Day 12: Strasbourg - Strasbourg

Although Strasbourg was the destination for the tour through France, it is not the eastmost point in France. So, in order to complete the journey from west to east, I had to do some extra kilometres, and from looking at the map, I found that the eastmost point of France is at the north-east corner towards Germany. So to complete the tour, I had to do some kilometres extra. 127 to be exact, including some extra metres to get to Lauterbourg for lunch.

The ride up to the border was a breeze, whereas going back was like entering a storm head first - very windy and tiring. Luckily, it eased off a little after a while, and in the end it wasn't too exhausting.

So, with the highest monument of Strasbourg as background, here are the big numbers from my tour across France - based on data from my GPS, including every twist and turn in motion:

Total distance: 1704 km (1626.8 on the bicycle computer)
Maximum speed: 58.6 km/h
Average speed: 24.8 km/h
Total ascend: 10974 m
Time in motion: 68:35

That's all, folks!

The European Council

The European Parliament

The human rights court

The east end of France

Germany in the background. :-)

Close to the border

BMWs in transit.

Another sunny day!

With a stomach begging for some serious musli I went shopping this morning, passing by the Palais de Rohan sunbathing in the river.

When I lived in Strasbourg, I never really thought it special. But now, having seen so many other chateaux around France, this really stands out. In itself a good reason to visit Strasbourg - I've also seen the interior, and it is no less stunning.

Day 11: Belfort - Strasbourg

Leaving Belfort literally was a breeze, and the last climb before rolling down to the flat valley of Alsace became nothing of what I had feared. The only problem I ran into was too high speed, which caused me to miss an exit and reroute via the next. That also means that today was the record-breaking day in terms of speed, with a maximum speed of 58 km/h (going downhill, of course). Otherwise, the stage was rather straightforward, and I came in after rolling 159 kilometres for six hours.

Coming to Strasbourg is always a very friendly event, hence the picture of my friends Kristina and Laurent with some of Laurent's colleagues. That is also why this post is so late.

Anyway, I still haven't reached the easternmost point of France, so tomorrow is another day of bicycling. But this time without any luggage, turning my bike back into a road racing bicycle. ;-)

Carrier about to break!

With 50 kilometres to go, I stopped to prepare for rain and coincidentially discovered that my carrier is about to snap! I don't know when it began, but I certainly hope it will hold on for the last couple of hours. Hopefully, easing off a little on the bumpy parts is enough...

Neuf-Brisach

Look it up on Google mass, and check out the satellite photo.

The fortress in Belfort

Looks like it's gonna be a nice day today. Slept very well this night too - in contrast to most other nights.

Day 10: Dijon - Belfort

Another long day with a slightly delayed start due to a real shower. So wasn't off before 11 am, and kept an easy pace - first to Gray and a stop for lunch, and then to Vesoul refilling energy (it's amazing how few villages have a bakery easily visible from the main street).

After Vesoul, I disbanded my original route in favor for the one route that had "Belfort" as destination. Hence, I ended up riding a national road with heavy traffic. And for some strange reason, at least it felt like I was going faster - I certainly burned more energy. But it kept working like that all the way to the Hostel in Belfort, and I arrived with these results: 168 kilometres after six hours and 44 minutes of bicycling.

On the way, I must have passed through a beef-region - the village with the "moods"-cow had numerous other cow-statues, with plenty of live versions on the fields by the road.

The terrain has been very much like it is at home in Norway: hilly.

When it comes to Belfort, this is the second time I stop here to sleep on a bicycling-trip - the first was when I left Strasbourg four years ago, heading for Barcelona. However, tomorrow's stage to Strasbourg will not be the reverse version, because I've planned to stop by a place called Neuf Brisach, placing me at the eastern part of Alsace (I came down in the western part four years ago).

Time to sleep - hopefully without rolling thunder like last night...

Update: Belfort must be the most quiet city in France these days. Even finding an open restaurant was difficult last night, and there were barely any people in the streets. But then, this is vacation time here in France. The city itself appears pretty big, with large old buildings and wide streets. But the funniest observation I did is the balconies - they are everywhere, nicely painted and in large numbers (how many balconies can you possibly put onto a facade? You'll find the answer here...)

The moods cow?

In Noidans-le-Ferroux.

Crossing la Saöne

The sun is back.

Wet day.

Day 9: Paray le Monial - Dijon

Today started with an easy and fast first hour. Thereafter, life on the bike became tough with headwinds and partially very bumpy roads. However, following a channel about half the distance, the ride has been a lot nicer than yesterday when straight lines was on the menu.

