Saturday 24th June
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I made sure that I knew exactly which very steep hill I was going down to get back to the Moselle. The Moselle took fright and gave Nancy a wide berth so it was 5 kms or so to get back on the "voie verte".
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| Charmes. (it looked like the American civil war) |
Equally there are no signs to towns on the cycle path. It is like separate ecosystems in parallel universes.
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| Unusual |
So I set off on the canal de l'est which I was hoping would carry me south (stay awake at the back I will ask questions later)
Brilliantly well surfaced very well signed almost flat quite picturesque but if I am totally honest - a bit boring.
I passed about 10 bikes all day and a smaller number of boats. When is the season?
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| A picnic lunch |
I was riding along wondering what I could possibly say about this when I decided that a drink of water was in order so as I propped my overweight bike for the hundredth time in similar fashion bike and rider went down in a heap.
I was very aware that I was in the middle of nowhere with no mobile signal. Fortunately bike and rider are both fine.
After about 110 kms and at about 16.30 I decided to try to find a camping. I asked a lady at one of the regularly occurring "ecluses" or locks where the nearest site was. I was surprised and delighted in equal measure to discover a site was just 5 kms away.
It is a small site but with a shop and bar and restaurant on site. The patrone is Dutch (surprise surprise) but very switched on to the needs of cyclists. She offered me a chair to sit on and a corkscrew at the drop of a hat.
The only downside to cycling along canals and rivers in hilly countryside is that everywhere away from the canal is up! Not up like last night but enough to have me gasping for air when I reached the site 3 kms above Fontenoy le Chateau.I am camped next to a Dutch lady of uncertain age who is cycling from Holland to Barcelona. She speaks French better than me (I took her for French at first) and actually probably speaks English better as well.
Heading ever South tomorrow I don't think I will offer to keep the ice maiden company. She emits negative vibes to keep unwanted attention at bay.
24/06/17 Saturday Camping
Fontenoy-le-Chateau €6.70 4
very friendly, cycle friendly site, bar, restaurant on site, 2km to town
Brian - good day looking at it from here. Following your journey on the PDF for 'La Veloroute Charles le Temeraire' from www.lorvelo.fr and now getting a better grip on what can be seen along the way. No Ice Maidens in the photographs though. Noticed that Stage 4 of Le Tour passes through Schengen on 4 July. Sent a note to the organisers to drop this stage as you had already cracked it and didn't think it was a difficult challenge. You had enough time to stop for a beer on the way. Decided that you have been re-branded 'The Fighting Temeraire' and can beat anything France throws at you or puts in your way on this trip. Keep them wheels rolling; loads of good things to see and visit on the miles ahead. Hope it is cooling down a wee bit more and you are enjoying your own cooking on that smart wee stove. Keep smiling. S&B
ReplyDeleteAs ever thank you for taking the tima and thought to reply to my rambling scribblings.The cooking on the stove is easy. Finding places to buy the things to cook at the right time of day is the hard part.
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