October 23, 2022
Day 47: Evry to Moret-Sur-Loing
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What a difference day makes, is the old saying, and this certainly applied to Evry. Last night we were struggling through traffic there in the dark, and not at all impressed with the modern style of the place. Well ok, this morning in the light we are still not impressed with the style of the place. Have a look:
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1 year ago
At least now we understand, that Evry was built in the 60's, when nearby Orly was the main Paris airport. Many of the 60's buildings have been cleared away, so perhaps what we are seeing is even more recent.
Now as to fighting with traffic, we don't quite know what our problem was, because this morning a bike path appeared, almost directly from our hotel to the bike route!
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The cyclists that we were talking to seemed to agree that it would be better to follow the official bike route, which runs by the Seine, than to try the road. So down we went to the Seine. If you zoom the map above, and also change the map style to "map", you will see it all so clearly. Our starting point was on the Seine, our ending point was on the Seine, and the idea of Scandiberique planners here was, yes, to follow the Seine.
This was an ok idea, at least at first. The Seine is beautiful to look at, and early on their were some islands than gave it a much smaller, more intimate appearance:
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Along the river trail some genius set up one of those devilish barricades. Dodie's bike just managed to make it through.
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An early town we ran into on the river was Corbeil-Essonnes. We crossed on a bridge here and got a view of part of the town from it. We are on the route that Patton took to Paris, so this bridge was named for Patton's army. From the bridge we could see a lot of swans, which we love.
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A soon as we entered the town we were pleased and surprised to find a market in progress. At first it seemed like mainly a dry goods market, which we find boring, but there was some fruit and some BBQ around as well. What struck us about this market was its air of active excitement. It felt more like something in the third world. Perhaps there is a high immigrant percentage here, and the people are recreating what they are used to back home.
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We discovered that the food stalls were mostly hiding indoors. There were a lot of them, with several cheese stalls, multiple fish counters, produce, and lots of exciting prepared foods.
The market was a real high for us, and though we were soon back on the river bank, I was rather hoping that other towns along the way would have markets too. We had been prepared to buy some BBQ chicken and those yummy potatoes, but I passed, hoping for even yummier (cooked longer) ones further down the track.
Alas, it was not to be, and things actually took a turn quite for the worse for us, and we followed the riverside trail. Dodie has collected some handicaps, over the past year, and in fact over the past two months. From the Mexico crash, her balance is still not at all what it was. With that, she risks being thrown by a muddy track, and/or one with a lot of roots or rocks. And in the last two months, arthritis has flared in both wrists. Se is wearing braces on both sides, slathering on the Voltaren, and taking a lot of Tylenol. Still the wrist burn. Consequently, a rough track with stones and a lot of bouncing, can be excruciating.
The riverside path was alternately rough, muddy, and with roots and rocks. It was all that, more than, Dodie could take. She had to begin to walk rather than ride. But as I said, the route planners had thought it great to follow the river for kms. That meant about 60 kms, to reach our planned stop today. There was no way to walk 60 kms, at least not before tomorrow morning!
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We began to search the GPS for a way out, but not only were there not many ways off the river bank, there seemed to be no easy on road ways to get where we were going. If you look at the track map. at km 25.7, you will see that the travellers, who dutifully had been following the river, suddenly made a break for it. In fact, we pushed up an embankment/rough track and hopped the railway tracks, onto a road.
Our recollection of France was that "D" roads whose number did not start with a "9" were fairly usable for cycling. But today this did not seem to be exactly the case. D607, D142, D606, etc. all had the same characteristic - light to moderately heavy traffic, no shoulder, no sidewalk, or a sidewalk clogged with parked cars, discontinuities, and broken pavement.
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Unlike yesterday, the traffic flows were not so heavy that every single car overtaking us would be in a squeeze by situation. Rather there were lots of opportunities to cross the centre line and give us a good clearance. When there was oncoming traffic, some overtaking drivers waited for their opening, but others, of course, squeezed by, some slow, some fast. Overall, it was ok, else I would not be here typing the account of the 30 on road kms we did, to avoid the idyllic river!
We arrived at Moret-sur-Loing to find an old and interesting village, with its two original gates still in place. We are staying in a old house, with the bikes in an inner courtyard. Our young landlady, Maia, seems to also make barley sugar candy as a business, according to an ancient recipe.
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"A speciality of the town of Moret-sur-Loing, barley sugar is one of the oldest boiled sweets in France. Enjoyed for over 300 years, this candy is available as amber-coloured round sweets or translucent sticks.
It was first made in 1638 by nuns in the town, who prepared sweets with cane sugar and barley for medical purposes. They were soon a big hit in the court of Louis XIV, but production stopped in 1792 after the sisters left. Barley sugar production was resumed again under the Second Empire, by the sisters of La Charité de Moret. They made them until 1970, before giving the recipe (which is still a secret today) to a confectioner in the town."
No doubt we will learn more about this at breakfast tomorrow, as this is a B&B. Two of the candy sticks were in our room as a demo. Tasted like candy!
We have also not looked much at our very old building, or the town. But we will! Wait for it!
Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 1,860 km (1,155 miles)
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Take care
Tricia
1 year ago
1 year ago
1 year ago
From your location the route south will lead you through Migennes where you will have to make a decision: Do you go south along the Yonne to Auxerre, and eventually the Canal du Nivernais and thence the Canal du Centre, or do you cross the river to get onto the Canal de Bourgogne and thence through Tonnerre toward Dijon? Both routes are largely off road and well paved and both will get you into the valley of the Saône. If you go the Dijon route you will be revisiting familiar ground, but you will come through Gevrey. The Auxerre route passes Close to Vezelay and Nevers, and through Paray-le-Monial. Both routes rejoin at Chagny. You doubtless have all this well in mind, but give me an indication of your chosen route, and I’ll do what I can to try to meet you along the way (or come through Dijon and stop by our house for supper).
Cheers,
Keith
1 year ago
1 year ago
1 year ago