Europe 8, the French Alps

Monday, 27 July,

Rested and replenished, I ride out of Grenoble at 9 am, a short ride along the main road out of town South to Le Pont de Claix and then the turn off to Vizil. The sky is blue with very little cloud and after the turn I have quite a strong tail wind. The road is very busy, signs are up that the Col du Lautaret is closed due to repairs and all traffic to Briancon is diverted through Gap. It must be the rockslide at the Galibier/Lautaret which also canceled and rerouted the second to last stage of the Tour de France. Also I learn there is a tunnel collapse at La Grave between Bourg d'Oisans and the Col du Lautaret.  By the look of the amount of traffic now, it must have been chaos, when the tour was on!  My ride is only about 50 km today and mostly up hill, but nothing too strenuous.

The mountains along both sides of the road are very impressive and I have certainly arrived in the big stuff now.

After Vizil the roads divide and the density of traffic is a lot less. I stop and make coffee about half way, at a big modern rest area. There is a lot of roadworks going on and the roads are much bigger than a few years ago.

It is smooth sailing, and I get my action camera out to do some videoing along the way. The trouble is condensation in the waterproof box, it happens every time and it is hard to know if the video will be ok or not. The difficulty is that the camera has no view finder, just on/off and you get what it is
pointed at.

Arriving in Bourg d Oisans at lunchtime and book in to a small hotel on the edge of town where I have stayed before.  I enjoy the plat du jour for lunch and walk to town to get a haircut. No such luck as most shops are closed on Monday apart from the tourist shops, bars and such like. Have an ice cream in stead and generally have a relaxing time. Riding 48.6 km today and climbing 522 m.

Tuesday 28 July,

Woke up the usual time, feel quite rested, my aim for today is a haircut and a ride up Alpe D' Huez, for the uninitiated, it is a ski resort and in the summer it has become famous as a finishing stage of the Tour de France.

This year is no exception, it was the penultimate stage and expected to be the final deciding stage
who would win the tour.  I was supposed to be there, if it wasn't for the lost credit card, but we won't
mention that again. The whole summer, bikers of all ages, size and ability, ride up this mountain, solo
or in groups, it is the Mecca for cyclists from around the world. There is an unofficial race each
Saturday where one can try and break ones personal record or become the fastest in ones age group.
Bourg d'Oisans the town on the bottom of the mountain has become a busy tourist town in summer because of it. Alpe d'Huez itself sits on top and is a huge ski resort. 

The climb for us sucker cyclist, officially starts at the bridge at the bottom and finishes at the "tunnel" where the road passes under a building. The real Tour finish is well beyond that.  One reaches the top after 21 hairpins and about 14 km of climbing with grades of up to 14%. The agony one suffers depends on the time one wants to beat. I have done it in the past in 1 hour and ten minutes which is respectable for my age group at the time, but I am not riding to better the times of anyone anymore
including my own. I did ride up this morning without stopping and the cold air affected my throat a
little I must admit, so I must have done some heavy breathing from time to time. At the top I enjoyed a big pancake with Chestnut paste, which is one of nature's super foods. I turned my action camera on during the descent, but my iPad hasn't got enough memory to download it so I cannot see the result until I get home. Hopefully it will come out ok, I stopped shortly after going down to clear the waterproof box of condensation, and after that it did not steam up anymore so I am hoping for a good result.

I kept the speed of the descent well under control and did not go much over 50 km/h.

Back in town I did get my haircut, and the nice lady must have understood my wish for "short"to mean bald, as only a razor could have made it shorter!

But that will have remedied itself by the time I connect with anyone who knows me, 

The fun ride up and down was 30.2 km climbing 1,098 m.

Wednesday 29 July,

Today's ride will take me over the Col de la Croix de Fer, which is another famous col in the history of the Tour de France, it is 2068 m high and the climb starts a few km out of Bourg d'Osans in earnest at the power station at lake Allemont. The power station receives its water through underground pipes from Lac Maisori formed by an earthen dam 20 km or so up the mountain by road.

From Bourg d' Oisans it is about 35 km to the summit, with slopes between 5 and 17 %. It  is a fantastic ride with varying vistas from forest, deep ravines with the river Romanche far below to wide open grassed mountain slopes for cows, goats and sheep summer grazing. The bells they wear, have a
different tone, because of the size and play a constant distant melody, which walkers and cyclist
enjoy, out of earshot for all motorists and noisy motor bikers.

