Frontier Fascination

By Rupert Roschnik

This is the tale of an extraordinary adventure, completing the circuit of the Swiss border on foot, by bike and kayak, following the line of the frontier as closely as possible. A total distance of close to 2'500 km, and 120'000 vertical metres (about 13 times the height of Everest!) covered in 115 days in 2015 and 2016, in sometimes dangerous c

• Language: English
• Publisher: Upfront
• Release date: Feb 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781784567095

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From Basel to Lake Geneva

Frontier Fascination

I'm off!

Frontier Fascination

With Sally and grandson Neil watching anxiously, I headed first for the well-known monument at the Dreiländereck, a monument that symbolises the border point common to the three countries: Switzerland, France and Germany. It is on the Swiss side of the Rhine (but the real tripoint is 150 m away in the middle of the river).

Frontier Fascination

I was shocked and dismayed on passing the Dreiländereck. The current was much stronger than I had expected and I had to go upstream against it for 2-3 km and then cross over to the other side to land near the Franco-Swiss border. Staying close to the bank I had less current, but I had to go outside a boat-restaurant anchored at the edge, which required much more effort for my arms. How long could I keep this up? After 1500 metres I had to cross to the other bank; needing more hard work to avoid losing too much ground because of the stronger current in the middle of the river, but I was soon close to the left bank near the border between Switzerland and France. However, there were huge construction sites on both sides of this border (Novartis Campus on the Swiss side) – high, vertical concrete walls had been built, making any landing impossible.

Frontier Fascination

Construction work on the banks of the Rhine

I had to go much further, under the Dreirosenbrücke, and at last arrived at some steps down to the river, near an old passenger ferry. Sally and grandson Neil were there to help me get the kayak out of the water and stow it on the roof of the car. I was already exhausted.

No stopping! I took the bike for a stretch around the suburbs of Basel and Allschwil. A few miles further on, I left the bike to continue on foot.

Frontier Fascination

The first metres on the bicycle

North of Allschwil, an interesting phenomenon: high class villas on the Swiss side, cultivated fields on the French side, right up to the garden fences, with hardly any space in between.

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Neil had promised to accompany me for part of my trip and act as photographer. He was with me this first afternoon. At the Bänggenspitz we twice went through the narrowest part of Switzerland, 62 metres wide!

Frontier Fascination

Reproduced by permission of swisstopo (BAT190042)

This part of the frontier in the forest to the north-west of Biel-Benken sticks out like a wedge into French territory. This odd configuration of the border in the Bänggenspitz was already documented in 1620. I believe that this strip of land was an ancient game reserve.

We at last arrived at Flüh, thirsty and quite tired. The day had been long. It was very hot weather and we had used up all our water. What a great first day of my journey! I was satisfied and happy. In about 7 hours I had progressed almost 30 km, kayaking, cycling and walking.

Frontier Fascination

A huge beech tree

A friend from Basel, Christoph, wanted to accompany us on the second day. He arrived in Flüh in the famous tram no. 10 which connects Basel to Rodersdorf (canton Solothurn) through the village of Leymen in French territory. Christoph is fascinated by boundary markers and tried to photograph them all (!); so he was always a little behind Neil and me, trying to catch up with us. Route-finding was not too difficult and the boundary stones followed one another regularly. It was again very hot and fenced fields forced us to make some tedious detours. In the forest near Rodersdorf, we passed a huge beech tree, located about 5 metres inside the Swiss border. An information panel indicated that it was the largest beech tree in north-western Switzerland. We learned from this panel that compared to a normal beech tree ready to be logged, this impressive specimen had a three times larger trunk diameter and ten times more timber volume. It is about 40 m high and its timber volume was estimated at 35 m³. During the 1st and 2nd World Wars, this beech saw active service as an observation post for the Swiss army. This service almost cost it its life. During World War II the inhabitants of Rodersdorf had to defend it against the German Wehrmacht who tried to cut it down.

Frontier Fascination

Some beautiful forest trails took us to our first summit, the Remelsberg, topped by a slender observation tower in concrete, just 832 m high and as such a very modest summit compared to what I would encounter later on.

The path that was no longer there

Further on, north of Miécourt, I had to make many detours because the whole border area there was very swampy and there were many obstacles – trees across the roads – certainly because of a recent severe storm. At one point, I took the only possible path marked on the map. But it didn't exist anymore! I followed its trace as best I could using the GPS and had to clamber between brambles, nettles, shrubs, trunks and branches of fallen trees on very muddy and swampy ground. In the end, I was exhausted. From the point of view of route finding, it was a good lesson; I learned to be wary of paths indicated on the map that were not marked in the field. Later I passed the Borne des Trois Puissances (Frontier stone of the Three Powers), the old tripoint between Switzerland, Germany and France between 1871 and 1918 (today between Switzerland, the department Haut-Rhin and the Territoire de Belfort). It was set up in September 1871 as a result of the peace treaty ending the Franco-German war of 1870-1871 which ceded Alsace and Lorraine to the German Empire.

