Route 99 (Heart Route): Section 1 – cycling Lausanne to Romont, Switzerland

Highlights: Lausanne, Lavaux & Chexbres, Oron-Le-Châtel, Rue, Romont

Overview of the entire Route 99: I decided to start my endeavor from this route because it is described as calm and bucolic. It crosses Switzerland from SW (Lausanne) to NE (Rorschach) and runs through pastoral landscapes and medieval villages and towns. SwitzerlandMobility.ch (Cycling in Switzerland) gives the total length of Route 99 as 710km (of which about 100km unsurfaced) and divided in 13 sections.

Route 99-Section 1 (Lausanne 375m-Romont 780m)

Stats from SwitzerlandMobility.ch: 51 km (3 km unpaved). Height difference is L–R: 1150m,  R–L: 820m. Their site has the full profile.

May 2016 (1-day trip)

The first 10km (Lausanne 495m-Chexbres 589m), which I did some time ago, travel through vineyards high above Lake Geneva (or Lac Leman as known here), with an enchanted view of the lake and Alps. This first part is shared with Route 1-Section 6 where I wrote more details (also more information about Lausanne at myswitzerland.com, lausanne.ch).

The absolutely charming Lavaux vineyards (lavaux-unesco.ch) are now part of the UNESCO World Heritage.

After Chexbres (~600m), the road abandons the lake and turns north, through farms and fields of pasture. The hills are gentle and the road easy, save for occasional steep sections.  The entire section goes through side roads  and trails, with very little traffic.

The first village we passed through was Oron. Here, a short detour of a couple of Km brought us to Oron-Le-Châtel (722m), with its picturesque castle (chateaudoron.ch). One can visit its rooms from April to September (Sat 14h-17h; Sun 14h-18h)

Next stop on our tour was Rue (675m). This is a tiny medieval village perched on a hill, along the route of Saint-Jacques de Compostelle. We ate a fabulous crêpe at a very cute shop, which also sells homemade goods (Entre Terre&Mer, Rue, terremer.ch)

Then we continued on for Romont (780m, romontregion.ch),  the last town of Section 1 and the end of our day-trip. From there, we put the bikes on the train and returned home.

Here are the links to Introduction & other sections of Route 99:

• BIKING THROUGH SWITZERLAND (with an electric bike)
• Route 99: Section 2 (Romont to Laupen)
• Route 99: Section 3 (Laupen-Thun)
• Route 99: Section 4 (Thun–Langnau I.E)
• Route 99: Section 5 (Langnau i.E.–Burgdorf)
• Route 99: Section 6 – Burgdorf to Willisau
• Route 99: Section 7 – Willisau to Zug

• Route 99: Section 8; Einsiedeln to Zug  
• Route 44: Section 1 – Lausanne to Payerne
• Route 5: Section 7 – Yverdon to Lausanne