For the pilgrim, what purpose may the city serve? For the pilgrim, only streets make sense, not the houses – houses tempt one to rest and relax, to forget about the destination.
Zygmunt Bauman, From Pilgrim to Tourist (1996)
After a comfortable night in our cosy little cabin at Vidy campground, instead of exploring the city of Lausanne Audrey and I walked back to the amusingly named Prilly-Malley train station and took the train back to Cossonay-Penthalaz, where we had left off our walk yesterday. We crossed over the train tracks on the overhead walkway to begin walking the day's stage, from Penthalaz into Lausanne.
After crossing some farmland and stopping at the church in Vufflens - another place with a cute, fluffy name! - we came to Bussigny, where we left the Via Francigena to take a detour to the Decathlon store. The drinking tube on Audrey's hydration pack was starting to look like a test tube in some kind of scientific experiment, perhaps cultivating a cure for penicillin: pink stuff with an unsanitary look about it was beginning to thrive and multiply in the drinking tube, and Audrey wished to purchase a cleaning kit from the well-known sporting goods store before it became a real health hazard.
Decathlon stores are, unfortunately, not often constructed in easily walkable neighbourhoods. The Lausanne Bussigny branch is located upstairs from a Jumbo DIY and garden supply store, across the road from an Ibis Budget hotel, next to an Aldi supermarket and not far from a Macdonald's. We first approached the store via the delivery bay and had to walk all around the building to get in by the customer entrance. We managed to find what we needed in the store, then descended to the underground parking lot in order to use the public washrooms, where Audrey was able to give her hydration pack an initial scrubbing. We then had to find our way out of the parking lot and back onto the Via Francigena through a maze of carpark ramps and big box stores. We had given up on the idea of taking a shortcut into Lausanne as this would clearly involve walking along either a motorway or a railway line! So we made our way under the motorway ramp and onto the Via Francigena route, which follows the Venoge stream through a green corridor all the way to the shore of Lake Geneva.
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| Allotment gardens |
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| Wondering how to get past the bees |
We reached the lakeshore at Saint-Suplice, where we stopped for a break in a well-manicured lakeside park. We were unable to visit the interior of the 12th-century church as there was a funeral taking place, but I located a grocery store and bought cold drinks and dinner supplies to take back to the campground. The rest of the walk was a lovely stroll along the lakeshore, among beautiful houses, expensive cars and privileged people, past cafés where a plain cheese pizza will set you back 25 francs (currently equivalent to 25 euros) and even a beer or an ice cream is close to ten! I settled for a dinner of beans on toast with mushrooms back at the bungalow 😄
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| Vidy beach, by the campground |
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| Our campground is next to the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee |
Today's accommodations: Camping Vidy
Penthalaz - Lausanne 23 km
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