Route 9 (Lakes Route): Section 1 – cycling Montreux to Bulle, Switzerland

Highlights: Bulle, Montreux

Overview of the entire Route 9 (Lakes Route):  Like Route 99, Route 9 crosses Switzerland SW to NE, from Lac Leman (Montreux) to the Bodensee (Rorschach). This route, however, passes next to some of the majors alpine lakes with amazing panoramic views. SwitzerlandMobility.ch (Cycling in Switzerland) gives the total length of route 9 as 505 km.

Route 9, Section 1 (Montreux 390m to Bulle 771m)

Stats from SwitzerlandMobility.ch: 42 km (0 km unpaved). Height difference is M-B 620m,  B-M: 220m. Their site has the full profile.

June 2016 (1-day trip)

I know, I’m jumping around here. I was supposed to do Section 3 of Route 99, but the weather was not cooperating! After almost a month of daily rains and indoor weekends, I jumped at the opportunity of biking during a few hours of decent weather, albeit cloudy.

However, I first searched the weather forecast for a region nearby with the least probability of rain. The winning region was the one between Bulle and Montreux. I then opened the MAP on SwitzerlandMobility.ch to see which bike route passed nearby, and voilà:

Because of the uncertainty of the weather in some area, I decided to do it in reverse order from Bulle to Montreux. Overall, the trip wasn’t particularly special compared to other routes. If someone wants to bike this area, I would rather recommend Route 99 (Heart Route): Section 1 (Lausanne to Romont).

Bulle is a nice small town with its medieval Savoyan style castle (13th century, corner turrets and conic roofs). However, it does not compare to other little towns. It is the main town of the Gruyère region and one can visit the Gruyère Museum. The actual village of Gruyères is a must-see place not far from here (but not on this route).

The rest of the route passes through rolling hills with views of the mountains in the Gruyère region.

The last part, shared with Route 1-Section 6, goes through VEVEY (Nestlè headquarters), on Lake Geneva, and ends in Montreux. Open the link above for more details.

Here are the links to Introduction & other sections of Route 9:

• BIKING THROUGH SWITZERLAND (with an electric bike)
• Route 9: Section 2 – (Bulle to Gstaad)
• Route 9: Section 3 (Gstaad-Spiez)
• Route 9: Section 4 (Spiez-Meiringen)
• Route 9: Section 5 (Meiringen–Sarnen)
• Route 9: Section 6 – cycling Sarnen to Zug
• Route 9: Section 7 ; Zug to Einsiedeln
• Cycling Routes in the LAKE GENEVA REGION
• Route 1: Section 6; the Lavaux, Montreux to Morges
• Route 1: Section 5; Martigny to Montreux

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