Day 108: Abigny sous Varennes to Vouecourt

June 3, 2023

Across the countryside to the Marne River Valley

We had the option from Rob to order breakfast, but our plan is to get an early start this morning. The church clock across the valley has clanged the hours (twice actually) the whole night and Patrick heard all of them. He did not gain enough consciousness though to put the earplugs in. Rachel had hers anticipating the early bells. Dew is very heavy and quite a number of slugs have climbed into our tent, on the outside and inside.

We start with a pretty good climb out of town, a large hairpin, into a dense forest. Then onto a small plain and a downhill to the next river. From there one more climb onto a much larger plateau. We can see the hills on the edge across which the Marne River valley is located.

We pass by a large lake and at Rolampont and at an intersection we find coffee, the Marne Canal /River and the bikepath; in that sequence.

Coffee is good, but we are surprised at the 3 euro plus price tags these days. The bikepath is awesome it follows the canal that’s called the Champagne De Bourgogne Canal. We see a few pleasure boats and also a couple of freighters. Mostly the canal is empty with long stretches of solitude and at least 40 locks that we pass going downhill. The wind picks up in the afternoon, but most of the time we have good cover from the trees along the canal.

Intersection in Rolampont where we stopped for coffee, the Marne river trail is just across the bridge.

On the trail are two QuadVelo (a covered e-bike). They stayed in the same campground today.

The first stretch of the trail didn't have benches, this was the first shady place to sit that we found for a food break.

In Chaumont we go off the trail to do some shopping at a large Leclerc grocery store. It is a zoo with many French pushing shopping carts down grocery aisles. Rachel waits outside and observes how so many people pause outside to finish up their cigarette before entering the store or light a new one up as soon as they clear the exit door. Also, the man purse is back.

A tunnel, on the profile that's the big spike

At around noon the temperature is getting warm. We have about 25km to go to our two camping options. Two small towns about 4 km apart each have a highly rated municipal campground right along the Marne river. We check out the first one in Vouecourt. There is good shade and lawn right on the river’s edge, so we go no further. The campers seem to be mostly Dutch. One brave camper is flying a French flag.

Neither of these towns has much of anything, so we have brought our food. All except for cold beer, but we luck out when an arriving Englishman heads out to the store and takes our money to bring back some beer.

We stopped 4km before Froncles in Vouecourt

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Today's ride: 84 km (52 miles)
Total: 4,419 km (2,744 miles)

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