I stop and make coffee, about half way up, at a small space where I can pull of the road, without much view, but I need a break after a good 2 hours climbing.

The weather is overcast and quite cool with a strong breeze behind, which helps keeping cool, but the bikers coming down look very cold indeed.

I reach the summit after 3.5 hours and after a photo to record the effort, I go down the other side and stop for lunch at a camping which has a restaurant where I, and a few years ago with Veronica, have camped several times in the past, about 3 km down from the summit. Olivier, the owner and his partner Anique are very pleased to see me and we have a lovely chat, about old times. They have been extremely busy over the period with the Tour de France, and that event must provide the cream for many businesses along the route of the race.

After a lovely lunch I continue my descent through St Sorlin d 'Arves and St Jean d' Arves. The
weather is changing, very overcast and the wind is up and getting colder.

I stop to put on an extra jersey and encounter only a few small climbs on the way down and riding
past some incredible ravines, the sheer walls of bare rock going down hundreds of meters, like the
mountain was split into two.

The roads I have traveled since Le Bourg d'Oisans were all part of the Tour de France and are full of slogans and names of people's favourite riders. Some comments not so nice, where Froome is even accused of doping in writing on the tarmac.  People have behaved very badly towards Froome and the whole Sky team really. It is a pity that there is so much suspicion and nastiness towards anyone doingwell in the tour.  Lance Armstrong has a lot to answer for. It is time to trust the doping controls in place now otherwise the sport may not survive.

I arrive at the Hotel Europe in St Jean de  Maurienne around 3.30 pm as it is starting to rain,  after 66
km and climbing 1,652 meters.

The view from my hotel room window.

Thursday 30 July,

After trying to decide which way to go next, I decided to go the Grand Route des Alpes, which
follows the Italian border and gets me to Bourg St Maurice, where I turn up the small St Bernhard
pass into Italy, but that is for the future. Unfortunately when figuring out a route with the GPS, I left
the town Moutiers programmed in so the first thing I did was ride the wrong way! Luckily I noticed it soon and reprogrammed the GPS, turned and corrected my mistake before I had gone too far and wasted too much time and energy. It was a good move, as I now have the wind behind, following the river hammed in between the big mountains, going in the North East direction. This valley is quite industrialised and narrow, it widens out a bit at St Michel de Maurienne and the sun is coming through, it looks much clearer up ahead. The D1006 road is busy and parallel to the E70 which is a
toll road and connects with a tunnel at Modane that takes the traffic into Italy and the city of Torino. It is much quieter after passing Modena. The road is rising though and it is a constant drag to keep pace, despite the wind behind.

Just after Avrieux I pass Fort Victor Emanuel, it's a huge fort built on an outcrop of shear rocks. I continue as the weather clears completely and I have to stop and apply some more sun screen.

At Bramans there is a statue to commemorate Hannibal coming over the mountains with his army and elephants. That would have been a sight to be seen, unless you were on the receiving end !

Just before Lanslebourg I turn onto the B 902 and climb the Col la Madeleine at 1,745m.  Hopefully the last 15 km are downhill as the climbing is getting to me today.

It more or less is descending and I am happy to arrive at the medieval village of Bonneval just after 3 pm. I rode 81 km and  climbed 1,614m and only descended 402 m. No wonder I found it hard today.

The hotel is just perfect with lots of happy trampers, walking the mountain trails. A perfect place to have a break before I tackle one of the highest cols of the French alps, the Col l' Iseran at 2,762 m.

Europe 7 France

Friday 24 July, 

The day started with clear blue skies and promised more climbing after sneaking through this fine tunnel yesterday.  I checked for accommodation ahead as I am getting into the lower alps today between Grenoble and Chambery. I found an auberge with a good write up, booked and headed for it. The first part of the day was very pleasant, following the river Bugey, which flows into the Rhone. 

It is a pleasant ride a little confusing as I am riding South-East up river, when I know that the Rhone flows South to the Mediterranean Sea. But realise the Rhone comes from the alps, flows North-West first and turns South just here at Lagnieu. It is a big river already, and a source of food and sport for many.

