Bikepacking 2025 - Rest day in Joinville

 

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Route So Far

Travelogue

It's day 7 and the end of the first week of our 2025 bikepacking trip. We're in a town called Joinville which is about 150 km north of Dijon and situated by the river Marne. What's more, it's a lovely little town with old houses on winding streets, a court/prison/auditorium built in the 16th century and a beautiful chateau with ornamental gardens.

Today is a rest day. We cycled for six days in a row, covering 535 km (332 miles) and a rest is definitely in order. Not that the cycling this week has been particularly hard. But as mentioned previously, neither M1 or M2 are as physically well prepared as we could/should have been so relatively easy as the cycling as been, we're both pretty tired!

We got all our chores done yesterday afternoon and evening. Clothes have been washed. Provisions bought from the nearest supermarket. Batteries and one of the power banks have been charged. Bikes have been cleaned and this morning, their chains lubricated. And we've even booked accommodation for the next eight days! The day is our own to do what we like with it.

And largely, what we want to do is have a nice sit down. Possibly a lie down. 

But that's not something either of us can do for a whole day, so to kick things off, we went for a walk through this old town, passed the auditoire, passed the impressive church, our destination the Chateau du Grand Jardin or "big house with a big garden" if you prefer. 

And very nice it was, too. The house itself wasn't open, as they prepare for a festival of tattoos this coming weekend but we had a very pleasant walk through the gardens. We took photos of course and you can see them at the end of this post.

On the way back, we bought M1 some lip salve from the chemist (cracked lips for some reason!) and a baguette for lunch from the boulangerie.

The rest of the day, we'll probably relax and maybe watch some shows on the trusty Chromebook.

The Mobile Blogging Experiment

Regular readers of this thrilling travel blog will have noticed a change in the layout and style of posts. This is because M1 has been attempting to blog using only his smartphone. This involves acquiring screen shots of stats from a spreadsheet and of the day's route from Strava, appending the route cycled today to an accumulating GPS route file which depicts the whole journey so far, with alternating colours for each day (this is done using an Android app that M1 developed) and then bringing together the graphics and text in a blog post using the official mobile app for Google's Blogger platform.

Why go to all this trouble rather than use a laptop, I hear you say?

Well, dear reader, it's like this. M1 is planning a more ambitious trip for next year, one that will require more equipment to be carried. In an effort to reduce weight, the laptop will be left at home and it's hoped a smartphone will suffice for everything. So, attempting to post to the blog from a smartphone on this trip is an experiment.

How's it been going so far?

Well enough until it wasn't, is the answer. It can be done but the Blogger mobile app itself is terrible. Very limited in what it can do and worse, a couple of times it has crashed and all work on the day's blog post lost. It's very frustrating when this happens and the conclusion of this little experiment is that Blogger is just not reliable enough for mobile blogging and an alternate blogging platform must be selected for next year's trip. At least in this respect, the experiment was worth doing.  From now on though, the Chromebook is likely to be used for all future blogging on this trip although to keep the format consistent, graphics will continue to be created in the same way.

Week 1 Gear Review

There are various new bits of kit in use on this trip:

• M2 has a luxurious new Thermarest Neoloft sleeping pad. 
• M1 has an Ortlieb handlebar bag. 
• Both have Belkin 20000 mAh power banks. 
• M1 has an Alpkit solar panel.

What has the experience of these new items been like so far?

Thermarest Neoloft

M2 loves her new sleeping pad. It's as close to a bed as you're ever likely to sleep on in a tent. She has the wide variant so there's no possibility of rolling off the thing in the night. It's super-comfortable. And it comes with an enormous pump sack that makes inflating it pretty easy. It's so big that it only takes two or three goes to inflate M1's much smaller volume Thermarest NeoAir XLite. The valve system is much better as well, with one for inflating and a separate one for deflating. There has been no indication of any loss of air in the night, which the NeoAir, with it's more complicated single valve design sometimes exhibits.

All in all, a big Oui! for the Neoloft from M1.

Ortlieb Handlebar Pack QR

Another hit. The pack is far more capacious than you'd think and it's being used for quick access to waterproofs in the main. But given its capacity, a couple of heavier items have been moved into it to redistribute some of the weight to the front of the bike. Specifically, the bike tool kit and the "electronics bag" that has cables, ear phones and spare batteries in it.

The bag is really easy to get into and once mounted, it seems rock solid. There's been no indication of it having moved at all since we left home.

