March 14, 2015
Rhone-Alpes: The Road Further To Lyon.
Sunday
The Dutchman walking the Camino I met yesterday, complained about the mud further north in Champagne. Not always would his way be on firm asphalt, but often across country, along the edge of fields. And up in the north he said, the greatest hardship, was terrible wet clay that stuck to his boots, so that his feet got heavier the further he walked. Weight training, he chuckled. It's like this place I camped, a steep wooded hillside that I pushed the bike off the road into, up a muddy track between birch and nut trees until I come to a level spot to put the tent. Although well drained and dry in under the trees, the steep track has rivulets of ground water seeping out of the hillside creating a bog and I pick my way round the drier edges on the way back down to the road this morning, but in places I've no alternative but to swelch through mud. On reaching the road and stepping upon the asphalt, my shoes are heavy with the sticky stuff. I stamp my feet, knocking off most but not all. However it dries quickly with the winding breeze of cycling and falls off.
In Luzy, the first place I reach, it is too soon after starting to consider stopping for coffee, not that any place looks to be open. I stop on a Renault garage forecourt, lifeless being Sunday, and look at the map: the main route goes toward Roanne, but the road I want is D985. This road continues all the way to Lyon.
Early Spring and the pastures fields on round hills onward are still pale green turf. There are sheep and lambs, but no cows except seen with their heads through railings musing over winter rations in open-sided farmyard buildings.
On the way into Toulon Sur Arroux, I stop at a boulangerie and sit on a bench afterwards eating a quiche second breakfast. There's a charming big town house next door to the boulangerie: it has decorative redbrick work on the corners and between the shuttered window bays; and the walls are painted lemon in contrast. Before I finish eating the woman in residents comes out to the boulangerie. Once she has shut the gate to keep the dog in the yard, she looks over and wishes me "bon appetit".
I ride over a stone bridge and climb into the town centre. There's a pizza place, cafes and bars, but all are shut, so I don't have coffee. I continue. On the outskirts of town, I pass a signboard "SuperU a 10km. Ouver Dimanche matin". It is now eleven-thirty, so if I don't delay I'll make it.
It is a hypermarket on the edge of Perrecy Les Forges, a large village not shown on the Michelin map. It has everything including hairdressing salon; which no sooner have I leant the bike against the window of, than a fortysomething woman with red highlights in a short head of hair, come out and asks me not to lean my bike there; suggesting, I lean the bike to a metal bollard, one of a row of bollards separating the window front gangway from the car park. But leant again the bollard, it would probably fall over when I'm away, so I wheel the bike pass the entrance doors and lean against the glass there. I only need water and I also pick up a can of beer and crisps to argment lunch.
I do have coffee. At three in the charming town of Charolles. The rest of the day the itinerary is on the change again, becoming alpine as the road climbs with near vertical hillsides either side. And evergreen instead of deciduous trees. I climb toward Echarmeaux where the road tops out at 749m, before the start of a long descent through a deep narrow valley with a stream to the left of the road and pine trees on the slopes either side. It is now dusk and the descending is cold, so I stop at the first possible campsite: a small ravine with a tributary stream running at a right angle down to the road.
Monday
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The D985 takes me to the edge of greater Lyon, thereafter I follow a local service road parallel to the A6 into the city centre. The last time I was here, back in the nineties, the hostel was in the south of the city. This time the tourist information marks a hostel up the hill from the old town; perhaps one of the best located city hostels I've stayed at because of its grand view over the city. I've washed my cloths; been busy getting this journal up-to-the present; eaten different food than I do everyday when on the road; went sightseeing and taken photos. The weathers been fine. And I need it fine for the next section of this tour which will take me to Italy.
Today's ride: 173 km (107 miles)
Total: 1,146 km (712 miles)
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