EBT Chapter 3 - Southward Bound

Dijon to Beaune

We arrived in Dijon on the 8th and rolled through the city pretty fast. We saw the Maille mustard shop (with mustard on tap!) and got a nice route recommendation from the Tourist Office, then hit the road to Beaune.it was about 45 km through the Grand Cru vineyards of Burgundy, which started out pretty, but you can get pretty bored of vineyards, especially when the temperature gets over 30C. We camped in Beaune tired.

Cycling through Burgundy

Beaune to Cluny

The next day was a long one (over 90km), running from Beaune to Cluny, but the route was very nice. The first stretch was more vineyard, but then we caught a canal running south and followed a nice bike path all the way to Cluny. We passed Taizé on the way, but only stopped for a photo. No week long meditation camp like Justin did, though I've heard it's a great experience. Best thing of all: the campground in Vluny had a swimming pool! After cycling all day in the sun, I just can't describe how nice a pool is.

Bow before me, feeble flowers!

Poor Marcio doesn't know what's coming

Cluny to Macon to Lyon

The next day we went to the Abby in Cluny, which was the largest church in Christendom prior to St. peter's in Rome. Unfortunately it was mostly torn down around the time of the French Revolution. They have a neat "augmented reality" thing to show you the reconstruction, though. At places throughout the old cathedral floor plan there are screens which turn on 2 axes (pitch and yaw), and as you turn them you can see a 3D image of what you would have been looking at in that direction in the original cathedral. Very cool.

The Abby at Cluny

From Cluny we rode to Macon and caught a train the rest of the way to Lyon. There we met a friend of Bruno's (from Paris) who lives in a house of 10 students that looks a lot like a Berkeley coop, minus the intense paint job. It was pretty hippie and pretty cool. We played bochie ball down by the river with some other couch surfers there.

Cathedral in Lyon

Lyon to Grenoble

We spent most of the next day in Lyon enjoying the city. We went to see the big cathedral on the hill (dedicated to Mary for saving the city from the plague) and the old Roman amphitheater behind it then wandered down into the city to watch the Olympic Football Finals, only to figure out they started an hour later, so Marcio and I had to pack and leave. We caught the train to Grenoble and cycled out into the suburbs to meet our CS host.

The family there was really nice, and there was quite a barbecue going on when we arrived. The son, Remy, had recently returned from Colorado and had a bunch of friends over, plus the rest of the family was there, so there were about a dozen of us. In classic French style, dinner came over many courses, including barbecue meat, cheese, dessert, and fruit. Btw, fresh plums are about the best thing in the world when you haven't had fruit in a while.

Hello, alps!

Grenoble to Le Bourg-d'Oisans

The next day we planned to cycle to Le Bourg d'Oisans, at the base of l'Alpe d'Huez, but our host invited us to go hiking in the Alps, and we just couldn't turn it down. After hiking a trail formerly to a lake which now goes nowhere on account of construction for a new water line, he drove us out to Le Bourg d'Oisans. We camped there to be ready for the next day's climb.

Hiking in the Alps

Campsite before climbing Le Alpe d'Huez (right behind my head)

Le Alpe d'Huez and to Grenoble

We got up early the next day to beat the heat climbing l'Alpe d'Huez, a climb from the Tour de France. It's a 14.4 km set of 21 switchbacks that rises about 1130 m. It took us about 1:45 of serious climbing (we left our gear down at the campground), but the satisfaction of finishing and the view from the top were worth every stroke. We rode back to camp, packed up, then took a bus back to Grenoble to stay at the same place there. It was on this bus ride that my poor turtle bell was decapitated... It was just Remy this time (the others were actually vacationing in Delft!), and we made burritos to say thanks.

The foot of the mountain

Climbing!

Victory!

Grenoble to Castellane

The next morning we rode along the river to get back to town and caught a bus to Castellane. There were some tense moments when the driver said he night not be able to fit the bikes, even though we'd reserved space, but it was all okay. We camped off the road outside town - all sneaky like! - which was great (our first real savage camping).

Cruising the river near Grenoble

Sunset in the Alps; sneak-camping outside Castellane

Castellane to Verdon

In the morning we rode through the Gorge de Verdon, following the river through some beautiful geology to a big lake. The lake was nice, but kind of (really) crowded. We found a campsite, but they put us on a nasty hill, the water source was a long way away, and they had no TP. I'm okay with camping in the wild under such conditions, I just don't think it's reasonable to charge for them. Silly camping monopolies.

Le Point Sublime

Looking back on the gorge

Verdon to Brignoles to Toulon

When we first looked at Verdon, we planned to stay for a couple days, since it looked nice and wild, but since it was so crowded we decided to just roll on out in the morning. We tried to start early, since it's REALLY HOT this far south, but there were some silly complications with the camping front office. Silly camping monopolies. We rode until about 13:00, when the temperature was around 40C. This is not a good climbing temperature. Really.

Leaving Verdon

This stretch was really crazy because it was JUST like the mountains near San Diego (the Lagunas). The same trees, the same smell, the same heat, the same look and feel... But better goat cheese :-p

We got to a little town called Brignoles only to find out they shut down its train station, so we took a bus, though we had to argue with the driver to let us put the bikes on board, even though we'd called ahead to clear it. This is beginning to look like a pattern. In Toulon we met up with our CS host, swam in a nice pool, then had a delicious barbecue dinner. The bus pattern is kind of lame, but I could get used to the barbecue pattern!

At this point we've cycled about 1000 km. (One device says 992, the other 1015). Wow. On to our coastal chapter now! And it's going to be HOT.

