| Day # | 31 | State of Legs | :-) |
| Distance (miles) | Distance (km) | Ascent (feet) | Ascent (metres) | Punctures | |
| Today | 64 miles | km | 2313 feet | metres | 0 |
| Trip Totals | 1385 miles | km | 59739 feet | metres | 0 |
| Today's Route |
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| Route So Far |
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Travelogue
The day started with perfect cycling weather. A blue sky, the sun shining, a nice breeze (but not a head wind!) and the temperature was in the twenties, not the thirties. The route was pleasant and the traffic very light.
At just after 9:00, I cycled into Rians and stopped at a bar for coffee.
After my coffee, I was of course in need of a Pain au Chocolat. And right across the road was God's Own Boulangerie. For it is here that I bought and consumed The Perfect Pain au Chocolat! It melted in my mouth. It's not possible for me to properly describe its pure, perfection. Just for good measure, I bought a couple of freshly baked cookies to eat later on the road too. How could they be anything but good if wrought by the same baker's hands that had made that Pain Chocolat?!
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| Belinda Carlisle was right - Heaven *is* a place on earth - And here it is! |
After refuelling, I continued, following Eurovelo EV8 with comparative ease. Until, that is.... it stopped being easy. I'd plotted my route by hand/mouse, trying to copy the route as shown on the map at the Eurovelo web site, a painfully tedious and difficult task. At that time, no GPX files had been available for download and in fact Eurovelo only released them last week! And this was as part of a celebration of twenty-five years of Eurovelo! Anyway, as I arrived alongside a large canal, my route said go right and a Eurovelo EV8 sign said go left. Oh dear! Either I'd messed up or the map as shown on the website did not match the signs on the ground (the latter definitely happens from time to time). I stayed with the route I'd plotted as my campsite was somewhere close to it so I couldn't risk getting too far away from it.
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| An EV8 sign - not off-route yet! |
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| Old bridge, new bridge |
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| Very new bridge |
Suddenly, I spied an EV8 sign! I was back on the official route. I'm not sure for how long I wasn't or how far away from the official route I'd been. But I was back and continued to the town of Villeneuve where I intended to pick up groceries before heading to today's campsite.
I arrived at about half-past one. The supermarket was closed between 13:00 and 15:00. It could have been worse. Often the shops shut between 13:00 and 16:00! They certainly know how to lunch around here.
So, I found a bar that was to be open for the next 10 minutes it turned out, and got myself a cold drink and my bottles refilled with cold water. I sat, relaxed and rehydrated.
Eventually, I cycled over to the supermarket, half a mile down the road. It was still closed but I waited in the shade outside.
After grabbing more food than I needed (feeling hungry does that to my shopping!), I had another five miles to cycle to get to the campsite. After checking in and finding my pitch but before putting up my tent, I ate. I've never eaten before the tent was up and I've had a shower but today I was so hungry. It turns out that man doth not cycle on pain au chocolat alone!
Feeling better, with french bread, blue cheese and tomatoes inside me, normal routine was resumed. The tent is up and in a bit of shade and the shower was very nice indeed.
Today wasn't the best day but even the worst day on this trip so far has been pretty good. My route was good to start with and then not so much. And it was just a little too hot! But it wasn't as hilly as expected and tomorrow I'm expecting it to be largely downhill. That will be a novelty!
Here's today's profile:
C'est bon!
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