La Salle to Belleville-sur-Saône / train to Lyon - The French Connections - CycleBlaze

October 11, 2021

La Salle to Belleville-sur-Saône / train to Lyon

Today's theme: diversity. Different riding conditions, different modes of transportation. It started with a tasty breakfast served by our host, Marie Paule. I felt bad for Sunyoung, who handled all the social pleasantries as I feasted. Marie never spoke a word of English. My guess is that she knew some, but she detected Sunyoung's interest in practicing and simply exercised a wonderful amount of patience and understanding with her. We cherished her sincere and gentle hospitality. 

We started with a little climb to the picturesque village of Saint-Martin-Belle-Roche:

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We then descended and rejoined V50 and the Saône as far as Mâcon:

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The city itself was beautiful:

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Then, unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse:

Care for a swim?
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I was surprised to see a river cruise boat plying the waters northbound:

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We gave this section of the trail many chances to improve. It never did. I finally asked, "What do you think of finding a road on the other side of the river to ride?" Sunyoung agreed with me that it had to be better than this Paris-Roubaix experience, so we crossed the next bridge and hopped on the nearest departmental road. We had to re-desensitize ourselves to the noise of oncoming and passing cars. Overall, it was fine. Left to my own devices, I would've ridden this all the way into Lyon.

However, Sunyoung was lagging. Too many days without resting was now catching up with her. We stopped at the nearest market, headed to the nearest train station, and ate lunch. I bought a ticket, the train arrived, we ran to the front car, we heaved our bikes up the STEPS -- yes, two steps up to the passenger compartment -- then we were suddenly moving towards Lyon under electrical (perhaps nuclear!) power. I picked my bike off the floor, removed the panniers from Sunyoung's bike, hung it, and found a secure parking spot for my bike. There were plenty of people on the train, but few in the front car. Except for that initial adrenaline rush of boarding, it was another successful multimodal endeavor for us.

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Once in Lyon, we oriented ourselves and sped to our hotel for the next two nights. Thankfully traffic was reasonable and navigation was straightforward. We passed block after block of mid-rise apartment buildings, and then our destination came into view.

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The hotel clerk let us check in early and stow our bikes in their luggage room. We were now safely and comfortably ensconced in the bosom of this vibrant city, ready to relax and explore. We went for a long walk along the Rhône and started to piece together a city tour itinerary for tomorrow.

The rail bridge we came into town on
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Today's ride: 46 km (29 miles)
Total: 2,093 km (1,300 miles)

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Tricia GrahamThis did make we smile a bit - the first time we rode from Macon to Lyon we started of on the supposed track beside the river ☹️ However when we located to the road all was fine.
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2 years ago
Steve Miller/GrampiesHey Kevin, I need to take you back to the beginning of September. You mentioned that the French government had opened an online portal for the Pass Sanitaire. Can you steer me to that portal? Did they ever reply to your online request?
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2 years ago
Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Steve Miller/GrampiesAh, I think I found it! https://www.demarches-simplifiees.fr/commencer/passe-sanitaire-etrangers?locale=en
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2 years ago
Kevin StevensTo Steve Miller/GrampiesThat's it! You may receive your pass right away if you submit it during business hours.
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2 years ago
Kevin StevensTo Tricia GrahamTricia, yes, we were expecting it. The web site https://en.lavoiebleue.com/ gave us hope that the route would have been improved by now. They did have provisional signage posted. That's the easy part. Now they actually have to smooth out the trail.
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2 years ago
Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Kevin StevensI think they called my bluff, because they want an upload of travel tickets and to know dates for entering and leaving France. I was thinking to use them as the way to get the EU wide pass.
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2 years ago