October 26, 2014

Funicular and Aix les Bains

I said goodbye to Cassandre bright and early today to start my bike trip.  My final stop for the night is Aix les Bain where I booked an airbnb host for $22 a night. 

The road towards Aix les Bains was relatively nice with some small sections covered in gravel. I mostly dismounted on these roads to prevent my tires from popping. 

About 1 hour into my trip I came across the funicular to the alps. This is the largest funicular for these mountains and the steepest in the world with the incline almost going vertical at some points.  The ride up is about 20 minutes and I was able to bring my bike (even though I didn't use it up there). 

The view from the top is spectacular.  But also quite chilly even with the sunshine we are having.  There is a famous event called Icarus every year where people paraglide from the top of this mountain in costumes and wacky outfits.  Unfortunately I missed it by a month.  But the nice weather did bring good out a dozen paraglide who took to the skies.  And I got first row seats watching them take off.  In fact there was a family who was my cable car and they were all doing it together! At first I thought their big backpacks were for hiking,  but it turns out they were carrying parachutes!

Anyways the paragliders lined them out on the launching area which is this big field sloping down towards a mountain with no safety barriers.  They had to wait for the right conditions and then quickly took sail by fanning their chutes.  It seems there is a lot of skill involved in take off as you don't want your chute going before you as you are running towards the cliff.  I saw some paragliders bail at the very last minute and I was holding my breath for them as there was no barriers. One person almost fell off the cliff when he bailed. 

By the time I finished watching and took the cable car down it was already 1:30 and so I got back on my bike and continued on.  I passed my Chambéry and quickly grabbed some food and recharge my cellular before heading out. 

I finally arrived in Aix les Bains around 6pm and quickly found my airbnb host's place.  After a quick meal I recharged for the night and prepared for the next day. 

The launch pad - stitched together a couple of photos for this





Peace from Aix les Bains

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