Le Grand Tour Advent Calendar: Day 21 – Ritzingen, Switzerland

By Andrew on December 21, 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

A bicycle parked on grass near a camping tent, with a scenic view of mountains and trees under a bright blue sky.

The final 10km of the day saw a return to more modest – but no less spectacular – climbing. Along quiet roads and mountain tracks the route linked village to village beside lush late-summer meadows. On the northern side of the valley the red and white trains continued to glide up and down on their spotless tracks. No leaves on the line here in Switzerland. The businessmen in their Ferraris roared up and down the road. On my side of the valley there was just me, a few other cyclists and the cows ringing their bells. This was peak Switzerland. All that was missing was a cuckoo telling me the time.

It had been a spectacular day of cycling, not without its challenges, but certainly one of the most memorable since setting off from Rotterdam some fifty days earlier. In the final few kilometres, the route joined the path of the river in the valley bottom and I arrived at Camping Brigga close to Ritzingen. It was at this point I remembered the phone call that I had made from Aigle where I had been cut off when it had become apparent that we did not share a common language. The greatest challenge of the day may yet turn out to be linguistic, not physical.

Le Grand Tour on a Bike Called Wanda recounts Andrew P. Sykes’ journey around France, into the Alps and down the Rhine in the summer of 2022. It is available as a paperback and as and eBook from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com (and other international Amazon sites). The paperback is also available from Waterstones or Foyles and the eBook from Apple iBooks. If you would like to gift a signed copy of the book, please complete the form below:

Le Grand Tour on a Bike Called Wanda (signed copy)

£15.00

A colorful banner promoting the book 'Le Grand Tour on a Bike Called Wanda' by Andrew P. Sykes, featuring quotes praising the writing and humor, with abstract mountain and landscape graphics in the background.

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