Day 110: La Louviere to Verzy

June 5, 2023

Wicked Winds Through the Champagne Vineyards

From the farm campground we ride the 500 meters back to the canal and pick up the biketrail again. We enjoyed this trail! The trail takes us right into Chalons, a fairly large city. We ride into the downtown area to find a helpful tourist office, a bakery and coffee and free Wi-Fi. With the Wi-Fi, we received a response from our host in Verzy so now we know the exact address. After some pasty and coffee we head back to the canal and follow along.

There are nice picnic spots along the trail, we stop for a food break.

We've been following the Marne River for a couple of days. We've reached the more developed portion that eventually will be Paris to Prague.

We have entered the Champagne region of France, which means they can call their bubbly white wine Champagne. After leaving Chalon, “Where are all the vineyards,” Rachel asks, then we leave the trail, and all of a sudden they are everywhere. The wind and sun are also there though; we struggle up medium hills in a strong headwind and a hot sun. We wonder about the roses we see planted at the end of the rows of vines.

We are focused though and find Verzy and our host’s house. He had to run out but has left us a cooler with cold juice and beer in the garden, so there is no issue waiting a half hour for Nico to return. Nico has travelled a lot as well and cycled South America where he met his back-packing now wife. He also lived in the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Australia and briefly in California. No problem speaking English.

We have a nice afternoon chatting and meet some of his friends over a beer. One owns a vineyard and explains that the roses are a tradition from when mildew was a problem. The roses will get mildew before the vines. So the roses are an indicator species.

Nearby Verzy is a forest with some weirdly mutated trees. Patrick hikes up the mountain to see them, almost gets lots except for the GPS and takes pictures of several trees, but as it turns out not the right ones. Missed that one...

In the evening we have a nice meal with Nico and his wife

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Today's ride: 74 km (46 miles)
Total: 4,581 km (2,845 miles)

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Scott AndersonThat’s so interesting about the roses in vineyards. I’ve always wondered, but never researched it. A reason like this one never occurred to me.
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10 months ago