Dijon has a seriously nice city center, with interesting and amazing buildings popping up everywhere. When I arrived, I was too hungry to pay much attention, but it was impossible to ignore those buildings. Come and see for yourself.

Today's menu has been fairly scarce until dinner was served, but then I had a nice local beef bourgouise - a kind of stew - and a very nice bottle of wine (see previous post). The place, la Concorde, may not be the finest place to dine, but it certainly does the job efficiently and nice.

Tomorrow is a long day, probably featuring some rain, and thus it is time to sleep. Bonne nuit!

Finalement

A really good wine! 2004 Lois Jadot. Bon apétit!

But then...

Maybe there's a reason for the steep prices...

More wine-tasting

This time in Cöte de Nuits. If you thought wine was expensive in Sancerre (8 euros a bottle), this place blows you off with no bottles below 20 euros.

Nice and calm conditions

Thus, 28 kilometres in today's first hour. :-)

Day 8: Sancerre - Paray le Monial

The wind has been blowing my way today, and I rolled 165 kilometres in five hours and 50 minutes! (Pauses not included.) At that speed, I totally forgot to stop and take a picture of my last sight of the Loire river - that was 12 kilometers back, and I'm not returning for that stupid picture (I have other stupid things to tend to, like doing an additional 120 kilometers after my arrival in Strasbourg).

During today's stage, only one event occured: it started raining. A lot. It started at about 100 km, and lasted 10 km.

The city Paray le Monial is another story. It is quite small, and my search for a charger to recharge my camera ended quite fast - without any luck. Thus, I looked for places to eat, but didn't really find anywhere tempting - I'd been told that the local speciality is snails and beef - at least that's what they produce in this area (passing through Digoin I recall a sign indicating snails as a regional speciality). The end of the story was a manifestation of a thought I got on my way from Sancerre: I ended up having dinner at the hotel's restaurant (note that I'm staying at the Grand Hotel, as that was what I found on the internet back home - at a fair price). And here they don't only have snails and beef, but also frogs legs as shown in the picture. I actually asked for frogs legs in the restaurant where I had dinner in Orleans, but the waitress there didn't understand the question ("avez-vous des grenouilles?")... So, today's dinner is a mix of Bourgonge and Alsace, as frogs legs apparently is of Alsacian origin (they also have foie gras de canard on their list of regional food - and I'm going there...)

Closing words: americans certainly knows how to talk out loud...

Day 7: Orleans - Sancerre

Today has been a very nice day. First, the wind has changed and given me a nice push southwards (121 kilometres in four hours and 44 minutes, with no long stops). Consequently, I arrived early in Sancerre. Second, the temperature has dropped - I've measured a maximum of 32 degrees on the handlebar today.

But best of all was my stop for lunch in Sully-sur-Loire. I had some bread from an earlier stop, and stopped by a charcuterie (deli) for some ham. I chose some Italian ham, before we started talking about bicycling - the guy who run the place turned out a big fan of downhill bicycling, and even showed me his bike. So, we had a long conversation about bicycling, me telling about this tour, he telling about his dream to go bicycling for a year (not quite certain about the duration, but basically "bicycling for a very long time"). Eventually, some other customers came in, and I was about to leave when he took out some meat, cut off a few pieces, wrapped it all up and gave it to me. He really liked my project of bicycling on my own for a long time. With bread and ham, along with the meat I got as a gift to eat every kilometer, I sat down on a bench in the park outside the castle, sharing it with another guy who was already there. The coversation we had was interesting not only by content, but also by language. He knew english, a little more than I know french. However, when I spoke in english, I was too fast for him, and when he spoke in french, he was too fast for me. Thus, he spoke mostly in english, and I mostly in french. And among the things he told me, was that the castle we were looking at was the first to be built in the whole Loire valley (which I've been bicycling for four and a half day now, with one day to go).

Coming to Sancerre was a mixed experience. Not because of the climb to get up here, but because the room I got at the hotel was just very bad - it was dark and small, and smelled of cigarettes. Upon noting the smell, I got another room that was both bigger, brighter, and without the odor of cigarettes. I guess I've learned a thing or two from sharing hotel rooms with Kaj in numerous regattas.

Sancerre itself is a village of wine. If you come here and don't just pass by, you cannot miss out on that fact. So, after climbing the tower for a view of the area, I ended up participating in tasting an endless number of wines - I simply lost count. In an attempt to have a taste on the sweet white wines that the dutch traveller told me about two days ago, I stopped by another place. But, it turns out the dutch was wrong; they only make dry white wine here. However, they also make both rosé and red wine, both of which I tasted.