Soon the first mountains are looming on the horizon and I am soon climbing. It is hot well over 30*C,
I ride via St Genix, Les Abrets, 

Le Pont-de-Beauvoisin toward Les Echelles to Auberge du Morge. Arriving there after 90 km after a long climb, just after 2 pm. I am glad to get into the shade and take my panniers off to carry my bike down some steps to the Auberge. I notice a skinny man watching me from inside. When I get to the door he just puts a bit of paper on the door. I open it and realise he was trying to lock it. He looks at me and growls: English? And points towards his bit of paper. It says in small letters, hotel closed till 4 pm. I said I have a reservation, One person he growls, impossible only double rooms! I smile and show him the booking on my iPad, impossible he goes rushing to his reception, I follow him in, wait there he shouts pointing at the door. I am starting to feel uneasy. He does find it and goes into a tirade that he runs his business by using the telephone, I should have confirmed by ringing. He is shaking his head in disbelieve when I say that I do not have a phone. Not much use I say, when I do not speak french. He shouts what sounds like swearing and his wife says something from the next room. He
shouts back with what I understand to be the cyclist is english and doesn't understand French, with a
few other words added. So he concedes that I have a booking, but points at the clock, 4 pm, I said surely if you have a room, what I need most is a shower and secondly a beer! He rushes to the bar, gives me a 25 cl bottle of beer and pushes me out the door! Wait in the garden he shouts and locks the door. I am shocked, what to do, i have no internet access, know there are no other places nearby, so decide to wait 1.5 hours in the garden in the shade. Just after 4 pm he lets me in, shows me the room, picks up the second towel, drinking glass and complimentary bottle of water! The thought crossed my mind to offer help to carry out the second bed as well, but said no TV? No he says my TV is there, pointing out the window, nature! I cannot see the Tour de France from here I said. Possible downstairs he growls again. So after a quick  shower I go down and a TV is revealed from behind a large poster with drinking zebras on it. After watching the last half hour of todays stage, I ask him for the wifi code. He gives me a bit of paper with instructions to set it up for Windows8. I said I have an Apple iPad. Too bad cannot help you.

This is quite a concern, after all the years of biking and being sensible and having contact at least once a week, I now have the problem that with Apple messaging we have constant contact, which is nice but is exactly opposite why we decided not to carry instant communication. If I cannot get on line Veronica will be worried I have had an accident! I tried and tried to get the login page up on the iPad, finally it worked  for some reason I am still not sure of how.

Having solved that major problem, I went down for dinner at the time mentioned in the hotel information at 7.30 pm. Things had not changed much ! He asked me if I had a booking !! Repeating that he told me he runs his business by telephone, I had to take a deep breath, asked him if he was serious, he certainly was!

I said that I came here because he advertised on the internet and I read that it was a nice place with friendly staff etc. not so I found out, but I had no other options. However I was very happy that I had given him so much pleasure and I look forward to leaving in the morning and I was unable to order breakfast too as I still not had a phone. I turned to go upstairs, when he said, in this case I might be able to make an exception, pulling out a blank notebook, would you like dinner yes or no!
I don't know if the smirk on his face offended me or that I felt sorry for him, but I said no thank you, I
don't know if I can trust, that the food you would give me is good for my health. And with that I turned and went to my room. I had 2 bananas, 4 muesli bars and 2 small mars bars in my bag, so that was enough for dinner and breakfast the next morning.

There was a big thunderstorm overnight which shook the Auberge, it made me feel like the God(s) were on my side!

Coming down in the morning with my bags packed I was met by a nice lady, pointing to the dining room, I said no thank you, no booking, she looked at me worried, another one of those pigheaded males, I could see in her long suffering eyes. I like to pay the bill please, he had not forgotten the beer which he charged € 6.00 for about double normal price.

Saturday 25 July,

It was still overcast and threatening rain. Hoping to find a boulangerie open on a Saturday morning
turned out just that. I did find a bar where I had a coffee at Saint Laurent-du-Pont, before I turn in to
the Gorges de Grande Mort.

Which is mainly up hill, then down and up again a very long climb around 7% over the first Col of this trip, the Col de Porte at 1326 m. Followed by a wonderful descent of 18 km into Grenoble. 

I have booked into an old hotel in the centre of the city and will stay 2 nights, taking Sunday 26 July as a rest day, blog update, emergency rations restocking and a few good meals before getting into the big mountains proper on Monday. 

A good day, after only 46 km and climbing 975 m in a cool 25*C.

Europe 6, France

Wednesday 22 July,

Leaving Arnay-le-Duc in very overcast and hot and humid conditions,and it doesn't take long and I get rained on, not very hard, but with large drops, which make me pretty wet through. By the time I stop to make coffee I am dry again, this is after about 30 km near Chagny, where I spot a picnic table at this small road intersection. Across from where I am sitting I notice 4 monoliths standing in a small paddock. They are from the same era as Stone Henge, I am told and have some religious and historic significance.

