This year, the Club Estafette de France met in Viriat. Viriat is a French commune located in the Ain department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. It is part of the district of Bourg-en-Bresse and the canton of Bourg-en-Bresse
The “Rasso” was organized by Carbo and Pouille.

Saturday morning, Couchette, Strella and I left.
Couchette received a nice CH sticker – but she also had the most difficult job to do 🙂 – indeed, the outbound trip was supposed to be via the CH highway so that we would be a bit faster – unfortunately, the “Pentecostal excursionists” and the construction sites spoiled our plan and we spent more than an hour and a half in traffic jams at a stop-and-go. In Orbe, we got out and took a break – Strella needed it badly – this time in the cool shade!

By chance, we headed to the Museum of ORBE ROMAN MOSAICS -> Google-Map – that offered extensive trees to stay there a while

We continued via Vallorbe through the Jura to Lons-les-Saunier.
Here we made again a longer break with a walk and goodies. Until then Strella has held up quite well, but the noise and the heat was a bit much for her – in the plain it was felt over 30 degrees.
For the onward journey Strella needed some persuasion, she would have rather stayed in the shade.
The last stage was then on the well developed D1083 – where you can drive in many places 90 and in places 110.
We then arrived in Viriat pretty much at 18:30 – instead of 16:00 as planned – Tant Pis, just happy 🙂

We were welcome very heartily and we could choose a place near the electricity source (refrigerator)
In total we were 10 Estafetten and about 40 forum members, relatives or guests. Most of them already knew each other and were happy to meet again. In addition to plenty of parking space, a large shed was available – and there was a toilet and a shower container!
At the Appero various spirits or even wine were offered and you could fill your Rasso cup with freshly tapped beer at any time.

Each participant received this Rasso cup:

For dinner, there was a potato gratin and half a chicken (Güggeli), followed by fromage blanc, various hard cheeses, and a cream pie with coffee for dessert!
For the youngest and the young at heart, it was time to party – with a professional DJ – until three in the morning! 🙂

Sunday started smoothly, there was the possibility to buy Estafette parts and in the afternoon a small tour with the Estafette was organized

A highlight was the group photo from Sunday :

Die Estafetten

It was a pleasure to admire all the great conversions, improvements and camping facilities and to have passionate conversations (“Benzin-Gespräche” )

Retour

On Monday at about 10:30 everyone gathered and said a cordially goodbye to each other.

Strella and I set off with Couchette – at Marboz we stopped briefly for Strella’s morning business and in Beaufort Couchette got a tankful and I a pack of cigarettes.
Then we went on the same way as on Saturday back to Lons les Saunier and from there towards Besancon. Shortly before Besancon we turned off and came on country roads (Sträschen) via Nancray, Baume-les-Dames, L’isle sur le Doubs – Montbéliard bypassing – to Belfort.
Funny, after Belfort on a rest area, where we hade again a break – we were addressed by an elderly hiker in German – She asked if we might know where the Way of St. James continues. I looked in my fundus for a map – unfortunately, the map did not help much – but I realized that we were not on the D429 but on the D83 direction Mulhouse .
We wished the woman all the best and also went on the way – our way 🙂

Via Dannemarie and Altkirch we then crossed the Haute-Rhin where we noticed all the beautifully renovated houses (that reminded me on our – French-English-German mixed – conversations from Sunday about the increased prices in the French areas near the Swiss border ).
At Allschwil we crossed the border and arrived with half an hour delay at our friends place in Basel.
The drive home (Engwang) was pour routine and ended at 21:00.

It was a great Rasso, we met great people and we will try to be there again at the next meeting in 2023.

Epilog

According to the Estafette speedometer we have covered 847 kilometers (according to the route planner in WWW it should have been >900). We consumed 88.8 liters of gasoline – makes an average of 10.5 liters / 100 km.