We started the day at 9.00, meeting my mom and cousin in the lobby to go for coffees and croissants at a cute, little coffee shop nearby (even with the 50% off vouchers, the hotel breakfast would have been CHF14/person). While we had nice lattes, fresh orange juice and croissants, we tried to think of Swiss politicians that were infamous for scandals that they were involved in. We could only come up with a manager of a smaller Swiss city that sent nudes to his mistress taken in his office in city hall, and the (Texan) wife of the former Swiss ambassador to Germany who had some “revealing” pictures taken for a German magazine on the property of the Swiss embassy in Berlin. “Amateurs”, the current American president would say, probably.
Then we said our goodbyes to my mom and cousin and were off. After just a little bit of city traffic, we hit a newly built greenway leading out of the city which was very nice.
At some point cycling on the greenway, we must have left Switzerland again, as we suddenly found ourselves in Annemasse, a French town. No border marker. By then, the temperatures already reached at least 30 degrees (86F) and we started going through our water supply rather quickly (we now each carry three liters (0.8 gallons)).
A stretch of the road on our route was closed for construction and the detour suggested taking the highway for a little while, so we had to do some construction-site offroad cycling to stay on course. We saw some bike tracks, so were not the first ones to opt for this approach.
After this, we made very fast progress on the almost flat approach to the day’s climb starting in Sallanches. The 500m (1640ft) climb was tough in the hot weather, but the nice views onto the Mont Blanc range partially made up for it.
When we reached the hotel, we were drenched in sweat and our water bottles were all empty. But we were greeted by our friend Mathieu from Zurich, who was spending the weekend in Chamonix and drove over to see us! We showered quick to go to the bar for the locals (good recommendation by the hotel owner), where it is accepted to buy something from the nearby boulangerie to consume it with one’s drink. Besides catching up with Mathieu, we followed the great France – Argentina game of the World Cup, and the locals started chants about Messi having to go home after the “Bleus” beat the Argentinians.
After walking through town, we walked with Mathieu to his car, but the 50 steps to get there were hard with our tired legs. After goodbye hugs, we went to dinner. Megève is the fanciest of ski towns in the French alps and has no fewer than six Michelin Star restaurants and many expensive clothing stores. We went to a not too fancy place for dinner, but still paid 90€.
Back at the hotel, we very quickly fell asleep. Other people were making full use of the Saturday night, though, so we had to put in earplugs at around 2.00 in the morning to be able to continue sleeping.
Total distance/elevation to date: 2883km/18’583m
Rest days: 9
Day 37 Route and Stats
Relive Video
The 1948 Tour 
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