One last word about taste that may surprise you: just south of Sancerre, they produce a white goat cheese named Chavignol. It comes in various flavours, and what make them interesting is that they match perfectly with a dry white Sancerre - some wines probably match better than others, but to me the interesting thing is that a dry Sancerre actually can go well with cheese (keep in mind that a wine should always be "sweeter" than the food it is served with).

Bon apetit!

Sun(flowers) to the frozen Norwegiaos back home

Gien

Looks like a nice place. But I'm going to Sancerre.

Le chateau de Sully

Did not enter, but had a wonderful lunch in the park outside.

Day 6: Tours - Orleans

I'm halfway through! Both by distance and by daycount (starting to have problems counting the latter...). Thus, it's time to celebrate - and as I can't bring anything, I do it with a massive dinner. :-)

Today has also been a day of "hypertourism", but a late yesterday and headwind today reduced marching speed to 25 km/h. The heat, however, has remained high; maximum reading on the handlebar has been 39 degrees both days. Today has also challenged my patience a little, with seriously bumpy roads for about 10 kilometres of the last 20: imagine someone stretching the asphalt so that it breaks every five metres, and the tires bre so hard that you feel every little piece of gravel that you roll over... You just don't want to go there, especially not after eight hours of bicycling and sightseeing castles...

Speaking of castles, or chateaux as I belive even the English put it, it has been an amazing experience to visit all those castles! Each and every one can easily take up a whole day, so it's obvious that I've just skimmed the surface. Nevertheless, I dear to promote a couple of favourites: first and topmost comes Chambord - a massive and impressive castle with large exhibitions as well as other cultural events, surrounded by an enormous property (read: forest). Chambord was by far the chateaux with the most tourists, and I even think I heard some other Norwegians there - a rare event this late in summer. Second, Chaumont was surprisingly pleasing despite it's very anonymous location - both in terms of exteriour and interior, but also as a place with a lot of other cultural events (in which I did not take part). Then comes the chateaux in Saumur and the castle in Angers. Both fortresses, though Angers more than Saumur, and impressive by the vastness of the property thus contained within the castle walls. Saumur has the finer castle, whereas Angers has the more impressive defense - not to mention it's insanely large tapestry. After those, the gardens in Villandry are impressive. I didn' get there in time to see the interior, but going through the gardens alone would take days. Then comes Rigny Usse, with it's incredible openness - you could walk around almost everywhere, although they had closed off certain areas. What made it even cooler, was that it is actually in use - I suppose that applies to the parts not open to the public. Ambois did not make it beyond average in this setting, and blois is not in this scoring as I didn't find it worth spending time (and money) there when Chambord was next on my list. That concludes my short and slightly left-handed evaluation of the eight castles I've visited the last two days.

Time to get some sleep and recover before I continue with the last half - starting with a visit to Sancerre...

Petrol

Le chäteau de Chambord

Le chäteau royale de Blois

Did not enter.

Le chäteau de Chaumont

Le chäteau d'Amboise

Day 5: Angers - Tours

Starting with a visit to the massive castle in Angers and continuing with visits at the castles in Saumur, Rigny Usse and Villandry, today has been a day of hypertourism. It's also been a "hyper" day on the road, with 123 kilometres at 4 hours and 42 minutes - marching speed has been around 30 km/h, even though I've had a light headwind all day. Combined with all the stops for visiting castles, its been a long day - I can't just roll past them when I'm here, can I?

Foodwise, today has been a slightly boring day with on local specialities, at least that I know. However, for the first time, I was annoyed by being served slowly next to the castle in Saumur. Normally, it's the other way around; I get a little annoyed because the food comes in before I'm ready. Not so at the restaurant in Saumur... It made for a nice, long rest, but wasn't exactly what I wanted at the moment.

Having said that, I've actually been in Tours before - two years ago when Jan worked here - and so, I wasn't in a rush to get here, as I've already seen the city. Whether that was the reason I ended up in an Italian restaurant, or simply the fact that I was hungry had me eating Italian, I don't know. What I do know, however, is that I'm very glad that I'm not sharing the room I have at the youth hostel - in Nantes, some French youngsters woke me up in the middle of the night.
And tomorrow features more castles...

Le chäteau de Villandry

I just had to do some gardening...

Le chäteau de Rigny Usse

Le chäteau de Saumur

Inside the castle of Angers

Thus, a late start today...

Day 4: Nantes - Angers

It's getting hot! Today, I registered 40 degrees (celsius) on my bike's handlebar, and tomorrow's forecast says 30 degrees in the shadows... I know I shouldn't complain, but when my body produces energy enough to keep me comfortably warm at 15-20 degrees, 30 becomes a lot.