 

EBT Chapter 2 - The Loire

Departing Paris was inconvenient, since we had to buy food and forgot it was a Sunday. We rode across the city to Gare de Lyon and caught a trail to Fontanbleau. We cycled through the forest there then a bunch of farmscape toward Orleans. And this is where we first encountered The Rain. It rained/drizzled on-and-off for about 2.5 hours (not that anyone was counting) In the afternoon, but during the first 45 minutes the sky just dumped water on us. The wind and rain were strong enough to hurt your face, and it left us totally soaked. That was 15:45 - we continued to cycle for another 3 hours. However, we had an awesome CS host in Orleans. The woman was physics professor from French Guiana and the man worked health and safety for mining operations. They had prepared a taste of France for us, so we had 4 cheeses and 3 hard salamis before a grilled meat dinner in a beautiful house. In the morning, they brought some classic pastries from the local bakery. Marvelous. :). We also broke 500 km on the way to Orleans!

Not so marvelous is that my kindle broke. Disappointing.

Leaving Paris

We're so wet in this photo... You can't tell at all.

From Orleans we headed down through the Val de Loire. We stopped at Chambord, a former hunting lodge chateau, thick with pre-revolutionary French affluence and power. The architecture was very nice - lots of symmetric regions. The grounds were beautiful and forested (it was a hunting lodge, after all). After that we cycled to Blois, where we got a last-minute CS host offer (woo-hoo!). Our host was vey nice and showed us around the city, the river, and the chateau there. Also, we finally had pizza, which had been proposed our first night (late in Antwerpen), since greasy pizza is delicious when you're tired after much work. However, the Blois solution to pizza was actually a pretty nice restaurant. Silly.

Marcio vs Chambord

Loire at sunset from Blois

The following morning we caught the train to Amboise, where we saw the castle (not too special, thought the river views were beautiful) and the Clos Luce, which is where Da Vinci spent his last years. That was pretty cool - there was a huge garden that was great to wander and filled with models built from Da Vinci's sketches. We cycled to Chenonceau, a castle built for the queens on the Cher River (just south of the Loire). The castle and its gardens are on one bank, but it has a long gallery bridging the river. It's really a site to see, so of course it was PACKED with tourists. After that we cycled on the Tours (we booked it, too!), where we found a nice campground just outside of town for the night. We got some food, had dinner, then slept hard, since the Dijon train left Tours at 7am.

Amboise castle and the Loire

Da Vinci Museum

Me at Chenonceau

Marcio at Chenonceau

Speaking of trains, that's where I am now! We're about an hour from Dijon (it's almost 5 hrs from Tours to Dijon on the bike-friendly train). That means our time in the Loire is over, and our journey to the coast beginning!

Next stop: NEVERS

EBT Chapter 1 - To Paris

We planned to cover the Netherlands the first day, since it's flat, and We've seen a fair bit of it in the past 6 months. A friend in Antwerpen offered us a place to stay, and we wanted to see the Delta Works Barriers, so we took the coast route from Delft toward Vlissingen. The ride was pretty, since there's some nice green space in the south of the Netherlands, but the wind along the coast was fierce, especially over the barriers. After 117 km, we took a train from Middleburg to Antwerpen - we were spent.

The Oosterscheldt Barrier!

The next morning we went to get a map and contact our Couchsurfing reference in Mons, which took a lot of running around. Eventually we got out of town, but by the time we got to Brussels it was getting into late afternoon and we were still feeling the previous day, so we took the train to Mons. The Couchsurfing host there was a psychotherapist who uses board games in his work with children, and he had an Amazing collection, so we played some games :) He was definitely a Comicon kind of guy - all the games, plus he's a Pop Artist and an author and publisher of indie graphic novels.

Forest through which we cycled

Crossing the border!

From Mons we proceeded South toward Saint-Quentin. After about 80 km we decided to camp and found a farmhouse where they let us stay in some of their extra space and use their water. Our first night camping! There was an old dog there who immediately made friends with us.

Camping!

We cycled on to Soisson the next day, which was pretty nice, except for the last stretch. That part was along a pretty big road, and there were quite a few big trucks rolling by, which isn't much fun on a heavy bike, since the pressure and wind variations can push you in weird ways. We stayed with another CS host, and this guy took us to a Crepe place - yum!

On the road! Taking a quick break for food.

From Soisson we headed due west toward Campiégne. About half way there we broke south into the forest to get to Pierrefonds, which is down in a sort of valley. As we wound down into the valley, we swept around a corner to see a beautiful castle overlooking a lake - sweet :). We had lunch, toured the castle, and headed back out of the valley. Approaching Campiégne we found a beautiful forest cycling path. Near the city we stopped at the clearing where the WWI armistice was signed (there's an intense monument and the train car where the document was signed). Then we caught a train from Campiégne to Paris!

Castle at Pierrefonds

Armistice Memorial

In Paris we arrived at Gare du Nord and cycled to Marcio's friend's place near La Défence... at 5pm on a Friday... That was a wild ride, but it's mid-August, so much of the normal population of Paris is on Holiday, so it was actually quite reasonable. We passed the Arc de Triomph, Marcio's cycling dream for years. We met his friend, had dinner, then went out to a bar with her and a bunch of folks from Delft who happened to be in town the same weekend - wow!

The following day was a rest day, so we just hung out in Paris. Marcio got a replacement part for his cycling computer and an iPhone, which has been a real boon, since it gives us access to maps and CS without having to stop in a city for wifi. That evening we went to a Brasilian barbecue with some of our host's friends. It's just a constant flow of meat, beer, rice etc., and conversation. It was a pretty nice atmosphere.

The Arc

 

Epic Bike Trip - Departure

On July 30 Marcio and I climbed on our bikes and rolled out of Delft for good! Well, actually, just until the beginning of 2013...

Ready with the bike