Alpkit Flare Solar Panel

M1 was sceptical as to how much difference a small solar panel could make but thought it worth a try. The Belkin power bank is used every day to charge M1's smartphone and every few days to charge his GPS watch. Slowing down the depletion of a power bank by only a little would be a reasonable benefit, so the solar panel was bought for this trip.

The Ortlieb handlebar bag also provides a handy surface upon which to mount the new solar panel. It also has elasticated pockets at the sides, and M1 places his power bank into one of them, connected to the solar panel for in-ride charging.

The Belkin power bank has an LED display that amongst other things, tells you what percentage of full charge it currently has. Typically it takes between 15% and 20% to charge M1's phone after a day of navigating and photography. Amazingly, the experience so far has been that the next day, the power bank will be back at 100% after being connected to the solar panel during the day's ride. The weather has been sunny for more of the trip and we're cycling more or less east and into the sun, so this has no doubt helped. 

This apparent performance is so impressive that M1 is a little suspicious of the percentage figure displayed by the power bank! So, to establish just how well the solar charging is performing, the plan is to never charge the power bank from a plug socket in the wall until it's become apparent that it has been completely depleted, whatever the LED percentage figure may have been saying. If all goes as it has been and the weather stays bright, it just might be that M1's power bank and therefore his phone and watch, will never need "mains" electricity, deriving all their power from the sun. It will be interesting to see how well this works out.

The solar panel is currently hanging outside one of the windows upstairs in the house, charging the power bank.

Belkin Power Bank

These work great if you use them "properly". M1 is on his third, having sent two back and posted a one star review which Belkin saw and responded to by sending him a replacement. The problem was that his usual practice is to plug a phone into the power bank at bed time and leave it charging overnight. Seems a reasonable practice, right? But whenever the power bank capacity was at about 45%, the next morning it  would be completely dead, with the phone percentage only having increased by one or two percent. 

There's a note on the Belkin website (it turns out) which indicates you should not leave things plugged into the power bank after the device is fully charged as the power bank will drain. This seems like a fault to me, but it is what it is.

So, now we charge our devices from the power banks in the evening and unplug everything when they've fully charged. This approach is yielding much better performance.

On the plus side, the Belkin delivers very fast charging. Charging M1's phone and its 4400 mAh battery by 60 - 70% takes not much more than an hour. Charging the power bank itself from completely empty to 100% capacity takes about six hours.

Where Next?

Over the next few days, we'll be cycling towards the Swiss border. In four days time, if all goes to plan, we'll spend our last night in France at a campsite in Mulhouse. M1 has stayed here before during his solo 2022 trip. In fact from this point, M1 and M2 will be retracing M1's path from Mulhouse to Basel in Switzerland and across the country to Lake Lucerne and then from there cycle up (and up and up) to Andermatt. After Andermatt, we leave M1's trailblazing route behind to find the source of the river Rhine which we'll follow to the coast of the Netherlands.

Should be fun!

Photos

Bikepacking 2025 - Luxemont to Joinville

 

Stats

Today's Route

Route So far 

Travelogue 

Today involved a relatively short ride of only 62 km (39 miles) from Luxemont to the town of Joinville. We cycled along a path by the River Marne and adjacent canal for 99% of the whole ride. We cycled up river, so it was uphill but the gradient was so slight, we barely noticed it.

Cycling by the canal, we saw swans and a heron and we heard the unmistakable sound of frogs in an adjacent pond. And deep in the countryside, we also heard a ferocious roaring sound we couldn't at first identify. It turned out to be the sound of a fighter jet. We passed a military airfield on the other side of the river and every now and again, they'd fire up one of the jets. 

We'd left the campsite at Luxemont at about 8:30, both ready for our breakfast but aware from research the previous evening, that breakfast would be some time arriving. There's little around Luxemont and certainly no bakeries that we could see. So, we had to cycle 25 km, all the way to Saint-Dizier for breakfast, and found a cafe there close to the Town Hall and an attractive looking theatre. M2 had pain au chocolat. M1 went a bit wild and had a pain au abricot (yes,. that's the correct spelling). Both Ms seemed pretty happy with their choices, washed down with large (by French standards) cups of coffee.

After our late breakfast, we cycled to the south of the town to find that bikepacking Mecca, Decathlon. As explained yesterday, M1 and his sunglasses have parted on the most unfortunate terms. They won't be speaking again and lawyers are involved. Meanwhile though, M1's eyes have become a target for every flying insect and it has become imperative that new sunglasses be acquired. Given M1's track record with sunglasses though, it's equally imperative that said sunglasses be cheap. 

