From Langres, I decided to turn East and connect to the Rhine cycling route around Switzerland and then enter Italy from North. At first, I did not see any official cycling route towards Switzerland and picked the most direct route, following some N* (the busiest) and D* (reasonably quiet) roads. A few cycling route signs appeared when I reached the town named Combeaufontaine. Turns out there is a path along a canal and it connects to EV6. I reached Vesoul in late afternoon. After an hour on the highway out of the busy town, I took a downhill exit towards a quiet village named Dampvalley and found a gravel road through the nearby forest. According to the signs, there was a quarry and a military airport nearby. I pitched my tent on dry leaves among the trees. A few MTB riders passed later in the evening.
The next day I was back on another canal cycling route, the one connecting the Rhone and Rhine rivers. I passed through a village to get a croissant, etc. and visited a supermarket to replenish my food cache. Around here, most villages had water fountains but they were not potable, so I had to buy water too. The canal route was pretty flat and even downhill at times so I made good distance. The closer I got to the German border, the more towns with German names appeared. Near Mulhouse, I found a patch of forested area to spend the night.
I picked up the Rhine River route at Basel, Switzerland. It sits at the corner of three countries: France, Switzerland and Germany. One of my cousin’s daughter lived there and they were kind enough to host me a couple of days and showed me around the pretty city. This was going to be my first and the only big city visit of the entire trip, except Glasgow.
After Basel, going upstream, the Rhine river criss-crossed between Switzerland and Germany until Lake Konstanz and then went south between Switzerland and Austria.
Murat On Bike 