Day 58: Belleville en Beaujolais to Les Roches de Condrieu

November 3, 2022

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Having read our own blog from 2018, we came easily to the conclusion that we had best use the train to bypass Lyon. One way to have done this would have been to train into the city, visit the great sights like the basilica on the hill and the city centre, and the next day to train out to the south. But we took the more radical approach of training through in one fell swoop.

Before we could train anywhere we of course had to load the bikes outside the hotel. This mundane activity became "bloggable" simply because of what we are beginning to recognize as a French characteristic: Given a large space, such as one full of empty tables, the one other person using the facility will come and sit right next to you. They may not only take the adjacent table, but they will choose the seat that backs on yours. Others with French experience: is this really a "thing"?

Well today as we loaded the bikes at an outside table, a smoker came and established himself at the very table we were using to rest stuff waiting to be loaded. Polite Canadian or not, I gave him the boot.

Ok, we were clogging up two or three tables, but there were lots more down at the far end.

Not deterred by having been given the boot, the man plus another friend (but yes, sans cigarette) returned to ask us the UQs. They must have liked the answers, because they both asked to also take our picture. One of the fellows has a son in Montreal, and he thought he would be tickled to see the crazy yellow Canadians.

We headed over to the station, but not before stopping off to investigate some possibly energy boosting pastries along the way.

The tickets were easy to purchase from the agent at the station, and at about 10 euros per person were extremely economical. We watched one train, not ours, come and go, and were very interested to see if it had a bicycle car and whether the entry was level or not. It had lots of bicycle cars and level entry, so we were encouraged.

Encouragement turned to oh, oh, as our actual train arrived. This must have been from the 60's, with a narrow door and high lift. I grabbed my 110 pound bike and hoiked it up the stairs. The problem was that there was not enough room for both me and the bike. I kept hoiking and shoving, but it really did not want to go in, and I was tiring. One last squeeze and we were on! Then we did the same with Dodie's bike. The conductor blew his whistle, and Dodie signalled him to hang on. But we made it!

Our actual train. Don't be fooled by that bike symbol, it refers to two narrow hooks inside.

At Lyon, we poured off the train, this time using one at the front and one at the back of each bike, lifting them by their ends. A lady, below, again demonstrates the step height.

Lyon was a real zoo, a shock for u people from the wild river edges.

It takes help to find the correct platform.

We used an elevator to get to the platform, but were surprised to have a perfectly healthy looking man waiting for the elevator ahead of us. We crowded in with him, and he snapped at Dodie for having gotten a tap from her pannier. I guess with more time we could have formulated a case for him not using the elevator unnecessarily. But in the moment, Dodie treated him to two rather personal short and pithy assessments, in English.

We had missed our train, but patiently waited on the platform for our next one, due in one hour. We tracked it on the screen, it was on time, they said. But when the time came for it to arrive - nothing. And it had vanished from the screen. We were sure we were on the listed platform, but no train. We got into "our" elevator and went back down to the ticket office, then going through the whole drill again for another train.

We asked one of four heavily armed transport police about whether we were about to board the correct one. Yes, this would go to Givors, they assured us. To boot, all four piled on with us, and they were very interested in our trip. This resulted in an about 30 minute French lesson, as we went through the UQs them. In 30 minutes, actually, you can get not only into the advanced UQs, but also learn about most trips the questioner themselves has taken, where their family lives, and in this case, no doubt, the voltage on their Taser, and etc. When I say "no doubt", it's because I steered away from questions like that, and also did not ask to take their picture, cute as they may have been.

The train to Gisors, mercifully, had a wide and level entry and lots of space inside. And anyway, we had four giant police to help us if it had been needed.

We had now magically found ourselves at a quiet regional station, and just as our blog had promised, we were soon on the Via Rhona, with great signage at every turn.

We passed the town of Vienne across the river, noting elegant looking buildings at water's edge, and a ruin and a church on the hills behind.

On our own side, we had a lot of natural things to admire, such as many Plane trees, all pruned in that funny way.

Vines now covered the hills, with some, like these, also on the flat. There are no grapes at all left on for us to sample.

We passed through an area of intense agricultural production, with a large variety of vegetable crops. We particularly noted much celery and artichoke, but also peppers, cauliflower, and much more.

We then passed through two islands that act as nature preserves. There was much signage explaining the flora and fauna. They particularly mentioned the beaver (castor). We usually like to scoff at Europeans claiming a lot of beaver, since we are from the Land of the Beaver!

The two islands: I'le du Beurre and Ile du Chevre.

Approaching our selected destination, we had been noticing subtle "southern" touches in the surroundings: tile roofs, palm trees, figs. Still this nice photo could equally have been from further north.

We needed a bridge to get to our B&B, and were really pleased to see the relative space given on this one to cyclists and pedestrians.

Our B&B situation overlooks the hills on the other side of the river. In the photo below, from the counter where I am writing the blog, you see the hills and also what I am sure will become the iconic tile roofs.

We thought we had a bedroom plus this kitchen to ourselves, and had begun to spread out in the kitchen. But there was another bedroom andhen somebody came to occupy it, we hurriedly withdrew our junk from the now communal kitchen. It was still very useful in preparing supper, and typing at the kitchen counter. We also had the company of the house cat, whi presumably would not have wanted to join us in our bedroom.

The communal kitchen - had one other user.

Bonus: Joni had written, in an email that we picked up during the day, chiding us for grousing about the price of pastries, and specifically tartelettes. At the moment, we were just diving into yet another patisserie, and Dodie must have been a little hungry, plus having read Joni's thinking, she came out with these!

Not that I am going to comment on the price of tartelettes any more, but for 11 euros this was a pretty good deal!

Today's ride: 30 km (19 miles)
Total: 2,524 km (1,567 miles)

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Keith KleinHi,
Clever idea to get through Lyon. But Part Dieu is always a mess. Someday the old trains will be retired and getting on with a bike will become easier for everybody. Someday.
Cheers,
Keith
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