Hilly Champagne
The bike computer logged a total of 115 kilometres today, that is considerable more than the straight route, and a reflections on the relatively steep and also winding roads through the hills of Champagne.
Started relatively early from Reims at about half past eight, got caught up in the morning rush hour, since there were bicycle paths on the main roads leading out of Reims this was not really a problem, except for the occasional car parked in the middle of it. Also the way the French design bicycle paths along major roads is completely different from the Dutch approach, in Holland the path goes more along with the general traffic, in France you encounter miniature STOP signs for each feeder road going into a roundabout when on the bicycle path. Had the usual navigation problems in the beginning, realised I was on the wrong main road, and made a significant detour in order to locate the so-called D9 instead, came eventually to Mailly Champagne and to the Route Champagne proper.
Before that Jean-Paul stopped me in a roundabout south of Reims. He wondered if bicycling was dur (hard for me). I said it was OK (that was before the hills) and that I was going on to Provence and came from Holland. He told he had been a long trip with his wife on a bike 15 years ago and that had been the trip of his life. We shaked hands and he wished me bonne route and we both drove on.
My route went from Mailly to Verzy and over the hill and Foret de la Montagne to Epernay. On the way the front pannier rack for the right bag crashed. It broke in a not so nasty dump when I was going downhill at high speed. Fortunately without any problems for the bike, I stopped and checked the situation and put the bag on top of the two I had at the back, and pushed on towards Epernay. That should obviously be the place for a replacement, with all the organised bicycling that goes on in the area, and with a really large and good bicycle shop in the centre according to Cycling France, Lonely Planet.
I arrived during their closing hours, had lunch and also checked the accommodation situation with the local tourist office while I waited for them to open. At 1400 I wheeled my bike into the shop and pointed at the bad part. My limited French is not up to scratch when it comes to words for pannier bag racks, so I preferred to point. It did not matter. They had no such thing. And probably because they did not have it, they (all the three people I tried to communicate with), behaved in such an arrogant and uninterested way that I had a distinct feeling I had spoiled their afternoon by wheeling the bike into their shop in the first place. So I took it out again and started a more serious inspection of the situation out at the square outside. It should obviously be possible to make a temporary fix, what I needed was some wire to hold the broken part in place. So I went back into the shop again and asked if he had a couple of spokes I could use for a temporary fix. I was given three and not asked to pay anything, and he even smiled when he handed them over. So maybe I had not spoiled his day after all.
Fixed the rack and lighted the pannier bag somewhat by moving some heavy stuff over to the other bags. While doing this a guy was sitting on the bench behind me reading The Times. I asked if there was any news, he looked back on me with a blank face and said he did not speak any French. I pointed out that I was actually speaking English. He said there was not really any news of interest since he was Australian and this happened to be an English paper. Not a promising start for a possible conversation maybe. I tried to get him interested in my bicycle repair work instead, but it was useless. Perhaps it was below his dignity to speak to somebody that ancient. All this did not strengthen any ideas I might have about staying in Epernay for the night, and I had also only logged 60 km so far. So I went back to the tourist office, they found one BB accommodation for me in a tiny village called Connantre about half way between Epernay & Troyes, and I was on my way again.
Did go via the hilly area and the wine yards south of Epernay, that was hard work but beautiful countryside. The picture at the top is the view from Courcourt, with Chavrot on the right and with Moussay just south of Epernay in the background.
It was steep uphill and steep downhill. Came through Monthelon
and from there to Morangis and Moslins, before finally the landscape levelled out a bit on the high plain and with the D36 road in the direction of Villers-Aux-Bois and eventually Souliéres, Etréchy. From there I was back to the flatlands again, and had about 25 km left to do before Connantre.
It was very hot, and a thunderstorm was brewing to the west. When I passed through Bennes, about 15 km away from my destination, the first flashes of lightning appeared, and some serious weather was obviously underway. I came to the junction for Connantre, with 8 kilometres more to go, I thought I might be there in another 20 minutes. It happened differently. When I had 5 kilometres left to go the thunderstorm suddenly set up a force 9 from NNW, directly from my back, and things started to pick up. I noticed I was doing 66 km/h down one not very steep slope, on level ground the bike did 40 km/h without me not even working the pedals. When adding some power the bike did 45 easily on level ground. I was a bit nervous about the repaired pannier rack, but the road surface was in perfect condition all the way and I had no problems. Arrived in Connantre 7 minutes ahead of schedule, with an average of about 40 km/h for the last 5 kilometres. It started to rain when took my last two bags into then house at around 18:40.
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