Day 41: Gisors to Cergy

October 17, 2022

We inadvertently turned off the tracker mid-day, so we ended with two tracks - one for the beginning of the day and one for the end. One again there was quite a bit of climbing - 1600 meters of up.

Heart

Comment

Link

Heart

Comment

Link

Aside from the owners, we were the only ones in the giant chateau last night. That meant we got to sit alone in the sun room with our breakfast, except for a brief chat with owner Geoffrey. Something we learned from him was that difficulty we have been having finding hotel space around Paris is due to a giant food expo going on right now.

After our brief chat, both Geoffrey and Helene set off on errands, leaving us in charge of the whole chateau! Geoffrey was very careful to hand us the code for the front gates on a piece of paper, no SMS!, otherwise he risked finding us still there when and if they returned!

In a way that did almost happen. We were all loaded and set to go, when I glanced down at Dodie's front wheel. Flat tire! It had been mizzling, but it was not too bad pulling the front wheel. We then sat on the front entry of the elegant chateau and spread our tools and parts all around. I had rather forgotten that our procedure for a flat was not to try patching the tube right away, but to pop in a new tube and worry about the repair later. To this end we had carried two brand new in shrink wrap tubes with us.

To help the new tube not go in twisted, I gave it a bit of a pump up. But nothing happened. Dodie quite quickly located a split in the rubber, just in the middle of nowhere. New in shrink wrap or not, these tubes could easily have been in our tool box at home for ten years. Fortunately the second tube worked, and in no time (Ok, probably 45 minutes to an hour) we were back to square one and ready to go. Oh, except that I went back in "our" chateau to wash my hands back in the room. I went with strict instructions not to touch anything or to wipe my hands with the white towels.

The first twenty kms of the ride were on another immaculate, beautiful, smooth rail trail, this one called the Epte Valley Greenway. The river Epte has been the boundary between Normandy and "France" in the past, a subject for impressionist painters, and a nature preserve. All along the greenway we found poster boards covering various aspects of its natural environment, with a focus on farming - such as on beekeeping, milk cattle, and beef cattle.

Very early in our ride on the Greenway we came upon a man with a scooter bike. This kick propelled thing is something we have seen before, but this man was supplementing his propulsion with three huskies! He told us in winter he would go with them on snow, but this was a great way for them to get their exercise in Autumn. The huskies could pull at about the same speed as we pedal, so we exchanged the lead with them down the trail for about 10 km, until they turned around,

No e-assist here. What would you call this?

As we pedaled along the Greenway we were treated to just the loveliest Fall scenes, and the most pleasant cycling possible. We passed through small forested areas and beside many nicely prepared farm fields. Trailside panels continued to extoll the agricultural activities in the region, and they included the claim that 73% of the trailside scenery had been enhanced by the effects of agriculture.

We did enjoy looking at the various fields, including the one below, which we took to be blueberries. At several spots we also came upon fruit trees, such as the crabapple in the photo. These tasted sweet and tangy, and Dodie regretted not being able to make a huge batch of jelly with them.

This sort of berry was intriguing because it did not seem to be poisonous, but did taste rather astringent. Inside was greenish, like a gooseberry. Any ID ideas?

We liked the sign below, because it showed the concern for cycle safety motivating the authorities. The photo following that shows how nearby towns and their services are identified, not to mention the little hard to see in the photo one giving the distance to the start and the end of the trail from this point. Good stuff!

Another nice touch along the trail was the info panels, often geared toward kids. They generally look like the one below.

Biologists out there might be interested in these three rare insects found here.

This little kids' quiz struck us as debatable. To come up with the given answer of 8, you have to assume there are farmers in the idle looking tractors.

A panel that interested us a lot more showed the three common types of beef cattle in this region. That set us to trying to identify ones that we found along the way. What do you think they are?

Other than natural and farm scenes along the way, there were also villages, each displaying that amazing picturesque crumbly aspect of French villages. Later, as we passed though more places, I was looking at the stone buildings and thinking how they remind me of Quebec. That makes sense, since the original settlers to Quebec came from here.

As in England, the presence of a very long stone wall signals a large country estate. Dodie was musing that the walls would keep out the riff raff (i.e. the common people) and that years of that exclusive attitude would help to explain revolution and the demise of the people within the walls. I conceded that point but I must say the walls and gate of our chateau last night were rather comforting. With them, I did not have to be concerned that any riff raff would disturb our precious bikes.

A peek at the chateau (Villarceaux) behind the wall.

Any delivery people go down this shrub alley to the gates at the end. That should discourage any Amazon "porch pirates"!

After 20 km the idyllic trail came to an end, but my map that showed green for off road and red for on road stayed green. However that's because of calling gravel track like this a sort of greenway.

We were a little taken aback that our wonderful Avenue Verte would pull this gravel track stunt. But yes, their signs clearly want us on the gravel.

We put up with the gravel for a while, and yes it was hard packed and not really much slower than pavement would have been.

But finally we had had enough, and Dodie veered off past this mud to where the GPS showed a real road.

From that point forward we ignored the Avenue Verte signs, which had gone gravel crazy. We found the ordinary D roads to be atably safe and easy, and just kept knocking off towns as we travelled from one to the other on road.

There were a couple of fun sights, like this Deux Chevaux

and stone buildings, comprising most of the towns.

Finally we used the GPS to plot us a route through the city of Cergy, to an Ibis Budget hotel. On the way we passed McDonalds, which struck us as schizophrenic by being open 24 hours daily, but not at all on Sunday.

Ibis Budget was all we could find anywhere in the area. The GPS took us to it in a strange, maybe light industrial area, and with an exterior that looked itself like a factory. We have been in an Ibis budget before, and now remembered how the rooms are so tiny, and the bathroom almost reminiscent of what you might find on an airliner. On the other hand, reception had no problem with our bringing the (wet!) bikes into the room, if we were into it. We were, and they tucked nicely into one side of the room.

In a hostel-like touch, the room is billed as a triple. The third sleeper goes into the bunk above the two main beds. Dodie cracked her head a good one that overhanging bunk. It took a lot of kisses to make it better.

Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 1,705 km (1,059 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	9
Comment on this entry	Comment	0