I enjoyed my coffee without any rain, and met a nice Dutch couple, who shared their knowledge about the monolith with me.  I got wet again shortly after leaving there. It was the pattern of the day, wet and dry about six or seven times.

I am on the small roads again, through forests and mixed cropping and cattle farming.  I pass through some very old villages where time has stood still. If I imagine taking away the cars and lampposts it would have been exactly like this for more than a thousand years.

This village where I stopped for lunch had these two defensive towers overlooking the town, the far one is still at its original height.

 Then I notice the GPS indicating that the next turn is onto a "trail". That is new to me and as far as I know, the GPS doesn't know about dedicated cycle ways. But indeed it takes me onto a rail trail, nicely tar sealed along a redundant railway route, for about 40 km into Cluny. Fantastic, more or less level all the way, with the rail bridges still in place over highways and water ways.

 I arrive in Cluny after 110 km and climbing another 819 m. It is a nice place and I am staying in an old fashioned hotel in town. The rooms are small, and although I have a 3 person room, there is barely enough room between the beds. However I arrived early enough to enjoy the Tour de France stage of the day on TV. The dinner was of high quality, but got a bit out of hand with a family at the next table with 3 small children, between 1.5 and 5 years old. Jr was in the highchair, the other 2 girls managed to sit at the table. They did a lot of staring, and were restless to say the least. Jr was let out of the chair from time to time and got very noisy when dad dropped him quite hard back in the chair.
The next thing I know mother rushing out with Jr's bare buttocks flashing by very close over my table. The next thing he is parading around with a potty, which was a little over the top I thought. I requested my after dinner coffee served next to the restaurant in a small lounge, which was fine, until dad put Jr in a corner of the lounge for a time out, leaving him almost next to me screaming! I would be the first to admit to have no child management experience, but this is ridiculous.

My next surprise was that they occupied the room next to mine, but after some initial screaming, including the parents, the night passed relatively peaceful. 

Thursday 23 July, started with clear blue skies again and turned out to be another very hot day. Going South to Macon, there is a huge range of hills to get over. I had programmed my route into the GPS and It took me back onto the trail. I was pleased because i had heard that the trail goes through a rail tunnel. But after a few km it directed me off the trail and onto a steeply climbing small road. I stopped and lookedT the map, the road South and the rail trail both end up in Macon, so I decided to stay on the trail, although it felt like cheating when I did go through the hill, via an almost 2 km long well lit and paved ex railway tunnel.

There was a bit of climbing to get to the tunnel, unlikely that the old railway had those short bends and elevation changes. History is probably similar to the NZ rail trail development, where tracks were abandoned and strips of land sold off before the idea of creating these fantastic trails. Once through the tunnel, the landscape changed to larger rolling hills, covered in vineyards, of the Beaujolais province stretching as far South as Lyon.

I ride along several waterways, contributors to the river Rhone, which again has dedicated cycleways along its banks. Which makes for great safe riding away from the traffic. I pass through Chatillon-sur-Chalaronne, Villers-les-Dombesand Chalamont, arriving at Amberieu-en-Bugey after 93 km and climbing 524 m at an average speed of 21.9 km/h in 30*C. The hotel is a new modern affair in an industrial type area, with a hospital, a rescue service centre with ambulances and helicopters. Very close to a motorway intersection North East of Lyon. The hotel has 3 floors but no lift, is of pretty high standard with an excellent bar and restaurant. It has only 2 stars, but that must be purely because of the lack of a lift. Good value for money at €100 for the room, drinks, dinner with wine, cheese and dessert and a good breakfast

Europe 5 France

Europe 5 France

The rest day was just that, a rest. Visitors from Europe use to joke about New Zealand, that it was closed on the weekend, well Rural France runs a close second.

The day was heavily overcast, which felt like a thunderstorm looming, it proved to be so as the heavens opened and torrential rain proved all storm water drains inadequate.

I managed a walk through the square and a look in the large church which I called a cathedral before, very impressive stone work but like so many churches nowadays in need of some serious maintenance.

I ended up quite early back in my room and watched the Tour de France develop into a one team race, with Christopher Froome having a tight grip on the yellow Jersey. My expectations and my excitement for it was for a much closer race, with the final outcome in the balance right until next Sunday with the showdown at Alpe D'Huez. But unless Froome has a serious setback or crash, it looks a foregone conclusion. So my cancelling the pre booked beds at the alps because of the Cash Card delay, don't feel so bad now. 

