August 19, 2018
Selestat to Neuf Brisach
Back to the canal, crossing the Maginot Line ending at the star shaped fortress.
August 19 Sunday 41kms
Sélestat to Neuf Brisach.
Back to the canal, crossing The Maginot Line, ending at the star shaped fortress.
Grateful farewell to Madame du Camp. It is hard to believe we are nearing the end of France and their camping municipals. The chosen route is towards Ville Elzach. We will not go south as far as Colmar, but will join Canal du Rhone au Rhin at Marckolsheim and continue to Basel eventually. Before leaving Selestat, we look at the Cathedral, a mix of Gothic and Romanesque Styles which has some interesting images related to South America around the pulpit.
This is a road route with cycle lane beside, so quite noisy and busy with Sunday traffic, but only 13km and like most French roads, has shady trees alongside. Another week of 30 degree temperatures are forecast for the Rhine plain.
No longer in chocolate box scenery, we can just focus on water stops and getting there. On the canal it is leafy and cool. Near Artzenheim, and on the Canal de Colmar, is a restaurant, the perfect place for a Sunday lunch in France if one did not have delicious tomatoes and bread in the picnique pannier. We do stop for a welcome ice cream though.
The path leaves the canal to cross maize fields and towns that look more German than French. We make a short detour to see a Maginot Line site, with its American tanks and guns and concrete bunker. And notice a few remnants of pill boxes in the fields we pass.
Camping Vaudon is found easily as we enter Neuf Brisach. It's a charming site with a special place for cyclists which includes a shelter and tables, chairs, microwave and fridge.
Our tent is in the sun but there is shade in the garden where we retire to avoid the intense late afternoon sun.
A family on bikes checked in ahead of us. They have two baby carriages for the toddler and two year old, and the eldest girl (10-12yrs?) has a full complement of gear including three tents. Altogether there are five children. They settle well in the three tents and enthusiastically consume pain au Chocolat in the morning.
We meet a Lancashire taxi driver who has cycled from the Rhine source. The heat is slowing him down, but he is enthusiastic and describes other trips to Poland and Serbia. He warns that he snores, but we have enough room to not be disturbed by him nor his competition, the croaking frogs that populate the nearby pond.
Today's ride: 41 km (25 miles)
Total: 3,318 km (2,060 miles)
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