15th of July started a bit cloudy, but after the 30°C from yesterday we were happy not to be under the direct sun again. Our first goal was already seen from the beautiful little lake, where we had dinner with our Rotarian friends from Sierre yesterday. The whole landscape of the valley was shaped due to a huge landslide, when the Rhone glacier pulled back after the ice age 10.000-15.000 years ago. It left a mixture of hills and little valleys filled with lakes in a kind of disorder to the common main valley of the Rhone. A perfect place to settle since the Bronze age and even Roman ruins are the base for the church of the Géronde monastery built on the edge of the hill.
Inside the church a stone is integrated in the wall with Roman letters. The Roman foundations is one of the reasons why the church is quite large for the time it is dating back to, explained us sister Marie-Benedict. She was so nice to open us the parlour and offer us something to drink while she organized us a stamp for our Credential Pilgrim pass. Through a wooden turning cylinder the water appeared without being able to see anyone behind. As it is a Cistercian monastery we didn’t know if it was allowed to talk with her. But she was very curious about our long journey, friendly, wise and welcoming to allow a touching moment of exchange and understanding.
We continued our way down the valley towards Sion along the Rhone and made a special discovery as the sun got higher and the temperature rose. The thermal winds picked up as the southern mountain slopes heated up in the sunshine. Riding our bikes along the dam of the Rhone we discovered the phenomenon, that the cold glacier water cooled the air and was sometimes carried up the dam as a fresh breeze from the river surface.
The history of the basilica of Valère goes back to the year 43 AD in Roman times. It thrones above the city of Sion on a rock and always was built as fortress. It even had a manually operated mill inside accessible from the church to be able to be independent during the case of occupation. Today the church still owns one of the world oldest organs, which still can be played since 1435. There would still have been an interesting museum, but we had to keep on going to do a presentation at the RC Monthey this evening. Robert’s natural reaction is then to say: “Another reason to come back!” I guess we risk to have to do the tour two times in this case.
We tried to keep a general speed of 26-27 km/h to save batteries, but the wind picked up more and more force and although we were going downhill we had to pedal against the wind. Especially the closer we got to the valley corner of Martigny the wind dominated the place. It was very demanding to bike under these conditions.
At the abbey of Saint Maurice d’Agaune we were lucky to just get our stamps before the office closed. Inside the church was still a personal service given, which goes back to the tradition of the founder of the Abbey King Sigismund of Burgundy, who inaugurated 515 AD the tradition of perpetual prayer, which lasts since more than 1.500 years.
We finally reached after more than 80km our next destination at Collombey, where our Rotarian friend Jean-Marc de Lavallaz was already waiting for us. Together with his wife Tosca and his son Guillaume we joined the Rotary Club meeting at Monthey and my presentation was very welcomed by an interested audience with a very hearty reception by the president elect Dr. Jean-Marc Bellagamba.