Monday 20 July saw me back on the road and with still lots of cloud about the morning ride was cooler without the direct heat of the sun. The D396 took me out of town across the river La Marne. Then via Les Rivierel Henruel to Bussy Aux Bois and the D5 to Rosnay-L'Hopital. Through huge cropping farms into a large forested area with lakes at Dienville, with welcome shade as the sun is in full glory again. At Vendeuvre on to the D79 to Le Grand Mallet, then a very long downhill through Essoyes and onto Mussy sur Seine. I Pass the place were Renoir worked for many years, not that I noticed any inspiring or outstanding landscapes, apart from a very large church. But hey! I continue through Charrey sur Seine and on to the D118 to my destination for the night at Montliot et Courselles, arriving at 3 pm in 31*C after biking 110 km and finding the hotel closed until 5pm.

I end up down the road a little in a bar, with one other customer and the owner sitting on the veranda, having a drink. The customer Bernard, knows all about the All Blacks and predicts the All Blacks will be beaten in the World Cup final by France ! A lot of this is in sign language and with the help of pen and paper, Bernard even got up and did some version of the haka! The 2 hours waiting for the hotel access passed quite quickly, although I would have  liked my shower first. When it did open it is quite basic, run by a nice young couple, relying on overnight stays from travellers coming off the main road nearby. They do have a basic restaurant with a set menu and  provide breakfast consisting of 2 bits of French bread, one croissant some condiments and coffee. It was adequate, and at a reasonable price. They filled my thermos with hot water for along the way with a friendly smile. One of the things I enjoy most of all when I am on the road, is to find a nice spot for a break and sit down and enjoy the place I am at, make a cup of fresh coffee, from the thermos flask and my paper filter holder and freshly ground coffee I carry. Usually I would pass a boulangerie to buy a nice pan-au-resin or some other delicacy to have with the coffee. So it is not all hard riding and suffering as you might expect or I try to make you believe!

War memorials a plenty here.

I avoid all main highways and France has a huge intricate network of secondary, third and fourth class roads, which are generally fine to ride on, virtually no traffic, bar some large farm machinery, and vary in size from a NZ state highway size with marked lanes, to single lane access ways barely wide enough for a car. All tar sealed, the very narrow ones, sometimes a bit rough or cobbled but overall very smooth and in this area quite undulating. One is never more than 10 km away from a village or hamlet so one is not really isolated, as we know it in NZ or Australia. This is not the way to travel in a car, but certainly the best way to travel by bicycle.

Coincidentally I travel close to the source of some great rivers. First of all the Meuse or Maas as we call her in Holland, today the Seine, which flows through Paris and soon I will make my aquaintance with the Rhone.

Tuesday, 21 July,

I am away by 8 am, with clear blue skies and it promises to be another hot day. The ride today takes me, again, along very small lanes and farm roads, through tiny hamlets and long forest roads. The disadvantage is that I did not come across a single boulangerie today, so my coffee break was accompanied by a stale muesli bar.

I did enjoy the quiet roads though and was surprised by seeing several live foxes and one dead one, killed on the road overnight I suspect. Also a couple of weasels chasing each other and making interesting squealing noises, they were obviously enjoying the chase, nearly running under my front wheel. I enjoyed some very long down hills, the reward for climbing those false flat roads of this area. For the ones that follow my progress on the map, the ride today took me through Etrochy, Cerilly, Balot,Nestle-etMassoult, Savoisy, Etais, Fain-les-Montbard, Venarey-les-Laumes, Posanges, Saint Thiboult, Eguilly where I crossed the A6 the autoroute to the sun, then onto Chailly-sur-Armacon, Chatellenot, Clomot and to my hotel in Arnay-le-Duc

Riding 107 km in max 36*C heat, arriving here just after 2.30 pm.

To date after 8 biking days and including a bit of sightseeing while waiting for the Card, I have covered 1,015 km and climbed 5,726 meters so far. Coming from below sea level in Holland, it is generally up hill to the Alps, but obviously not just climbing, otherwise I will have reached the moon by the time I get there. Later on I will do the subtraction of descents to see the actual hight difference as we go.

That is purely for the interested parties, for some others it might be useful to help you go to sleep.

As far as audience goes, Google gives me all this data, where the blog is accessed from, so far on this journey from Holland, NZ, UAS, Belgium, Germany, Canada, France, Australia and Belarus !

