September 4, 2009
Pontarlier
We had another eventful 24hr. We set off at 7.30 with a grey sky but no more rain. The first problem was a bridge under repair on our planned route and we had to detour via the N57 to get to the right tiny road. After that it was very meandering, mainly uphill, through grass and forest, this was all cow country. There were tiny villages with no services although there were some cheese places trying to attract tourists. We were navigating by putting the next small village into the GPS. We then went onto a tiny road that went up and up, there were many deer signs and we finally emerged onto a high area that was mainly grassy country.
Later as we descended we felt the first spits of rain and as 11am sounded it started to rain quite heavily. By luck there was a big overhang on a barn where we sheltered wondering what to do next. We thought the forecast was for better weather in the afternoon so we sat it out. By midday it had almost stopped so on we went through lovely swiss type country. As we approached Ouhans there was a really fierce head wind and light rain had started again so we popped into a hotel for the plat de jour - no wine. We hoped the weather would be better when we emerged, it was much worse. Fortunately over the next 5km into a howling head wind it did improve in that the rain stopped but the wind kept up. We really wanted to get to Pontarlier to avoid losing another day.
The country from Ouhans to Sombacourt was lovely with cows, pasture, villages, huge houses and churches. At Sombacourt the road turned 90 degrees and the wind therefore was more favourable but there was a long and sometimes steep hill. We had to walk about a third of it finally reaching 890m before a nice descent then a terrifying 3 to 4km ride into Pontarlier with lots of trucks.
Pontarlier does not seem a very nice town, it has a lot of industry and the centre seems to have gone. As we reached where the centre used to be it started to bucket down so we sheltered on the lee side of a Pizza place. When it subsided Tricia set off on one of her searches returning successfully after only 20minutes. It was not the Ritz but the large slightly grubby room was only 48E so we had a shower, started to dry our things then went to explore.
Today's ride: 52 km (32 miles)
Total: 1,048 km (651 miles)
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