Quiet Roads and Quaint Villages

Traversing the Champagne Region

We spent most of today riding along quiet country roads, wending our way through numerous little villages and enjoying a generally more relaxed day in the saddle. Of course every village has its church, some quite large and others more modest. There was plenty of visual evidence of the villages ancient origins. What some of us are finding most interesting is that often quite small villages will be home to very impressive churches. Here is an example ...

Lots of barns and houses displayed the timber and mud plaster construction used in this area during medieval times. Some are clearly very old; some of those are still in very good condition while others are barely standing. No doubt this construction has continued into more recent times. Here is an example of a building alongside the road in one of the villages we rode through. 

One of the things that Dianne and I have really appreciated in past visits to France is the integrity of architecture in most places. Our friend Michel has explained to us that there are generally strict regulations about what sorts of building styles can by implemented. I must say that I find this consistency quite pleasing to the eye.

The group I was travelling with was moving along very nicely together, with a strong tow from Bruno. Here's a video that José shot ...

Our first break for the day was in a town square that was home to quite a large church that was undergoing extensive refurbishment, with the leftmost of two towers wrapped in scaffolding ...

Stopping to Smell the Roses

We'd been moving along at quite a clip for the early part of the day, partly because we had a fair bit of ground to cover, partly because conditions were perfect for riding and partly because we were looking forward to arriving at Troyes (pronounced "trois", as in the number three in French) and our upcoming rest day. As the day wore on we decided to slow up and enjoy the scenery a little more. This allowed me to shoot this video as I rode through yet another quiet little village ...

Into Troyes along the Bike Path

After two breaks for snacks and 100 kilometres of riding we arrived at our lunch stop with about another 40 kilometres to  go. With scrumptious catering provided courtesy of Richie today, we enjoyed a great break out of the sun under the awning he'd set up right at the start of the 40 kilometres of bike path leading into the heart of Troyes. It's a marvellous bit of infrastructure that also circumscribes a loop around wetlands north of the city. We saw plenty of cyclists out taking advantage of this great resource. I paused a short way along the path to take this panning video of the scenery we were enjoying ...

After lunch Di and I rode with Jo and José. With about 30 kilometres to go we paused for a toilet and coffee stop where the bike path briefly joined a road. The café was a bit of a throwback: quite dark and with a thick fug of Gauloises hanging in the air. The two blokes inside had obviously been ignoring the law against smoking in bars - and probably forever. Needless to say we took our coffees outside. This very relaxing break, coming so quickly as it did after lunch, set us up nicely for the roll into town.

The route was mostly through open country but also wound its way through a bit of forest. Which was lovely except when we came through a slippery s-bend and I went down, despite travelling at only about 12 kilometres per hour. I remember putting just a slight lean on the bike to do the turns (I should have just rode straight through) and over i went quicker than you could blink. I landed with a fair thump on my right side despite the slow rate of travel - maybe because I didn't really skid at all.

A Good Drenching, Another Tumble and a Beautiful Arrival

Nearing the city, we'd noticed a huge, dark blue cloud building up for some time. Di and Jo were both thinking about stopping for a photo and it's a pity that they didn't because it would have led in quite nicely to the drenching we experienced about 10 kilometres out of time. More than cats and dogs, it was raining men! The heavy downpour was washing the salt from my sweat-soaked helmet liner into my eyes and I had to remove my glasses to see where I was going.  We found an overpass to shelter under briefly then continued on when the rain lightened. Although drenched, we were enjoying the riding until we got within about 3 kilometres of our hotel. At this point I noticed my saddle bag was flopping about: perhaps it'd come loose from when I had my fall in the forest. With the traffic quite busy now, and slippery roads, I thought I'd pull off onto the footpath to fix it. There was just the slightest lip on the edge of the footpath and, sure enough, I went over again. I couldn't believe it. After riding my bike about 15, 000 kilometres last year, including 4700 kilometres across Australia and not having had a single mishap I've now come off my bike three times in four days: twice in one afternoon! I'm hoping that's all the bad luck over.

Recomposing myself, with the help of José, Jo and Di, I climbed back on the bike and rode into the centre of the city. Just before arriving at the central square I was struck by the beauty of the canal we were riding along and felt I couldn't pass by without making a record of it ...

A welcome rest day now awaits. Laundry, café lounging, postcards (yes, they do still exist), a massage and a generally lazy day should recharge the batteries for the longest stage of the tour the day we leave Troyes. There may be a "Rest Day Reflections" post - or maybe not. We'll see how things go. 

C'est tout pour maintenant.  Je vous verrai à plus tard.