On the banks of the Saone.
Left Tournous at around 9AM, with clear skies and wind from the North. An ideal day for cycling in the general direction of the Mediterranean, the only uncertainty would be how hot it would be during the day, and also would the Med driver behaviour pattern make bicycling a more and more risky operation the further I got south?
Things started well. Flat countryside, perhaps a bit more hilly than yesterday, since I was able to do about 19 km/h uphill that did not slow me down very much. Came to Point de Vaux after about 20 kilometres and that slowed me down, because the town had closed the whole D933 and used it instead as a marketplace.
Brilliant initiative, stopped the cars more than it did me.
Kept going after that, stopped at Replonges for the first Perrier and the first bier a la pression during the day, kept going after a stop of about 30 minutes, and stopped for an extended lunch at Belleville after about 65 kilometres. Had a feeling that hotel accommodation in Lyon might be a limited resource, phoned from Belleville and checked, after 6 tries I finally managed to book a single room at Hotel Moderne, not very moderne, but adequate.
Kept going after Belleville for another 50 kilometres and so, and arrived at Lyon around 5PM, after 115 kilometres on the road and average speed about 22 km/h. Things went well during the whole day, the main problem was that it got seriously hot after lunch, and the supply of water/beer had to be given some consideration. Frequent stops with a mix of one grand bier a la pression and one grande Perrier solved that problem. This is an area with a lot more services (read bars/cafés) than what I found in Picardie only about 10 days ago. In this part of France, if there is a village there will also be at least one bar open, and usually also one hotel.
Lyon is impressive. A grand place. I'll spend one day here tomorrow and will report back about the museums and also the old City. Also Antoine de Saint-Exupery was born here in 1900, and loom inventor Joseph Marie Jacquard was born here 1752. In Istanbul, in the old han Valide Han down from the Grand Bazaar, I have seen and heard jacquard looms still in operation, at a decibel level of at least 128DB. It should be interesting to see (and hear) if they still have them running in Lyon.
A couple of pics from the city:
cafe life on the Place des Terraux, and the opera arcade late during the evening
And the local drivers? Not too bad. Some bad cases, on male driver squeezed me in a roundabout because he had to stop for a motorbike he had not planned to stop for, that was less serious than what the driver from Chalon and yesterday was. And the driver of one green Renault Clio, reg number 50 97 WP 01; behaved in such a considerate way that he almost redeemed all French car drivers all by himself.
Have not mentioned the bike for a few days. What is there to tell except that there are no problems. And the rider is also doing reasonable well these days.
The Med is another 300 kilometres down the valley. Getting closer to the finishing line.
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