Lonely landscapes

For 2-3 days, along the border around Porrentruy in the canton of Jura and along the Doubs, I saw almost nobody. The whole country seemed emptied of its inhabitants – there were large farms where I could hear machines humming and where I could see cattle but no humans, hamlets without a living soul, and closed customs buildings (I even saw one with a sign for sale!) It really felt like a forgotten corner of Switzerland!

Frontier Fascination

A remote frontier stone

Frontier Fascination

Brémoncourt

The Doubs and smugglers

Unlike other frontier rivers (the Rhine, the Rhone downstream from Geneva, the Inn downstream from Martina), for a section of 30 km downstream from Biaufond, the border along the Doubs does not run in the middle of the river but along its right bank. The river is therefore entirely French in this section and also the bridge at Goumois!

This peculiarity has a historical explanation: Louis XVI, perhaps keen on fishing, and the prince-bishop of Basel reached an agreement in 1780. By giving up his rights to the left bank of the river, the prince-bishop received 3 villages and other possessions on the right bank in exchange.

Frontier Fascination

The Doubs gorge was also a hotbed of smuggling. An old smuggling path through the cliffs near Biaufond is well known under the name of Les Echelles de la Mort (the Ladders of Death). Today these are solid metal ladders and steps, but previously there were only tree trunks leaning against the cliffs, with notches for the feet. There is also an explanatory panel covering the subject along the Doubs. See special chapter on smuggling.

Frontier Fascination

Back to civilisation

Between Goumois and Biaufond the trails and forest roads on the Swiss side of the Doubs are quite tedious – rising very high to avoid cliffs, and without any views because of the forest. From Biaufond on the other hand, the trail uses beautiful paths, often beside the river, with many bucolic places, and later, under high limestone cliffs, in quite wild scenery.

As I approached the famous waterfall Saut du Doubs and the restaurant at the end of the Lac des Brenets, the noise level increased. First because of groups of schoolchildren (we were close to the end of the school year), then because of hordes of retirees coming off the boats on the lake. This return to civilisation was deafening!

But soon I had complete peace paddling the 6 km to the other end of the lake. I landed and managed to pull the kayak up a grassy slope. The others were not there yet and there was nothing else to do except wait.

Frontier Fascination

The Lac des Brenets

Later, Neil and I went up the valley of the Rançonnière, a small stream that acts as the frontier. After 2 km, the path decided to climb up over a cliff before coming down again, which seemed tedious, so we stayed in the creek bed in a gorge for some 500 metres. This turned out to be quite an adventure: very little water, but polluted and smelly, with mossy and very slippery stones, rocks, tree trunks and branches. Finally we reached the interesting border at Col des Roches, where we saw long queues of French commuter cars returning home at the end of the day.

Frontier Fascination

The bed of the Rançonnière

The landscapes of the Jura

From the Col des Roches I climbed with Neil into the forest above and we suddenly found ourselves in another world: the real Jura, with its conifer-covered crests and long green valleys with farms and cows. And all these walls made of limestone blocks without mortar that mark the boundaries of the fields and the frontier.

It was also the first time that we had climbed above 1200 m in height. We hiked along miles and miles of trails that followed the wooded ridges and walls without mortar, more or less in a straight line, but with many small ups and downs. When the border made a right angle to pass from one crest to another, on the other hand, there were almost no trails in the right direction, only steep descents and climbs up through the undergrowth, often without a wall to mark the border. It was still quite hot and by the end of the day we felt humiliated when we had to beg for water at a farm.

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Landscapes of the Jura

Once again on my own, I passed through the customs post of Les Verrières. This village is well known because the French East Army crossed the border here to take refuge in Switzerland in February 1871 – a historical event represented by the famous Bourbaki Panorama in Lucerne.

Another highlight for me was passing the France-Neuchâtel-Vaud tripoint near Ste-Croix. There are two boundary stones here – one marks the beginning of the Neuchâtel-Vaud border and the other the Franco-Swiss border. The latter one carries the date 1553 and must be the oldest border marker I saw during my tour of Switzerland.

Frontier Fascination

Tripoint France-Vaud-Neuchâtel

Difficulties and obstacles

In the Jura, I had wet shoes and trousers every morning and often still in the afternoon if there was no sun. Why? If it had rained during the night, the long grass in the fields and the shrubs were wet, and after clear nights, the thick dew on the grass took over this task. In the forests, the roads and trails were often muddy or covered with puddles or impenetrable detritus left by foresters.

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Three days after the Col des Roches, I was 70 km further on at the beginning of the Risoux forest ridge near Vallorbe. Thunderclaps announced an oncoming storm and heavy rain followed. I very soon had enough! I left the frontier and went down on a tarred forest road to a main road, where Sally was able to pick me up.

Completely lost!

June 15th was a very rainy day. I left well equipped against the weather and the wet vegetation and walked for long hours through the Risoux, without seeing anyone except a lady who was walking