Geoff Jones

Inveterate dabbler in business, travel, gadgets & life

Category: Biking

Day 9 Vitry to Chaumont

After a mega snore last night I packed and went along to breakfast. Great spread and uber friendly folks. How can some folks make running a hotel look so easy? Whilst others make it seem so hard.

Todays elevation profile
Todays elevation profile

The day seemed very tough, it was hot and ‘close’ so progress was slow. The villages are very pretty with half timbered houses and seemingly undiscovered, given the number of properties in desperate need of renovation. The lac du der was lovely and I’m sure my twitcher friends would be in heaven there. I now have another favourite French word – Quitéude

The harvesting is now in it’s closing days but I did stop to take some pics of this obviously new New Holland Combine CX8070 in action (Yours for £155,000).

The impressive Chaumont viaductIn a moment of serendipity I took a wrong turn coming into Chaumont and stumbled upon the most magnificent railway viaduct ever,  built in 1857. It’s twice the length of the Ribblesdale viaduct  built in 1874 and 20 metres higher. And to cap it all a slow moving goods train was crossing 🙂  It also has a most gorgeous pedestrian crossing half way up.

Sally has been digging around in my archives and discovered that exactly 4 years ago I had ridden the 647 miles to Dole in only 8 days this time in the 9 days I’ve been riding I’ve only done 551 miles 🙁 The big difference is THE WRETCHED PANNIERS!

Here is the Strava for today.

Strava_Ride___Vitry_to_ChaumontAnd the pictures here.

 

Day 8 – Mailly to Vitry le Francois

After a restless nights nightmarish dreaming I awoke and very carefully made sure I didn’t leave anything. I was at the breakfast table for 8.30 sharp. The Dutch couple & kids arrived a few moments later, enough to cause the landlady a little consternation. He was told immediately, for no apparent reason, to move his car 2 metres away – so that the breakfast came complete with diesel fumes 🙁

A real cycle path
A real cycle path

I raced off after breakfast to a glorious morning with a slight chill to the air & empty roads, apart from groups of friendly cyclists 🙂 It was very undulating to begin with but I had my strength back so it was relatively easy. I was determined to stick to my resolution to only do 50 miles today.

I had coffee in Chalons with quite a few UK tourists, then I discovered the Marne canal with its superlative cyclepath (at least to begin with). However, at la Voie Berger the path disappeared and I was once again on stony tracks (it has to be said The Dawes is superlative as an off road bike even fully laden). I have finally worked out how to stop the panniers jumping off.

I arrived in Vitry 50 miles and 6 hours later from setting off with some very fine riding a lot in top gear.. @AroundMe came up trumps again with the Hotel Tambourin, great place especially in one of the disabled rooms on the ground floor. Proper shower that you can move around in and so beautifully laid out  for ease of access.

The evening meal (and lunch)  at Le Grillardin was excellent especially with a pleasant English couple who are driving back to Henham near Saffron Walden tomorrow. The meal cost about 1/3 of last nights!

A perfect days cycling 🙂

Todays Strava is here:

Strava_Ride___Mailly_to_Vitry_le_Francois

Todays pics are here

 

Day 7 Reims to just outside Reims

I woke up really late (for me anyway). Went for breakfast to be met by a gaggle of girls on a hen party weekend boasting of their previous nights exploits.

IMG_3240Retrieving my bike from the luggage locker at the Hotel Bristol I set off, the roads are in pretty bad shape here, eventually I found  my way onto the canal, pleased to be out of the traffic. In one place they had set the path up as a beach resort complete with sand.

I then headed up towards the Champagne Hills. As a wise man once told me where there are grapes there are hills 🙁  Feeling a bit worn out I stopped at the retail park and visited Cora. I can see why Carrefour are doing badly: caught in a pincer movement between the Aldi’s & Lidl’s and the Cora’s it must be tough for them.

On the move again, I had to escape from the high speed Saturday shoppers, so dropped down into Rilly-la Montagne where the beautiful Chateau de Rily beckoned, I decided it was to pricey for poor old me, later I would regret it 🙁

I continued on up and down the hills till finally after 12 miles I gave up and stopped in Mailly where I checked in at the Chambres de Hotes run by a lady with and OCD on a OCD. I promptly fell asleep totally worn out.

At 7pm  I summoned up the energy to cycle down to Sillery to have a meal in the Michelin  Le Relais de Sillery a good ending to a not very good day.

Here is the Strava data:

Strava_Ride___Rheims_to_MaillyThe pictures will be here

 

Day 5 Something has to go!

Something has to go on this mega bike trip. It’s either or:-

  • The Panniers
  • The Viewranger app
  • or me
IMG_3199
To think the Tour de France rode on these!

Today, Fresnes Les Montauban – Le Cateau-Cambresi was really tough even though it was a fine day weather wise, my carefully planned Viewranger route was rubbish, no way of telling if the ‘road’ is a track, what the distance is, what the village name is etc etc. I ended up with the artics again plus riding through endless  cafe less villages but all well endowed with Aldi & Lidl’s 🙁

I have ended up at Le Cateau-Cambresi birthplace of Matisse, although what he would make of mega combines & tractors, I’m not sure. The hotel & restaurant Des Digues is superb and with a bottle of Brouilly inside me the world seems somewhat cheerier.

I have now created a route to Rheims using the Gaia app it tells me it is 78 miles so I will be very lucky to make it. The user interface is much better and more natural than Viewranger, so it will be interesting.

Todays 43.3 miles ride is on Strava here:

Strava_Ride___Fresnes_Les_Montauban_to_Le_Cateau

 

The pics are here

As for the panniers – they are catching the first boat home 🙂