The Bikepacker: Bikepacking - Vassincourt to Neufchateau

Day #

State of Legs

:-)

	Distance (miles)	Distance (km)	Ascent (feet)	Ascent (metres)	Punctures
Today	60 miles	km	1752 feet	metres	0
Trip Totals	440 miles	km	18098 feet	metres	0

Today's Route

Route So Far

Travelogue

Today was another great day. I need to find a new way of starting these posts as there's a clear pattern emerging! Maybe we just assume from now on that the day was great unless I say otherwise?

By 7:00 when Brice and his family started to stir, I had already packed up everything and was almost ready to go, save one thing. Yesterday evening I sat and chatted with my HomeCamper hosts, Brice and Aura for a while, which was very enjoyable. Brice is a keen cyclist with a road bike and a gravel bike so of course we talked about bikes and cycling a lot. Brice and Aura both work for the same telecommunications company and Brice runs a technical team there and knows what a protocol is! I didn't expect to meet someone on my travels who knows about communications protocols (my field, kind of) but there you have it!

Anyway, Brice told me that if I was prepared to wait until about 7:00 the next day, he'd send me on my way with a cup of coffee inside me. How could I resist? So that's what happened. While I was drinking it, Brice reviewed my route for the day and made a brilliant suggestion. Apparently a canal follows my route fairly closely and had a tow path beside it that you can ride for 140km (maybe more!). He suggested I use the path for about 40km as it was flat, largely tarmac and of course there would be no traffic. This was a great idea and is what I did except that I stayed on the path for 58km (35 miles) in total in the end.

But it didn't end there. Brice had also chilled a bottle of water in the fridge for me and this filled my water bottles. And he'd *frozen* a bottle of water which would melt over the course of my ride and provide a beautifully chilled drink later on when it was especially hot. What a great idea and how considerate!

The canal was lovely and early in the morning as it was, the sun was low and its rays filtered through the green trees, creating very attractive reflections and a gentle quality of light.

I saw lots of wildlife, but due to the time it takes me to get my phone out of my frame bag, only managed to grab one photo. There were various species of butterfly and lots of birds including two sightings of storks standing by the far bank, motionless, presumably hunting for fish. The photo I did get, I believe is of an otter!

Here are photos from the canal section:

I stopped for a rest and some food with my legs dangling over the side of the canal

And here's the otter!

After 35 miles of fairly quick cycling, punctuated by stops for photos, food and water I eventually rejoined the road and soon saw my first sign for my destination, the town of Neufchateau. The road became quite hilly now, passing through agricultural land and forest before eventually reaching the outskirts of Neufchateau.

The road sign over there says Neufchateau left!

The sky seemed enormous over the wheat fields

On arrival in Neufchateau, I detoured to the nearest supermarket. My destination is an AirBnB apartment where I will stay for two nights, taking tomorrow as a much needed day of rest after seven days in a row of cycling on average, more than 100km a day. On a heavy bike. Have I mentioned this bike is heavy?!

So, I have a kitchen and it's time to try to replace some of the many thousands of calories I've burned through. I've used around 4,000 calories each day, just riding the bike. On one day Strava calculated over 5,000 calories to have been burned. There's no way I've been eating anything like that amount so I really need to catch up! So, on the menu there's pasta, lots of cheese (three types of French cheese, none of which I know anything about but I thought I'd give them a try!), chocolate, bread and for protein, a dozen locally produced eggs and several cans of tuna.

No, I'm not eating all of that in one sitting! I think that will get me through to Friday when I depart!

The apartment is lovely and the host has been unbelievably helpful, even providing a photo guide to using the washing machine (embarrassing but unfortunately necessary!).