The Fireman's Ball: Day 6 - Chanaz to Montalieu-Vercieu - Hey Buddy, You're Going the Rhone Way - Rhone Source to Sea 2018

October 9, 2018

The Fireman's Ball: Day 6 - Chanaz to Montalieu-Vercieu

When you're sharing your hotel with about 40 fire fighters the last thing you expect is a fire alarm in the middle of the night. Or maybe I've got it all backwards and that is exactly the thing you should expect. One way or another, that's what we got.

Our abode last night was a pretty plain, but functional dorm style hotel in a water park / adventure park (think ATV's and Sea Doos) near Montalieu-Vericieu. When you travel like we do, i.e. make it up as we go along at most 24 hours in advance, these are the kinds of places where you will often end up. As noted above we were sharing it with about 40 fire fighters and emergency response folks from the nearby regions. It looked like they were on some sort of training seminar (was the alarm part of their training???).

We're here because this place is about half way between Chanaz and Lyon. When we flipped the coin we decided that we would to Lyon rather than Grenoble. We saw several towns along the route with quite charming looking hotels in them, but everything was full except the Vallee Bleue, so here we are.

Today was another great day of riding though. Basically along the river, but the scenery and route is quite dramatic in parts where the river has cut some steep gorges through the surrounding hills. Most of the ride was on bike paths or virtually deserted D roads. There were a few short sections on busier roads but that was only for a few km's, and there really wasn't much traffic.

Once again rural France struck us with the Zombie village syndrome. We saw virtually no people in any of the villages we rode through. They appear to be occupied, there are some business that appear to be open, but there is no one outside! This is something we've seen on our other trips here in different parts of the country, and other folks have commented on this in their journals too. What's up France ... where are all your people??

One other thing I have to comment on too ... interpreting the EuroVelo 17 web site / directory. This is a new route for the Euro Velo network, and it's not fully developed and signposted yet (although todays section was excellent). They often warn of difficult sections and give them ratings from 'easy' to 'expert'. Today's section was rated 'expert' in parts, due to the presence of 'narrow tunnels' on busy roads. After riding this section, and seeing the nice short tunnels (maybe 100 m long with good lighting and no traffic), K and I determined that their rating system is based on someone setting off on tour with pool noodles.

This needs some explanation. Last year when we did our Eurovelo 6(ish) ride, we started in the Loire Valley in August. All of France is on holiday in the Loire Valley in August, and a good portion of them are families on bikes. The usual set up would be two kids out in front weaving around on the bike path, followed by mom on a city bike with a wire front basket, baguettes protruding from it with dad bringing up the rear on a mtb with 4 stuffed panniers, a trailer that would make Jed Clampett proud containing a dog, a huge tent, a bbq and usually 3-4 2 m long pool noodles. If this sounds like you when you tour, maybe today's tunnels would give you concern. If you recognize the word Ortlieb, or better yet can spell it, then nothing on this or any Euro velo route should give you any trouble.

Tomorrow Lyon. We're taking no chances. We are taking a day off to explore and have already booked a very nice hotel in the city center plus we have a reservation at a veggie focused Michelin Star restaurant. Two nights so far in France, the self proclaimed gastronomic capital of the world, and we've had microwaved camp food and a tasty, but cafeteria style 'no-choice' dinner with our fireman friends. Time to rebalance that over the next few days!

Heart

Comment

Link

SOTD

Play With Fire by the Rolling Stones .

It was going to be something else until we were woken up by the fire alarm last night!