Stage 5: Off to Switzerland!

On August 2nd, we headed to Switzerland, specifically from the Italian Ferret Valley to La Fouly in Switzerland. Today it was slightly rainy and windy. Unfortunately, the weather reminded us of the first day of hiking. Armed with an umbrella and rain jacket, we set off. At first it was drizzling, but then it changed to steady rain. Fortunately, it was not continuous. After reaching Refugio Elena, the trail steeply climbed to 2537m (Grand Col Ferret, the border between Italy and Switzerland). Until then, the weather hadn't affected us too much, but the cold wind was occasionally uncomfortable. Due to the clouds that pressed against the mountain, visibility was only a few tens of meters. Jörg regularly stopped to catch up with Janina. We had numerous hikers in front of and behind us, familiar faces during the ascent :)) It was so cold and windy on the mountain pass that we didn't spend half a minute there. One person even wrapped their golden thermal foil/blanket around themselves.

Shortly after the mountain pass, we came across a herd of sheep happily jumping around and bleating :)) During the descent, the clouds passed by us. Sometimes we had good visibility, other times we could feel the clouds on our skin. But it was dry on the Swiss side! The descent was not very challenging, especially because of its length of 10 km to La Fouly, which is located at 1600m. Along the way, we passed by the mountain hut Chalet de la Peule, at which point we had already climbed 500 meters in elevation. When we reached the first village in the valley and Jörg took a photo of the typical front of a Swiss house (lots of wood, balconies with flowers and Swiss flags), his hand was greeted by bird droppings, although he initially didn't notice it :))

We reached our accommodation in La Fouly at 14:30h: l'auberge Mayajoie. There weren't many accommodation options to choose from, and this accommodation had the highest Google rating with 4.5 points. But after settling the payment with the housekeeper, we realized that this haunted house (I don't mean the housekeeper, although she probably didn't have the friendliest attitude towards non-French people; Jörg's opinion, of course) had a rating that was at least one point too high! The room on the second floor was 'basic', but at least clean. There were shared showers and toilets on the ground floor. Towels were not provided, so Jörg gave Janina the small emergency towel for showering. One toilet cubicle was decorated with graffiti on the door wall. The toilet on the second floor was already out of toilet paper in the evening. In the morning, the toilet was clogged... The room was also very noisy. The breakfast supported our diet plans, especially if we followed the housekeeper's announcement that breakfast would start at 7:30h. However, it actually started at exactly 7h for some guests (groups?). Unfortunately, the five types of jam offered were not refilled. By the way, the alternative hotel 'Edelweiss' is run by a lady who has a strong aversion to her guests, Google was right in this case, but this blog should not be used for details.

The dinner at a pizzeria in the village center was good, and the sparkling cider was tasty :)) Otherwise, La Fouly seemed rather strange to us. German-French advertisements, Swiss currency, and yet no Swiss German was spoken and practically only Euros were accepted... The low number of restaurants did not match the high number of visitors in the village. There was a sports field located next to a hotel, with 6 basketball hoops... There was an imbalance in this village, and the price-performance ratio of our accommodation did not fit. If possible, this village should not be visited, or only to buy something at the small village supermarket. Tomorrow we say goodbye to lazy La Fouly!