Today dressing for breakfast was challenging. Dave and I had packed a pannier in preparation for a laundry run and we had no clothes to wear to the buffet! He wore the outer layer of a pair of mountain bike shorts and I wore a tank top and my lone skirt: these were the only clothes we had that were (sort of) clean.

The laundry run was uneventful so this will be a short post. I was woefully behind on the journal so spent 3 -4 hour working to catch up. 

 I also spent some time doing some hotel bookings for early next week. In the past (at least in the last 4 years)  we typically booked accommodations for the entire trip and then changed things as needed. I always made reservations I can cancel but of course, sometimes you can’t cancel at the last minute and we would eat the cost of the room. Last year due to weather and health we had to adjust a number of reservations and there was an expense associated with that. This year we are doing a bit of a mix. I left much of April and May unbooked for those parts where we are on our own. Traveling in this area last year gave us confidence there would be sufficient accommodation choices. However, on the Camino I did do some bookings primarily driven by the fact that the towns are so small, the choices so limited and rooms too basic given our lack of enthusiasm to stay in dorms/hostels/places that have reviews talking about bedbugs (etc). So for a week in mid-May I booked hotels in Northern Spain until we reach the touristy part of the Rioja wine region.  In general I prefer to have a plan - and then change it if necessary - but I know there are plenty of cycle tourists who make it up daily - impressive, but not for us! This year we are more or less committed to a plan until September because we are meeting a number of friend/family groups and couples through the summer. After that, we have a range of options and we are not sure what we will do in September and October. It's been fun talking about what we want to do and where we want to go at the end of our trip--tour Holland?, Normandy?, Malta?

Back to our regularly scheduled programming: Dave got back early afternoon and scooted over to the bakery across the street for a small falafel wrap for lunch. The bakery was much more interesting than the hotel restaurant and the steakhouse next door. He figured out how to cast the Liege-Bastogne-Liege bike race from his tablet to the tv so we were able to watch the impressive run of Tadej Podogar continue. We are having to rely on our Tunnel Bear VPN app which fools the streaming service into thinking were in the US or Canada, which ever one the service expects us to be in. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Today it worked!

Before dinner we climbed on our steeds and took a reconnaissance spin over to the start of tomorrow’s ride.  We planned to cross the river and Komoot indicated a route that involved a steep set of  steps to get to the Via Rhona trail. Indeed it looked daunting when we saw it and we worked out an alternative route for tomorrow. It is a weird thing. We love Komoot and thinks it does a great job but every once in a while it has a serious brain fade. In this case, rather than take  the steps down, all that was required was to continue on the marked Via Rhona trail for another half of a km and do a loop back. It's strange Komoot didn't suggest that way instead of descending stairs. 

After that we rode into town on a mix of cycle ways and roads to La Cuisine, a French place primarily chosen because it was open on Sunday and would take an on-line reservation! But it was very good, and after last night’s burger in indifferent surroundings this hit the spot. It was located right on a square with London plane trees and the weather was warm enough we could sit outside and keep on eye on our bikes.  Our dinner of bacon- wrapped veal and pumpkin hit the spot and the dinner turned out leisurely enough we wound up riding back to our hotel (about3 km) when it was almost dark. No merely fueling up for us at dinner: it’s all about the experience!

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What we like about our Mercure hotel:  newish room, A+ tub in the bathroom (Dave wishes our tub at home was as good), cushy robes (Dave’s favorite), easy bike parking in a storage room (no steps required but no charging outlets), a tv that worked to cast the bike race, large airy breakfast with a medium quality breakfast (but with a great French toast), easy to ride out to the start of the Via Rhona, good bakery next door.

What we didn’t like: Location, location, location (too far from town), marginal restaurant in the hotel and the only other restaurant next door was  the Denney’ s-like “steakhouse.” , no gym even though the hotel was large and spread out (but you could do a CrossFit session in the morning at 7 am. (We passed on that).  

Fyi: the French are just lousy on gyms in hotels; even business -style hotels in bigger towns usualy don’t have them. Our realistic hopes of working out plummet if we don’t have even a small workout space and France is poor on that front. Indeed, cycle-touring in France is so good we search for things we dislike. The two we have come up with our: (1) no gyms and (2)the erratic and uncertain opening/closing times for groceries, stores, restaurants, bakeries etc. Admittedly, once you adjust to (2) it is not that big of a deal but just something to factor into your day. Yeah - we love touring in France.