Nendaz to La Tsoumaz cycle

Mike cycling down to Drotcher

Link to detailed route page and map click on route title 

Yesterday was an admin day, as we thought it would be raining. Managed to get my tax return done and so as a reward to ticking off some of the tasks on our never-ending task list, this morning as a reward given it was a beautiful morning we decided to head out on our bikes to check out a restaurant  in a Gite that we once stayed at, and thought that we would go to with Bob who will be visiting us for the next few days.  Well we got to the restaurant at Les Cretaux only to find that it was shut for the summer. Too early to head back so we decided to continue down the road and aim for La Tsoumaz which we have cycled to in the past.

The road is paved down to a river crossing near Drotcher where there is an old waterwheel and then turns into a dirt path, which fortunately has been recently re-graded and was in excellent condition. There were wild strawberries growing alongside the path which were an excellent excuse to stop and have a rest! Mike managed to cycle all the way up the hill. I must admit that I needed to have a breather and get off and push for the steepest 100yds  but was still very happy with my cycling. Much more uphill that we remembered but finally we got to the river crossing 200m of up later and then it was a lovely contour path with views across to the mountains into La Tsoumaz.

This is definitely a winter town and very little was open in the summer, however we had a lovely coffee and then in a different cafe I managed to procure some chocolate cake as a carry out to have on our return trip. We found a bench half way up the hill to Les Cretaux to have our cake complemented by an orange, excellent. A bit further up the hill we found some wild cherry trees and sampled those as well as a few extra for breakfast.

Good cycle back down to Nendaz, both feeling more confident about our ability to climb hills, especially on tarmac, so up for a bigger adventure now.  In the afternoon Mike picked up Bob from Sion and we had a good start to the evening with a couple of beers at the Edelweiss bar in town. Walking back home afterwards we came across a band playing their Swiss Mountain horns which was special. Fun evening with Bob, decided on a fondue but had not read the instructions in advance so did not realise that I needed to add the wine. The melted cheese looked very glutinous and unappetizing – Bob to his credit found it all amusing and believed it would turn out okay. Rescued the instructions from the bin, discovered we needed to add some wine and hey presto 10min later fondue was back on the menu.

A compilation of some photos from our day