Anyway, today has been the first day in wineland, and I've passed numerous vinyards and wineries on a rather short stage. I stopped by one of them, and wine labelled Anjou is a hot tip. Whether it is a grape or district, or both, is still unclear (the winefarmer claimed grape, while the place I had dinner claimed district/appelation) but it is absolutely something to investigate. Btw, I had lunch with a Dutch traveller today, and although Anjou wasn't among the things he mentioned, he introduced me to a strange concept; namely that Sancerre is known for its sweet white wines! I guess I have to check it out myself when I get there... ;-)

Foodwise, the speciality of Angers is a fish from the river, but only available upstream I skipped it in favour of some real meat - grilled on open fire as shown on the picture.

Angers is btw a nice place, and from my brief introductions I prefer Angers over Nantes. Nantes is just a little too big and noisy, whereas Angers has a more relaxed atmosphere - kind of like Vannes (yet Vannes benefit from the fresh air coming in from the sea). Lots of nice buildings here too, and even though I haven't really seen it (yet), the castle in Angers appeals more to me than the one in Nantes. Having said that, tomorrow may change my idea of castles, as I enter the "castleside" tomorrow...

Just missed it

The entrance to the castle in Angers closed 15 minutes before I got there. Merde.

Hotel with bicycle parking

After 104 kilometres in four hours and 20 minutes, pauses not included, I'm in Angers. Cool detail: the hotel has a separate parking space for bicycles, including a small set of tools. Don't need them, though. ;-)

Vin Rosé?

The Loire valley

As seen from Champtoceaux.

Not exactly a highway for bicycling

But a calm start on a new day.

Day 3: Vannes - Nantes

The weather keeps improving - from rain in Brest to overcast in Quimper, to sunshine from Vannes. And this, however strange it may seem, may become a major problem, simply because the heat itself is tiring - although in a nice way.

Today, I met another bicyclist on my way from Saint Nazaire, and after a few kilometres he invited me to have a beer with him at his place. Thus, I had a small (and somewhat bumpy) coversation in French with his family, while I enjoyed an incredibly refreshing drink. Thanks for your hospitality, Modeste! :-)

About Nantes, it is a city with a scent of power, most prominently demonstrated by the massive fortress downtown, prolonged by a huge cathedral, and further strengthened by an obelisk surrounded by open space. Impressive.

Foodwise, I haven't figured out what the local speciality is, and opted for duck. Good, although not as smashing as yesterday's fish.

That's about it for today.

Saint Nazaire

The bridge crossing the river Loire by the sea, marking the beginning of the Loire valley, also known as The garden of France... From here, the wind gives me nice push towards Nantes.

La Roche-Bernard

Windmills blowing against me

There is headwind today.

A wonderful hotel: Hötel de France!

Not only is Vannes a nice city (at least down town), but the hotel I'm staying at is just wonderful. Being rated at two stars, I wonder why it haven't got three - the standard more than matches three-star hotels I've stayed at before. In addition, the ladies running the place are the sweetest hostesses you can imagine, making my stay a truly relaxing one. And finally, it all comes at a fair price despite it's central location. Thumbs up from me! :-)

Vannes city bikes

For you, Jan.

Vannes harbour

Day 2: Quimper - Vannes

The picture does not at all say everything about Vannes - not even close. Where Quimper had lots of bridges covered with flowers, Vannes has a magnificent park. However, Vannes has so much more; the harbour reminds me of Cannes, the city centre smells of Strasbourg, and the fresh smell of sea brings my mind home. With an initial impression of a slightly boring place judging by the entrance on bike, Vannes just jumped massively up on my list of favourite cities (although there is no such list).

Today's ride has been a lesson in taking breaks. As opposed to yesterday's hilly ride, stage two has been rather flat and thus fast, and as stopping is no fun when cruising in 35-40 km/h, I've missed out on pauses. Thus, I spent 5 hours and 40 minutes on 130 kilometres today. Today's last note about bicycling: I've taken the consequence of yesterday's problem with route-based navigation, and came in right on target by following my predefined track.

Foodwise, today has been a tribute to the sea. First represented by the pot of moules màriniére I had for my late lunch, then by an outstanding plate of "mixed grill seafood" - more fried than grilled - including scallops, salmon and langust (and an additional two kinds of fish that I can't name). This trip is becoming a trip through the French kitchen across France...

White cows

Maybe not the most exotic one might think of, but rather an illustration of how rural France is. Note: The white stuff in the foreground is flowers...