In Lausanne 2 years...new to the forum though

[LoyalRoyal]

A big hello to everyone on the forum. I just happened to stumble on this forum by accident the other day, and I wish I had known about it when I came over, about 2.5 years ago now.

I live in Lausanne with my fiance from the UK. I am working in IT for a fund management company based in Lausanne, and am really happy to be living here compared to my previous life in the UK.

I find Lausanne a nice, friendly town. Lots to do outdoors (my main hobbies are mountain biking and snowboarding) and generally much higher quality of life than what I saw in the UK.

I have seen several posts here saying baout how hard it can be to make Swiss friends, and I am glad it is not just me that finds that!! Both myself and the other half would love to meet people outside our jobs, even though we have good Swiss friends now from there, it is always nice to get away from work completely sometimes.

I haven't seen too many Lausanne based people on here (in my brief visits so far anyway) but hopefully there are a few of us and maybe we can arrange a meeting/drink sometime?

Right...best get back to work,

Cheers

LoyalRoyal (Long distance Reading FC follower)

[Lob]

I lived by the watertower in Tilehurst for a few years - it's great to see Reading doing well under Coppell in the Premiership (and to see Pardew issuing the kiss of death all over the shop since he left ).

Praise be to my team letting you come from behind on your first PL match - we're good like that

[LoyalRoyal]

Hahaha yes, I imagine that the only people more suprised than us about that first game was you guys!!

It's been a great 2 seasons...shame it had to wait until I left the country, but hey.

Thanks for the reply.

[ChrisW]

Welcome from a fellow Lausannois expat!

A couple of months ago, we tried to organize a drinks get together in Lausanne thru this forum, but were unsuccessful. However, since then I've noticed several new people on the forum who are living in town, so we should give it another go.

I also like doing a bit of mountain biking, although road biking is my real passion. Have you found good trails around Lausanne? I had a bit of a rant about MTB'ing in Switzerland on this thread. I've tried the Bois de Jorat, La Venoge river, the hills between Fribourg and Schwarzee, and the trails around Leysin. So far, the best stuff was certainly around Leysin. I think there might be some good stuff near Moleson, but I haven't tried it yet. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

[LoyalRoyal]

Hi ChrisW,

Great to hear there are some Lausannois on here too.

I know what you mean about the difficulty in finding trails. It takes a lot of trial and error here I think. So far, I have been out on the Portes du Soleil, which is pretty amazing but the signs can be unreliable, and if you are not careful you can end up on some crazy downhill populated with armour clad madmen.

The cycling around Metabief is pretty good. Did quite a few rides out there including a tour of 4 cantons ride of 40+km which was not bad.

We ride up in Chalet-a-Gobet quite often, more for training than the challlenge, although there are some nice routes there if you can find them. We have cycled up from Lausanne, through Sauvabellin and to Chalet-a-Gobet that way, which is a reasonable climb and off main roads. Or, if lazy, we take the car.

I work with a Suisse guy who took us out in the watch valley and showed us some big routes there. Long fire road climbs followed by some great singletrack. Definately somewhere I am heading back to, and he has GPS tracks of several of them. He is fitter than me, and likes his long accents, prefering to stay away from crazy decents, so it makes for a really good workout and riding day.

I am starting to think about going "partially" roadie. Just for the winter to keep in shape really, but seem to have had a cold all winter so we will see if that happens.

Sounds like we should swap some routes for sure!!

LoyalRoyal

[MrWhereItsAt]

Hi LoyalRoyal and welcome,

I've been in Lausanne 10 days now, and am getting my head around the innumerate things required to settle in to Switzerland. I've been on the forum a little longer than that, having thought ahead about finding help once I got here.

I´m way too new to the area to think much about outdoors activities (and at the moment way too sick) but hopefully we can both add to the numbers that could potentially turn up the next time somebody organises a meet at a café, restaurant or bar for those of us in Lausanne.

Welcome, once again.

[LoyalRoyal]

Wow...I remember that one, so much to do, places to see, paper to sign and so on. I am just glad my other half is more organised than me and was here to make sure we got everything sorted.

Welcome to Lausanne anyway, hope you like it is much as I do, even after 2 years I love this place.

Sounds like we will be organising some sort of Lausanne get together in a few weeks time so hopefully everyone get get rid of this cold/flu that is going around before that.

For now...I am off the the great escape to watch the Man United V Arsenal game, so good luck in sorting everything out and we'll be sure to arrange something soon to meet up with everyone.

Cheers,

LoyalRoyal

[Age]

Hi all, I'm new in Lausanne and I'm looking for some riding. I've been going up to chalet-a-gobet from town, but I'm looking for a little more single track, and for some people to ride with. Are there any clubs in town? It's getting a bit more chilly, but I'm still up for riding unless there is snow or a downpour. I work from home, so I'm available for riding mid-week and weekends.

Cheers,
Age

[LoyalRoyal]

Hi Age, welcome aboard.

A good place to "get up to speed" on biking is probably ChrisW's excellent thread which you can find here (Cycling in Switzerland).

I've not done anywhere near enough MTB'ing this year due to many factors so would be up for some late season biking for sure. Single track seems something hard to find around here sadly but it does exist.

Some places to find routes include:

http://www.alpavista.ch/Alp06/index.php?Vtt

http://www.lyoba.ch/bike/charmey/index.html

http://www.marginal-sport.ch/randopl...p?lng=fr&pg=26

http://www.utagawavtt.com/randonnee-vtt-gps

http://www.tdmf.ch/en/main/index.php...mf&srubID=home

I would love to do the last one, but I fear that is summer only.

For sure, there is a lot of good riding out there, in the Jura for example, which should be fine for the majority of the winter. I will take a serious look at some good winter routes and maybe we can get a few people together?

Cheers,

[Age]

LoyalRoyal,
Thanks for the reply. I'll check those sites out. Anytime you're up for a ride, let me know.

Age

[Age]

LoyalRoyal,
Thanks for the reply. I'll check those sites out. Anytime you're up for a ride, let me know.

Age

[MartyPants]

I've just moved here too and I've got my road bike with me. Weather permitting I'm up for some weekend rides - managed an hour and a half yesterday along the lake but I'm hiding from the rain in bed today. Please let me know if you fancy a spin.

[Age]

I'm up for a road ride, but I feel that I might get left in the dust by you roadies. The best I could muster would be a hard tail with fat slicks.....