Late addition: May 25th Sancerre to Deciizes

Another late addition to the blog that slipped through the net:

May 25^th  Sancerre to Deciizes  101 kms.

An early start this morning to take advantage of the cool and to maximise our chances of getting to Decizes in which case we will be only a couple of hours behind schedule instead of two days.

Very easy riding along the levee Napolean for the first 24 kms to La Charite sur Loire, which, as its name suggests, is an important pilgrims staging point on the way to St Jacques de Compostella  . And it is very charming indeed. The old cathedral was second only to Cluny and  is still very impressive. The gigantic nave is no more and houses have been built where the old niches were. It is still possible to see the old carvings high up on the house walls. Interesting though the eccleasiastical history is, it wasn’t that which held us up longer than intended. La Charite has become the Hay on Wye of this part of France and is packed with superb antiquarian bookshops.  Luckily most of them were closed and we escaped without making a purchase, but it was not easy.

Today it was difficult to imagine that only a couple of days ago I was cold. I pounded along the top of the river dyke in broiling sunshine through Marseilles les Aubigny, an erstwhile large port, now very much a shadow of its former self although I did note a catamaran from Southampton tied up to the quay (actually it looked as if it had been there a long time!) to Le Guetin where the Allier meets the Loire. The  canal laterale bridge over the very fast running Allier (Katherine learnt in trying to get to the beautiful village of Apremont sur Allier, that the river had, in fact, flooded the road higher up the valley) and then a seriously fast stretch  where I joined a fellow sexagenarian (I think neither of us was willing to admit he was slower than the other!) to the ecluse de  Verville where the excellently maintained towpath suddenly very seriously deteriorated and I found myself on a bicycle wheel wide overgrown footpath which cut down my speed. Needless to say I abandoned the towpath as soon as possible and took the  D13 for most of the way into Decize, a pleasant town I was glad to revisit from my ride down the Nivernais canal in September 2010 and which, with luck, puts me within two days riding of Chalons and thus a rest day at Grand Fontaine.

A hot day’s riding, quite tiring though never strenuous. La Charite was a wonderful discovery.  

101 kms 

Total from Galway 1297 kms. 

Late addition: May 23rd Ballan Mire, Tours to Chambord

Here is a late addition that slipped through the net:

May 23^rd Ballan Mire, Tours to Chambord  78 kms

The main thing this morning was getting away from the camp site early enough to avoid the rush hour traffic in Tours. This I succeeded in doing but, in any case, I think I would have been all right because the cycle path into Tours was excellent, passing through parkland and by ornamental water, and even the long 5km avenue into the city centre had a facility of sorts for cyclists, though its efficiency was somewhat restricted by road works. 

The centre of Tours, itself, was surprisingly traffic free and it was quite a pleasure for once to be able to  cycle freely and enjoy the cathedral and some of the mediaeval streets. The biggest hazard was the students going to school round the back of the cathedral, a beautiful setting, although they didn’t appear to appreciate it, lounging on the lower stonework of the impressive building, doing the usual things that school students do, and catching a last few minutes of freedom before they checked in through the very serious iron gate which seemed to be the main entrance to the school.

Even the D751 was not so bad once I had found the excellent cycle track to Montlouis-sur Loire (before that it was a death trap) and after Montlouis, ignoring the Eurovelo recommended route, I made very fast time on the 751 as far as Amboise, a lively cosmopolitan sort of place.   The expansive green banks of the Loire at Chaumont, 40 minutes later provided a comfortable lunch stop, and it was there that we decided that tomorrow I would take what I hope will be a short cut, cross country to Sancerre, thus gaining an important day of lost time. After Tours I had no desire to take on Orleans, and in any case we wanted to see the chateau of Chambord, supposedly the model for Royal Holloway College of London University with which we have

 some acquaintance, so we left the Loire and headed through pleasant villages to a campsite near Chambord. There was just time to walk in the grounds of the chateau  in the evening light. I must say I found the building overly ostentatious, unharmonious, almost ugly;  not a patch, in my opinion, on Villandry which we saw yesterday, though I admit I am not a good judge.

Today was marked mostly by passing the 1000 kms mark. Pleasant warm weather, some wind and apart from the immediate environs of Tours relatively little traffic. 

78 kms.  

Total since Galway 1062 kms.

Halfway - Katherine's post

From the first destination in Switzerland, Basle, we changed the meeting places. What is the most reliably signed place in any Swiss village/town /city? …..it’s the railway station.  So for this last full day to Schaffhausen our parting arrangement was “see you at the station”, and it worked splendidly. The added bonus is that there is always a café near and on this very hot day that was something of a necessity, even for me let alone Richard.

Switzerland feels like a comfort zone, the Migros  or the Co-op open all day  so no worry about supplies of bananas, Kit- Kats  etc.; no always arriving at the next French town  just when they’re closing for lunch  ( I was gobsmacked,  it even happened in a huge Super U!) and then we are always so close to home.

So now we look forward to August and September when we’re off again to finish the last 2,000 kms. I’ve worked out what needs changing in our equipment, what would make life easier for the logistics but it would be a sad thing if nothing was left open for a few surprises.

Katherine

June 3rd Rheinfelden to Basle

June 3^rd Rheinfelden to Basle 19 kms

Unfortunately, though, mission wasn’t quite accomplished, because there was the small matter of those 24 kms, which in fact turned out to be only 19, from the day before yesterday. If I was already feeling that sense of anti climax which, in my experience always accompanies the achieving of an objective, this short ride into the city of Basle exacerbated it.

