While the South and East of Europe are awash with rain, a fat high pressure ridge is moving into the west of Europe,
promising at least a week of stable, biker-friendly weather towards the Atlantic Ocean. So I have plotted an initial
route of 1500 km into France.
The route has been made using just two criteria aside from the weather; pick the least densely populated areas and avoid
tourist regions at all cost. As the "grandes vacances", the French summer holidays (or nutter times, as I call them) end
tomorrow I expect to have some great time out there...
I leave at 0900. It is still very much overcast in Switzerland and on occasion I just get some light drizzle, but with every mile westwards the weather improves. I finish the day after glorious 550 km on French country roads at Vitry-le-François on the Marne river
I went to bed at 2200 hours yesterday and slept like a rock for 9 hours. Up at 0700, the usual simple French breakfast. The
hotel bill for bed & breakfast plus yesterday's 5-course dinner is 81.70 Euros. I put 82 Euros in cash on the receptionists desk.
The receptionist, who is about my age, gets a pocket calculator out to work out the change. I sometimes wonder whether I am an alien
dumped a long time ago on a planet earth populated by native morons, or whether I am the native earthling surrounded by the rejects
from an alien race who dumped their less bright individuals onto an unsuspecting earth.
By 0830 I am back on the bike. Initially the weather is nice, but the remnants of a storm front over the North Sea are producing an
overcast sky out here for most of the day. But it stays dry and the temperature is perfect for motorbiking. Via
Romilly-sur-Seine and
Orléans I am heading further out west,
just interrupted by the odd "
Joe Bar Team" kind of highly agreeable break;
Like yesterday I can't get enough of these splendid roads out here, so again I bike for more than nine hours and finish the day after another 550 km near the town of Châteaubourg. After just two days of biking country roads I have already reached Brittany - at that rate I will soon run out of "The West"...
There is a massive fog outside this morning and everything is dripping wet - alas, it is September and no longer June. The summer
is nearly over.
You probably think that I make this up, but my hotel bill including diner last night accumulates to 87.30 Euros. I put 102.30 Euros
in cash on the receptionists desk. She gets the calculator out...
The fog soon lifts, though for most of the day the high fog does not clear. But I don't care, the temperature is at 17 degrees and the countryside is finest Tiggerland. At Morlaix I have another coffee break and meet this fellow with his Russian Ural bike:
I am probably having too many coffee breaks (due to the nippy temperatures), so by the time I call ahead at the Lion d'Or hotel in Le Faouët I have done only just over 400 km in spite of 9 hours spent on the road.
More fog this morning. So instead of an early start I have a look at the magnificent 16th century wooden market place cover in town. Lots of places had those in the olden times, but hardly any survived. It is nice to see that here at Le Faouët the structure is still used for the same purpose it had when it was built 500 years ago:
By 0930 hours I am under way, heading back out south-eastwards into the heart of France. The temperature starts at 17 degrees, but
it gets warmer with every mile. When I reach
Tours in the afternoon the mercury shows 28 degrees.
While having a chat with the patron of a coffee shop during one of my breaks we are interrupted by a women - obviously English - who asks
if it is possible to have something to eat. My eyes and those of the patron immediately turn to the big clock on the wall; it is
three o'clock.
The obviously confused patron looks rather lost at the women. I explain: "Look, lady, it is three in the afternoon.
That is just as if you'd ask your local
landlord to serve you a pint at 8.30 in the morning. Come back at 7.30 pm, please". The women buggers off and the patron
is visibly pleased and offers the
coffee on the house. For the next 20 minutes he tells me about his various - and often hilarious - collisions with the different flavours of
foreign tourists. I continue my journey half an hour later, still grinning...
The day ends after 450 km in the beautiful town of
Loches.
It is all blue sky and sunshine when I set out today at 0900 hours. Here is a short video that shows you how it's like to bike the least populated areas of France:
I could do this forever, and today I am doing it for over 11 hours; after more than 750 km I arrive back at my place in Switzerland. 2700 km in just five days is a lot of biking, even for me...
Below is the usual map with my GPS tracklog and some trip markers.