October 7, 2023
Tournon-sur-Rhone to Montelimar
We broke our rule of eating at a hotel restaurant twice. This place was so good the first night, so then we searched the map and it turned out this was the highest rated restaurant in the area. Well, okay, let's see what they can do tonight. A wonderful dinner again, and this time we chose the wine from across the river (Tain/l'Hermitage) and it was even better than last night. Due to the long day expected, we just ordered a half bottle. Good idea.
We did start out with a wonderful path along the river but then Komoot announced "single track ahead". What? Well, ok, so we followed along and the route got worse and worse so we had to finally walk. It would have been okay with a mountain bike, but not my 100 lb vehicle.
Then, just as the route improved a bit to dirt track, we come up to tree across the path. We bushwacked a little, and got around this. All in all, we took an hour to go about 2 km. Not the greatest way to start a longer bike ride. At least the weather is super.
Once we got through it, I made a quick stop at a boulangerie and sandwich'd up. Marjory had to make due with a bit of cheese and crackers. She'll be hungry tonight!
Nice pathways by this point, and the kilometers melted off as we biked in the 25-30 kph range. Did I mention we had a nice tailwind? Woo hoo! Through a few towns and a lot of old stone houses, with a sprinkling of castles right on the road.
Komoot announced again "single track ahead". We thought "oh no!" but it was fine. It just led us around this large tennis complex and saved us some distance with a shortcut.
Then onto some pretty trails with paved surfaces. Our favourite.
In one town they have wrapped the Via Rhona (our bike route) along the riverside of the town with their stone houses to the right. Great trail, and cool seeing how people live here. Lots of bikers using this trail, both local and tourers like us.
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France has gone all in on nuclear energy, but in the photo below you may be able to spot nuclear, solar, and wind all being used. The solar panels are used in the parking lot to shade the cars, and you can barely see one blade of a windmill between the two cooling towers, but you might have to zoom in.
Finally, to get into Montelimar you have to cross the Rhone on the huge suspension bridge. The one in Tournon was "the oldest in France still being used", this one may well be the longest. Marjory voted for "the scariest" as the wind was howling as we crossed.
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7 months ago
7 months ago
And that was today's ride. Tomorrow will be a little shorter (60 km) so tonight we need hunt a place to eat.
Today's ride: 76 km (47 miles)
Total: 685 km (425 miles)
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7 months ago
7 months ago