Day 320 – EU – France [Bellegarde to Bretigny]


18/02/21

37km

  From Bellegarde (France) to Bretigny (France)

Europe


Another French run, warm and sunny and arrival at my friends Stephane & Ioanna

I made a mistake yesterday. I announced I would be entering Switzerland today and though I am very close to the border (less than 2km) I am still in France. I finished the run north-east of Geneva and I had not realised I would still be in France! Well I don’t mind the extra day, the country has been good to me! I have run more than 2,600km in France since the world run started, Greece is second with over 1,900km and Spain at 1,800km. What a journey!

Though it was cold as I left Bellegarde this morning, it quickly warmed up and for the first time this winter, I ran in my t-shirt. Definitely an early season change, I wish it stays this way throughout the crossing of Switzerland. The road was busy going out of Bellegarde and there were many trucks which did not seem too happy to share the road with me. After about 10kms I was able to switch to a country road that had near to no traffic. Peaceful.

Stephane, me, Ioanna

I made my way to Bretigny, a little bordering village on the French side of the border ( 🙂 ) where Stephane and Ioanna live with their children. We met when we all lived in Greece and took part in our 1st Ironman triathlon together (2009 in Frankfurt). Last time we saw each other was in 2012 on the island of Bintan (Indonesia) near Singapore, where I used to organise a full Iron distance triathlon, in which Stephane took part. With 90% humidity and temperatures above 40 Celsius that was a truly insane race. It no longer exists, thankfully, and only the ½ Iron format survived.

Stephane will run with me over the next few days, and most probably break the current record of the most kms run by my side (currently set at 45km).



Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: