need to hurry. We turned off at Zolotun and soon we're on our way to our first mountain pass of this journey. And I can promise you, the first of many. Even though I have traveled especially the southern and more mountainous part of Switzerland quite intensely, I have no clue about this area here. And I didn't know that this would be a real mountain pass, but it seems like it is and it's called Weissenstein. So we will see. The pass Weissenstein starts at the southern Oberdorf in canton Zolotun, is 12 kilometers long and ends at Gensbrunnen. It has a gradient of up to 22%, with the Swiss average being 9.5%. And therefore, Weissenstein is one of the steepest passes in Switzerland. The route is not very busy though and the perfect little excursion if you are in the area. So do you see the sign here? It says Jura Bernois. So here starts the part of the Jura Mountains in the Swiss canton of Bern. For everyone who is not familiar with Switzerland, the Swiss cantons are similar to country states. So Motier, where we go now, is famous for its gorges and the surroundings. And I hope we will see a few of them. But first, lunch. So this is our first lunch on this journey and Weissenstein Switzerland. And we will go through the Jura Mountains to France. To be honest, I have no exact clue where we are riding at the moment. I just chose small and curvy roads. And the ride here at the countryside is really quite nice. What's that? Let's check this out. It looks like a cathedral or something like that. A visit of Belle Allée Abbey is a journey back in time to the 12th century when monks founded this historical monument. Belle Allée is the place where the famous cheese Tête de Moine is made since over 800 years. I don't know how you guys feel about this, but somehow I think that the weather changed a little now that we are getting closer to France. So I hope it will not start to rain. Maybe I jinxed it before when I said it's such a nice weather today. Literally driving the smallest roads here, but we are without any plan anyway, so not in a rush today and can just enjoy this nice ride here through the Jura Mountains. The name Jura comes from Juria, a Latinized form of the Celtic stem Jor, which means forest. The mountain range Jura gives its name to the French department of Jura, the Swiss canton of Jura, and to the Jurassic period. The range is built up vertically while decreasing in size laterally along a rough northwest-southeast line. And here she is in the rain, taking a little rain break. So I officially jinxed it when I said it will not rain today. Of course, it is raining on our first day of the journey. What else? But today I'm fine with it because the alternative would have been riding in 40 degrees, and I really prefer this temperature and a little rain to crazy heat. So what do you think, guys? Better heat and no rain, or mild temperatures and rain? Hard choice, I know. So this should be the border, or close to the border now, but I don't know if to go right or left. Bonjour. C'est la France, là. C'est la France, là? France? France, là, oui. Oui. Et c'est Suisse? Suisse. Okay, then we go here. Merci beaucoup. Bienvenue. Hi there. Merci. This is it, the first border crossing of this trip. Hello, France. Even though there are countless beautiful roads through the French part of the Jura Mountains, we decided to head to the small village, Genesi Bouillon, that is scenically situated along a river. We are in France now and found finally a little place to stay here, and we go for dinner now. First dinner on this tour. Chez Gervais is a hotel and restaurant rich in history and stories. Charles Ritz, son of the hotelier Ritz, and one of the foremost specialists of live fishing, was a regular guest of the small inn. Ernest Hemingway called him once one of the finest live fishermen he knew. With Ritz came the greatest fisherman to Genesi Bouillon as soon as little gray flies covered the surface of the water. Today, the hotel is still full of history, and the restaurant serves authentic, delicious, typical dishes of the area. Thanks for joining the kickoff to the new journey into the unknown. If you are a part of the Got2Go travel crew, give this video a thumbs up and comment. The next episode takes us deeper into the heartland of France. We will visit the town of Beaumle-le-Monsieur, a cathedral, a waterfall, and eventually we'll have some trouble with the weather again. Tune in next Thursday to join the new adventure.