Gruyères

Next morning, I managed the downhill ride easily and rode past Bulle to reach the medieval old town of Gruyères. Maybe more famous for its cheese than it's castle.

Here I met Dario and Laure, with whom I had an excellent couple of days. Dario's mad tales of his two-year ride till Nepal, through south India was fascinating. We exchanged stories of Zanskar and made each other nostalgic.

As he's a bike mechanic, Dario offered to fix the broken spoke on the back wheel. The bike shop owner Alain threw in freebies and told me to "ride on my behalf". All this generosity, so touching.

Laure is an artist and also runs the Giger art museum, so I got a cool private tour. A surreal experience through the world of the mad genius Giger who made crazy fantasy art. He got famous for winning an Oscar for the artwork for the Alien movies. The details in his paintings, made with an airbrush without sketching, show his utter mastery of his craft.

We had a food festival! We rode out several times to pick up fresh local ingredients and cook up great meals. I doubt it gets better than this Gruyère cheese fondue! We also had Indian thaalis of bhindi masala, aloo gobi, daal fry complete with rotis and mango pickle. Dario relived many memories from India through this, as we licked our fingers clean.

I'm very glad to have met this man of the mountains and this artist lady in their beautiful and Gigeresque home in Gruyères.Read more