August 21, 2023
To Pontavert
An unexpected beautiful ride
There was a restaurant attached to the hotel and we went there for a meal. Then began the saga of the pizza. TOMORROW IS SUNDAY. This is very difficult everything is closed . The spa resort we are staying in has no restaurant and neither are then any in the town/village. We are down to one cake of chocolate and half a piece of cheese - a problem. But I had a brilliant idea. Ken was having a pizza we would just order a second to take away. Simple? We ordered the same pizza as Ken had had. Mistake. They spoke zero English in the restaurant and this really tested me. But the final result after much misunderstanding was the we came away with our second pizza neatly packed in a box and I brought the bread we hadn’t eaten. we will eat heartily at breakfast and perhaps wont starve tomorrow though it would do me good. It all took only 2 hours
We were lucky that it’s was Sunday as it made getting out of Laon very easy and we were soon through the outskirts and into the major climb of the day. This was extremely long and steep enough that Ken needed to be in his lowest gear to grind his way to the top. It was pretty though as it was through a forest. As I sat waiting at the top a training cyclist came out and called ‘Il arrive’ so I new he was coming and it wasn’t long before he came into sight.
We continued on undulations passing through really tiny places and then we got to Chamouille and a notice that said it was Centre Parc le Lac d’Ailette, this was clearly a recreation area. It was here that I had been able to find accommodation between Laon and Reims but even though we needed a short day it was too short. There was a sign to the Voir Vert , We looked at it a bit suspiciously because it was unpaved but took it, What a fantastic track it was winding its way through the forest beside the lake. You could hardly ever see the lake though for trees but occasionally you caught a glimpse swans on it. Part was quite marshy and over this there were board walks, there even was the odd seat. There were walkers cyclists and runners like us enjoying it but I thought surprisingly few in such glorious weather. We came to the end of it. What next? There was a small sealed road going to the right and left and straight ahead a dodgy looking gravel track which Komoot clearly wanted us to take. We tried both paved options but Komoot hated them and kept insisting we do a U turn so we obediently did. After the first about 50m Le Chemin de Roi was fantastic. It was hard packed gravel leading in the forest away from the lake and almost level. Altogether we did about 10km on these beautiful paths with the trees keeping us cool on this hot day.
Once off these we were back on quiet roads through agricultural country well broken up by trees. Just before Pontavert we found a seat under a tree to have our meagre lunch (bread rescued from dinner last night and the rest of yesterdays cheese). From there the little town looked charming. The reality isnt quite that. When I booked last night I saw the Logis Hotel had terrible reports and warnings not to stay there. There was another place ‘Suite Spa Privatif’. Its ratings were excellent and it said it had 24hr reception so at least when we arrived very early for the 4pm check in we could drop our stuff off. Firstly we couldnt find it. Then with the help of locals we did. It was a completely unmarked door but beside it was a key pad to put in the code. I found a phone number and rang and did get someone (? Was this the 24hr reception). He lold me check in time was 4pm - there was just a narrow stone step which one of us could sit on. Shortly afterwards he rang back and said he would send the code which he did a little later. This is the most extraordinary place it has a sitting room/ kitchen, a bedroom and the most enormous room with usual bathroom stuff, a sauna, a spa, two reclining chairs to lie in and a huge TV. There is only one of these suites in the ancient building so I presume it is and AirBandB. Luckily I persevered with the Pizza last night that there are no services here and the poorly rated Logis shows no sign of life.
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Tomorrow in Reims we are staying in a Campanile with genuine 24hr reception!
Today's ride: 34 km (21 miles)
Total: 963 km (598 miles)
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8 months ago