Fribourg is the town where French and German meet. It was founded in 1157 by the dukes of Zähringen on a rock in a loop of the Sarine river, and the old city still sits above the water, with a Gothic cathedral, covered wooden bridges and steep cobbled lanes. The border between the languages runs through the city, so locals switch between French and a Swiss German dialect, and the divide has a name, the Röstigraben, after the potato dish that lies on one side. Beyond the city, the canton is green and rolling, with farms, forests and pastures that produce the famous cheese of Gruyères.
En Praz des Gueux lies in this farmland, south-west of Fribourg, near the villages of Avry-sur-Matran and Grolley, which are small, quiet places with a couple of thousand people each. The land is gently hilly, with orchards, barns with low roofs and views to the Fribourg Alps on a clear day.
For riders, Fribourg canton is a pleasure. Roads are well maintained, quiet and varied, running through villages with fountains and flower boxes, and on to the pre-Alps, with the Gruyères region and its medieval castle to the south and Lake Neuchâtel to the north. Estavayer-le-Lac, on the lake, has a walled old town and a good promenade, and Murten, with its complete town wall, was the site of a famous battle in 1476, in which the Swiss defeated Charles the Bold of Burgundy.
Fuel and food are easy in Fribourg, a city of about forty thousand, and in the larger villages. Remember the vignette for the motorway, and speed cameras on many roads. Spring and autumn are best, with clear air and autumn colour, and the cheese is a year-round pleasure. Eat a fondue moitié-moitié, with half Gruyère and half Vacherin, or try meringues with thick cream, and finish with a coffee on the cathedral square.