There are times when we feel we are losing it. Of course, it is just an age thing but nonetheless we are both frustrated with our declining memories. Just the other day we realized we (I) had left a much valued head lamp at our last camp. Before that was the recently purchased clasp knife that we left on a bench alongside a salami that we had intended to have for lunch. Then there was the catastrophe of leaving a water bottle open in the tent which tipped over and soaked our camera. Half asleep we didn’t immediately pull the battery and we now have a partially functioning camera (no display screen among other shortcomings). Back in Greece we had left our carefully prepared bag of condiments, spices, etc. hanging in a tree and then of course, we started the trip with crushing the e-reader on the flight to Istanbul…..oh, well, suck it up and make do!
We have now been in France three weeks and we both agree that it is probably the easiest country to bike tour. The land of morning baguettes, great wine, endless varieties of delicious cheese, lots of reasonably priced camping and an incredible network of back roads that, as long as you aren’t in a hurry, make for beautiful riding. And then there is the endless charm of the French villages, castles/chateaus seemingly on every knoll, the interesting and varied geography and the cordiality of the people. Claire is enjoying travelling in her mother tongue and my French improves daily, despite the repeated malapropisms (eg. I was in a bank the other day and asked this particularly elegant woman in the group standing around ‘Where was the end of the cue?’. Without any intended comment on the French tradition of cue jumping, my question came out as “Where is the end of the ass?’, prompting a few smiles. ‘Queu’ and ‘cul’…I still don’t get it right.)
(Left) A castle on every hill! (Right) Ancient housing tucked up against the cliff. For defense?
From Geneva we followed the Rhone Valley southward but left the river as it loops north to Lyons. We were on and off the Via Rhona, a much hyped cycle path alongside the Rhone River. We’ve found that many cycle paths serve best day trippers. They are often on riverside dykes or old railway easements and the easy grade and lack of vehicle traffic appeals to many but they frequently skirt villages , rarely work for bike tourers (more accustomed to riding with traffic) with a destination in mind and are sometimes a bit boring. From there we ambled southwest for the next few days to Valence and did some route planning at a bike shop. Local bike shops have become our go-to place for good info, at least for the two day planning window that we usually work with. We no longer bother with the Internet as it is either useless for our purpose and/or so data-intensive it takes far too much time for our often limited wifi access.
(Left) Now this is our kind of tunnel, good viz, cool, quiet and NO traffic. Road vehicle tunnels are another story. Loud, dirty, no shoulder and typically poor visibility. (Right) Bike paths offer stress free riding but the repetitive cadence can be a bit boring.
Our next stage through the Ardeches mountains, over the Cevennes plateau and then down the Gorges du Tarn, under the famous Viaduct de Millau and continuing down the Raspes du Tarn has all been awesome riding. We still get wasted by the big climbs (so much for getting in shape!) but routes alongside the rivers (the ‘gorges’), the beautiful scenery, the medieval villages, etc., all make up for the effort. Our tradition of being on the rode before breakfast and riding for a few hours is working well. It seems the French are all on holiday and like to sleep in. We have the roads to ourselves which is a good thing as we constantly stop to take pictures and swerve all over the road taking in the view. We are more likely to be hit by each other than by a passing vehicle.
Early morning ride in the Gorges du Tarn. Super cool and no traffic!
We’ve experienced some wet weather in the last while and realize how lucky we’ve been to date. Day after day of beautiful weather has made for very easy logistics. A few days of wet weather and we realize the complications that they bring….yet our good luck continues, eg. a few days ago, we were trying to wend our way through some back roads for which reliable info was very hard to come by, as we watched storm clouds build in the direction we were heading. We were both getting tired and we had very little food with us and then, with our persistent good luck we came upon the tiny, ten house village of Herme and saw a small, rustic sign indicating a ‘resto’. To our delight the exquisitely renovated farm house had a 12 euro ‘menu de jour’ on offer. We enjoyed a delicious lunch (a savoury tartine, salad and wine) but with the storm threatening, the owner, also the cook and local carpenter, offered us the rent of his caravan (trailer) that we gratefully accepted, as the rain came pelting down. That same evening we were served dinner prepared in front of us on an open wood fire (omelette with wild mushrooms) in the ancient hearth of the now closed restaurant – it was a lovely experience, shared with Christian (the cook), his wife and a visiting friend. The next morning we set off, sans breakfast, under clear skies in the fresh rain-scented air on the one lane road through fir forests, not meeting a single vehicle for our first hour of riding.
(Top left) The tiny sign above the door, its only advertisement. (Top right) Dinner – Lovely ambiance, fine food and great company. (Lower left) A fresh, baguette vending machine for those small towns that have lost their bakery. Only 1 Euro. The French need their daily baguette! (Lower right) Signage specific to road riding (grades, distance, etc.)….only in France.
Three hours and 40 kms later and getting hungry, we still hadn’t found an open boulangerie (bakery) for our daily croissant (preferably almond filled) until we pulled into the small town of Baradoux. While standing in the baguette line-up, I struck up a conversation with a man wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with a Canadian flag, a gift from a daughter who had done an exchange stint in Shediac, New Brunswick. One thing led to another and next thing we knew we were having a lovely lunch with Noe, his wife Helene, daughter Camille (the exchange student) and two visiting nephews at their nearby home. Just another example of the wonderful hospitality we continue to experience. I’m not sure why but Canadians seem to maintain a positive image abroad. Other than the Rob Ford debacle, Canada is never in the news so I guess the ‘no news is good news’ adage applies.
Later that same day, we did a long climb up to our Warm Shower host’s apartment in a 300+ year old farmhouse above the town of Mende. Anne, our host, was an interesting, pretty, young women currently learning how to be a teamster (to work with draught horses). Her husband, a mechanic on a Greenpeace ship was currently in a storm in the North Atlantic (they spoke by sat phone) so I think she appreciated the company of two tired, smelly and hungry bikers…go figure. There must be something about the nature of the way we are travelling, the routes we are choosing and maybe the limits imposed by our budget that facilitate these kind of encounters.
We have now left the Tarn region, after a great detour to Cordes-Sur-Ciel, a beautiful village, perched on a hill and surrounded by a series of reasonably intact protective walls dating back to the 11th century, and descended into the Garonne Valley. We were then faced with a big decision. Either go over the Pyrennes or skirt them to either the Atlantic or Mediterranean coasts. After much deliberation (looking at our maps and Google in terrain-view), consulting locals and getting input from our Spanish renters back in Squamish we opted to go east to the Mediterranean, follow the Costa Brava south for a shortwhile, then head back west along the Spanish side of the Pyrennes until we hit the north coast (Atlantic) of Spain, then continue west along the coast until at some as of yet undefined point head south through Portugal to a final destination of Lisbon. That’s the plan and we are sticking with it…until we change our minds, that is!
(Left) The medieval Cordes-sur-Ciel. (Right) Ancient homes and streets, with one of the gates through a defensive wall.
PS – We changed our minds! We’ve just gone over a pass in the Pyrennes – a (relatively) easy 30 kms at approx. 3% grade and then a final 10 km at maybe 5%. In total, a 1400 M climb today that we had no info about until we stumbled upon it on a 1:150,000 scale map we saw at our campsite the day before. So much for planning!
OVER THE HILL AND BEYOND 