Recommended by M. Bibendum: day 17 - Montbeliard to Sierentz - Get It While It Lasts... A Big Loop Through Europe 2017

August 24, 2017

Recommended by M. Bibendum: day 17 - Montbeliard to Sierentz

much better to start riding at 8:30 ... perfect temps by 9!

We learned from yesterday and got up and on the road early today. It was a beautiful morning for biking and we were soon out of Montbeliard and into the Rhine - Rhone canal region of Alsace.

A little more topography (hills) resulting in much more tightly space locks. Once again there were perfectly maintained bike paths beside the canals and as we are getting closer to Basel, Mulhouse and the Rhine cycling region, a steady increase in the number of bikers, both touring and day riders.

We pulled into canal side café (100 Pates) around 11 to have a coffee and a snack. There were about half a dozen other bikers and a few boaters there as well. The coffee was great, the snack was a Magnum ice cream bar (also great) and the shade and rest was wonderful. K and I were both relaxing, reading the news (on our phones as is the norm these days) when we realized that there were now about 20 other bikers and boaters at this place and some were tucking into lunch. Great idea!

We had a short day planned and only 30 km left to go, so we decided to have lunch too.

When we got back on the bikes, we soon left the official EV6 route for a more direct, and less travelled, route to the small town of Sierentz. This took us 'off road' on some gravel / rock forestry roads for about 10 km. It was actually really nice to be riding this after many days of perfect but flat, pavement beside canals. Being in the forest with shade was nice too as once again the temp was rising!

As we were leaving the lunch spot, Kirsten overheard a pretty funny, and very short, conversation between two French guys (who unwittingly were basically reenacting a classic Cheech and Chong skit). Since the lunch café was now basically full, these two guys, food in hand, were looking for a place to sit. There was a nice large tree close by, with shade, and just as they were about to sit down under it, one of he guys says to his friend (in French)."make sure there's no dog shit there" ... as we were cycling away, we weren't able to see how they went about determining this... we can only speculate and laugh.

We rolled into Sierentz, and the lovely Auberge St Laurent at about 3, dripping in sweat (as usual). This very lovely Medieval inn and restaurant was recommended in the Michelin Green guide (hence today's name!) and after our lovely experience in Chavagnol, we've decided to treat ourselves to a very nice place every week or so, and Auberge St Laurent was it!

If anybody remembers the old American Express TV add where some guy comes walking out of the jungle looking very 'junglish', walks into the lobby of a 5 star hotel, eliciting looks of horror from the staff, well that was us today.

Once we got up to our room and cleaned up we returned to the lovely garden for our post ride bevy, just like the Jungle guy. The rest of the day and evening were wonderful. The family run restaurant has one Michelin star, and it is very well deserved. We had a fantastic dinner in the garden sitting under a pear tree. No foody pics tonight .. you'll just have to imagine.

We were going to head out tomorrow for Switzerland and Germany for the next leg of the EV6 but we've decided to make a little detour north to Colmar, Riquewihr and a few other classic Alsace wine towns and then head to Freiburg to go to the Toute Terrain factory to see where our bikes were built (they encourage their clients to visit, so why not!) and to hopefully meet up with Marc K, a young WS guest we hosted last year who lives in Freiburg.

After that we'll turn south and get back on the EV6 program. SO it will be a few more short days, but that's not a bad thing as the weather forecast is calling for mid 30 temps.

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Song of the day:

Riverside by Agnes Obel

A beautiful (but haunting) song by a wonderful artist. Fits with the very calm atmosphere we had through most of the day .... and it starts with Agnes riding a bike along a dirt path by a river ... sounds familiar

Stopped for coffee and snack just before 11 at a canal side café. There were several other bikers there and it was very comfortable and relaxing. We were both catching up on news, Economist, NYT, email etc, and the coffee and snack morphed into lunch ... great way to spend the morning!

We are within site of Germany and Switzerland, and the Alsace region has a very Germanic flavor to it .... down to the toilet instructions!

We went south of the official EV6 route to avoid Mulhouse and get to Sierentz, the town we're staying at. The entailed a 10 km section of forestry roads ... very nice to be in the shade. The Silk Roads held up very well on these

More rural riding off the EV6 ... the 'official route' is very nice, paved and mostly along canals ... but its almost too crowded with bikes ... never thought I'd say that

... look, and old guy with a white beard on a recumbent! Stereotypes exist for a reason. Apologies to any young clean shaven bent riders out there!

today's canal ride was along the Rhine Rhone connector. Here we are near the summit of the canal looking down the series of locks leading to the Rhine ... the next phase of our trip!

Very cool English canal boat ... much narrower than most of the other boats we've seen

the view from the Garden at Auberge St. Laurent, our home for the night

Lovely bedroom - didn't really have much bike tourer carnage as most of our clothing was still clean!

K sitting in the shade in the garden - cleaned up and ready for the post ride bevy

interior staircase in Auberge St Laurent. Medieval aged building without a straight wall or beam in the entire place ... very cool

Today's ride: 68 km (42 miles)
Total: 1,287 km (799 miles)

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