That reminds me, I was woken up in the middle of the night by a racket my iPad was making! Ellen Bracx, nee Cohen somehow got her wires crossed, or her fingers in a knot, and face-called me from
Canada ! My pad is on to use my alarm clock, and to re-charge it overnight Ellen, thanks for the call !

Europe 4 Belgium and France

Two more days with rain and I am forced to watch the TdF on the TV !

The card arrived by courier on business day 4 at 8.30 am Wednesday. Within the of the promised 3 to 5 business days, so that was acceptable. It came with no instructions, just a peace of Paper with the Cash Card's Peterborough England office address with a sticky label stuck to it with a number to ring to validate the card.

The card is pre loaded with euros with pin number supplied by Master Card.

I don't carry a phone, so my friendly host Patric let me use his restaurant phone.

It is not a good line but worse of all, the number to ring has no area or country code with it, so I assume it to be a Belgian number. Not so, it is non existing, I try it with the British codes, then the NZ codes, unsuccessful. I ring the office in Peterborough to find out what is going on, the receptionist is helpful but sounds frustrated and tells me several times that all she can do is pass the message on. Fair enough. She suggests 3 other numbers, none of them work. I ring her back she suggests to save me money, rather than waiting on the phone for someone in the upstairs office to answer, she will email him and tell him personally to call me back. Sounds good, I wait till 3.30 pm and check again with the receptionist, still no one has returned my call. She apologises, it sounds like she puts up with that more often,  I can understand her frustration.

I decide to go to the small Fortis Bank branch in the village. It is a internal ATM space with an office behind, to talk to someone is only by appointment. I hang around in the ATM space for a bit, hoping someone might come and check out why I am loitering in there. Then a young man comes in, who has an appointment, not long after the door is unlocked to let him in. I tell him my predicament, to the bank person, and he lets me in too and let me use the phone, after he looked up the MasterCard  Belgian phone number.

It worked and within 10 minutes it is done, I have my card validated and know my new pin number. I still don't understand what went wrong with the English office, just that they seem totally incompetent.

Anyway, I was able to pay Patrick's bill, who pretended to be crying !

The dog in full admiration is sad I am leaving too !

Thursday I made the move, the weather forecast was for hot and sunny weather. I checked out the trail along the river Meuse from Fosses la Ville to Charleville Mezieres, and it is about 85 km as the crow flies according to my GPS. The trail is unknown to the GPS so I will have to follow the signs. 

The good thing is it is mainly flat, but the river has many bends and with a few missed signs and a
little backtracking I biked in searing heat for 153 km in just under 7 hours. 

It was crazy but having had trouble finding a place to stay the last ride to get here, I pre booked the hotel in C-M, so I had to keep going.

Several towns along the river have those huge fortresses in strategic locations overlooking the town and the river. 

The following day Friday I promised myself a shorter ride. The temperatures in the mid thirties again, through the rolling hills of the Ardennes from Charleville Mezieres to Apremont where I found a lovely air conditioned Auberge after 83 km.

Passing through some big arable farms, which are ready for harvesting, but do not offer much shade for overheated bikers.

Fortunately I passed through some forested areas, which offered some much needed shade to cool down a bit.

Saturday 18July I got away after a huge breakfast, the Auberges usually have excellent kitchens, arriving for breakfast, I saw the usual on the set table, a small baguette, a pastry with chocolate, some honey and jams, a coffee cup, glass for juice and that is just about it usually. The host came over and asked me if I wanted tea or coffee, cheese and a series of other offers I had no idea what was offered. My usual answer is a nice smile a nod and merci. When he came back I got a can of coffee, a pancake, a slice of bread with a fried egg, a bowl with cut up fruit, 3 kinds of cheese and a carafe with orange juice. I managed to eat most of it which gave me a good start for the day ahead. The
weather was cooler at 30*C, the terrain more varied with many forested hills early on. My destination
today is Vitry le Francoise, which is the centre of the Champagne district. I wondered why I had not seen any vineyards at all. Not until about 20 km before Vitry did I see any, on the steeper slopes of the rolling hills above the vast acres of wheat, which are being harvested,  sunflowers and lavender, certainly a diversified use of the land. It is not like New Zealand where in this case the whole district would be into champagne, or lavender or dairy ?

The champagne vineyards on the slopes.

Arriving in Vitry just after 2 pm, into a nice old hotel in the centre of the old city. I decided to have a rest day tomorrow, looking forward to exploring the old city.

The view of the cathedral from my hotel room window at Hotel de la Poste.