Driving back home from Schaffhausen, Katherine dropped me at Rheinfelden railway station, just opposite the Shultzen Hotel, in a miserable drizzle to make up the missed distance. It was an uninspiring, and thankfully short ride, luckily on a Sunday morning with little traffic, but past factory after factory obscuring the view of the Rhine on one side and of the low, pleasantly wooded hills  on the other. I was very relieved to meet up again with Katherine at Basle Hauptbahnhof, simply pleased that I could now, hand on heart, say that I had cycled every centimetre of the 1906 kilometres between Nimmo’s Quay in Galway and the Rheinfallen in Schaffhausen. I can’t wait now to jump back on the bike and  nip over the hill from Schaffhausen to Donauschingen and cycle on to the Black Sea.

Total 19 kms  Total since Galway 1906 kms

June 2nd Rheinfelden to Schaffhausen

June 2^nd Rheinfelden to Schaffhausen  92 kms

The first (and probably only) whole day’s riding in Switzerland and I have to admit that it was a little disappointing.  Various business including WATU correspondence took up more time than I intended in the morning and I postponed riding the missed 24 kms of yesterday. I decided to make up time by using the main road alongside the Rhine as much as possible but the density of traffic was heavy and I had to resort to the recommended cycle routes. Unfortunately, these are not nearly as well signposted as in France (at least the Eurovelo route in France) and on the section between Stein and Laufenburg I became so completely lost in a no man’s land between autoroute and railway line that a kind lady took pity on me and cycled a good five kilometres with me to put me right. There are some good sections of cyclable piste alongside the main road in places but often these run out unexpectedly too. I also missed the omnipresence of the water that had been with me since Chateaulin in Brittany. The Rhine is a majestic, rapid river,especially above Koblenz, but along this section it is rare to get intimate with it as one does the Loire or even more so the Doubs.  There is also a lot of industry and naked concrete to circumnavigate which detracts from the otherwise pristine surroundings. I suppose it is simply the relative isolation of so much of the route so far that I was missing.

At Kaiserstuhl I dipped down into the remarkably intact village, crossed the river and took a higher cross country route to Schaffhausen which kept dipping in and out of Germany. Suddenly there was far less traffic, the views were open and  I seemed to be in tune with things more and made much better progress. By mid afternoon we were sitting by the spectacular Rhein Falls, thinking that this was a fitting end to the first part of the ride, a ride that had taken me along so many rivers.  The Danube was only a hop, skip and a jump away and will be waiting for us in a few weeks when I continue to the Black Sea.  The west east watershed reached; mission, so far, accomplished

92 kms  Distance from Galway 1889 kms. 

May 31st Osselle to L’Isle sur Doubs

May 31^st  Osselle to L’Isle sur Doubs  87kms

A day spent entirely following the course of the very lovely river Doubs. Some minor campsite frustrations prevented us from leaving as early as we would have liked but by 9am I was humming along by the river, and especially impressed by the tunnel at the village of Thoraise which cut off a large meander of the Doubs. This phenomenon was repeated in Besancon where the neck of the meander within which the city is tightly situated is pierced through with a very impressive tunnel for the canal which, unlike the one at Thoraise is usable by cyclists, thus avoiding what I had expected to be a difficult passage through the traffic. Unfortunately the Relais de Velo, just before arriving in Besancon is closed on Thursday. I had been looking forward to calling in since I had read that the proprietor was keeping a book in which he invited cyclists who were traversing Europe to note their itineraries. I would have been very interested to have read about others’ journeys.  But today was Thursday and despite the many attractions of Besancon, of which the muse de Beaux Arts is certainly one of them,  I had no time to wait until he opened on Friday.

So, through the tunnel and back on to the river on the other side. The Eurovelo guide book editors describe the next 50 or so kilometres as being perhaps amongst the best, in terms of scenery, of the whole French section of the route, and they may be right.

The cliffs are quite spectacular, the river is remarkably wide and stately, its calm being broken only occasionally by short rapids circumvented by modernised, efficient-looking locks and the voie verte is so well maintained that t he cyclist has no difficulty in looking around. Baume les Dames, however, was a disappointment. Reputably, I thought, a handsome town, it is not a patch on Baumes les Messieurs near Lons le Saunier, in my opinion, even though its situation beneath limestone cliffs is similar. We were obliged to eat lunch next to an ugly faded blue iron bridge which was as out of place in this beautiful river valley as it could possibly have been. So quickly on, back into the countryside proper and the ever present calmly curving Doubs. I felt strangely tired though this afternoon. Perhaps nearly a month’s riding with only four rest days was getting to me a bit and I was irritated by a small but unexpected climb up to the very insignificant village of Roches-les-Clerval, where, to my astonishment, in front of a  unprepossessing barn there stood a clump of banana trees. I was suddenly uplifted as I recalled why I was doing what sometimes I was tempted to think was a bit of an irrelevance, and continued on my way with a smile.

A very pleasant campsite, some blackish clouds and an incipient tiredness, persuaded me to stop at L’Isle sur Doubs, especially as it now seems that if things continue as they are we should make our objective, the River Danube, within the next three days, which would be a day ahead of schedule.

 87 kms. Total since Galway 1693 kms.

Katherine's post:

 Churches,bridges ,locks….. what do they have in common? The arrangements we need to make each day centre round the meeting up points, for perhaps 11ses,lunch, coffee breaks, or to check that we’re on the right route and very occasionally a visit to a site. And that’s where  the churches etc. come in and churches are the best. Even the smallest village has one, the spires or towers make them visible from a distance and there’s nearly always a little square or open space nearby to park the car and wait for Richard .The almost castellated spires in Brittany have given way now to the domed and richly patterned Burgandy towers ,with many a variation on the theme in between. Of course being on canals and rivers a lot of the way has made bridges a good second rendezvous point, but  the churches are my favourites as they also give me the chance to see some superb villages and their names are always of interest;  I never knew there were so many saints.  Katherine