Decathlon did not disappoint! M1 came out of the store sporting a new pair of sunglasses, purchased for a very reasonable 6.95 Euros. Result.

We cycled another 35 km, almost entirely by the canal. There were quite a few leisure boats on the canal and one rather strange craft.

The weather was pretty wonderful all day. Sunny but not too hot. We contended with a bit of a headwind for a while, but it was nothing to complain about.

Arriving in Joinville, we cycled straight to the house we'd rented for two nights. Joinville is a small, attractive town and the house we're staying in is in a quiet sector and reached via a narrow street between houses.

On arrival, we took our bags inside but left the bikes outside and M1 set to work washing them and cleaning their chains. Tomorrow, the chains will be re-lubricated.

Clothes are washing. We've been to LIDL and bought a fair amount of food. We're all set to research our second week and to book accommodation. And to rest. We're both ready to give our legs a break but feeling we had a great first week.

Photos

Bikepacking 2025 - Dormans to Luxemont

Stats

Today's Route

 

Route So far 

Travelogue 

After leaving the campsite on one side of the River Marne, we crossed the bridge to the other side and cycled down the main street of Dormans seeking breakfast. Naturally it didn't take long to find a bakery. M1 was dispatched and came back with..... something novel. The name of today's tasty breakfast treat is lost in the mists of time but was basically a slab of soft sweet pastry interspersed with layers of apple. A good enough start to the day.

5 minutes later, we were cycling alongside the river. Almost all of the day's cycling ended up being by a river or the canal that runs roughly parallel with it. The weather was warm, the sun hiding behind a thin layer of wispy clouds all morning but revealing itself fully in the afternoon. Lovely. The local wildlife also came out of hiding and we saw a heron in flight, dozens of colourful dragonflies, a mummy duck with her ducklings and a great big fish coming up from the deep to snatch an insect from near the surface of the water.

Around eleven o'clock, it being the time for elevensies, we happened to be a town and so left our route, found a bar and sat outside having coffee.

It was a little after this that it happened.

We were back on our route. M1 needed to consult the map on his phone but the bright conditions were making this difficult, so we stopped and dismounted. M1 looked at his phone, still had difficulty and removed his sunglasses for a better look. The required information was found, we got back on our bikes and continued.

5 km later, M1 said....."Errrrr..... did I put my sunglasses in my bag"? Where indeed would the world be without rhetorical questions?

Checking his bag, the answer was "no". M1's sunglasses were lost!

DISASTER!!!!

In truth, M1 rarely has sunglasses long enough to form an attachment to them. They get left on tables or in the street, typically. Or they just decide they've had enough and make a run for it. We might never know. But they're always disappearing.

Neither of the Ms had the energy to cycle back and look for the sunglasses, so they're gone. C'est la vie.

It was almost immediately after this that the local wildlife, or at least the insect population, saw their chance and seemingly every insect, but ironically, never once, an actual bee, made a beeline for one or the other of M1's eyes. Ouchy! New sunglasses are on the wish list for our next rest day.

In the very nice town of Chalons-en-Champagne, we cycled into the centre and sat at a table outside a cafe on a square which boasted a very attractive town hall. M2 just wanted an ice cold coke zero. M1 wanted a coke originale with extra sugar. On queuing to get the drinks though, M1 spotted some very tasty looking quiches and ordered a saumon et poireau quiche after checking what poireau means! (It means "Leek").

We drank our cokes and M1 ate his incredible quiche (offering to share it of course) in the sunshine and rested a while.

We rejoined our route and soon we'd passed the 90 km mark and then the 100 km mark. On entering Vitry-le-Francois, a small town less than 5 km from today's campsite, we headed for a supermarket and once again M1 went hunting for mush ingredients. This time he emerged triumphant with a bag full of couscous, tomatoes, avocado pears, tuna and a tomato and olive sauce. And a big bag of crisps that M2 had said she simply had to have.

We cycled to the campsite which happily required only a short detour from our route. It's nice. Very quiet. Very green. It's like camping in an enormous back garden, with big mature trees, lots of space and little noise apart from bird song. Which is ironic because on checking in, we were told that there was going to be noise (we couldn't work out why from the French) and that as such, there would be no charge for camping today! Sweet! No noise yet, either. What sonic treat is in store for this evening?

Showers were had. Mush was made and was amazing and delicious and everything you could hope for from camping mush.

Blog written, all that's left is to relax.

A totally fab day. Here's to many more.

Photos