Belley to Villette d'Anthon: Our Final Day

June 17, 2017

Our room at the Sweet Home in Belley was not air conditioned and it had been 'chaud' yesterday so we slept with the window open and the fan on. We both woke early to the smell of cigarette smoke wafting through the window. It was coming from the vendors setting up for the Saturday morning market in the square outside our second floor room. Cough, cough.

We have inhaled way too much second hand smoke already on this trip, so I jumped out of bed to shut the window. Smoking is something I rationalize here in France simply because I am a visitor but mostly I feel sad for the intensity of their addiction. I am pretty well intolerant of this at home and fortunately, we have fresh air laws that are enforced and respected. For those of you planning a trip to France in the near future, just know that their smoking regulations have simply moved smokers from inside buildings to the outside, which begins within the first inch outside the door. You’ll be lucky to find any fresh air on a sidewalk cafe or anywhere close to a building. Trust me, you’ll become accustomed to positioning yourself upwind, in any given situation. Our host at La Leva told us of a guest who simply poked his head out the window to satisfy his needs, then tossed the butt into a shrub outside his room. We saw a woman about to exit the train with a cigarette between her lips and her lighter in position so that she could light up as her foot hit the ground on the platform. We saw a cyclist chain smoking the evening before he tackled Mont Ventoux. We saw babies and young children in bars surrounded by smokers and yes, pregnant young women smoking too. There are so many things you experience when travelling that you hold dear and try to incorporate into your life when you return home. I guess the takeaway here is practise tolerance within reason and have compassion for an ugly addiction that sucks life from you.

One of the nice things about travelling this way is the daily decisions become simple and routine: what to eat for dinner, when to stop for a ‘bum break’, what to photograph. Pretty simple stuff. But sometimes you need to call on your decision making skills. Like when you find out you cannot check in online for your upcoming international flight. We received an email from KLM last night that our documents needed to be checked and that we would have to go to the Lyon airport in person to check in. Lyon Airport is 25 km west of Lyon, 10 km south of our chambre d’hôte in Villette d’Anthon and about 70 km southeast of Belley. We had some decisions to make: go to the airport 3h before our flight tomorrow to check in or find a way to get to the airport today en route to La Villette d’Anthon. We do like to choose good seats for our flights and with all the stories about air travel gone wrong, there was no question that we would get ourselves to the airport today.

OK, next question: Is it worth spending 5 hours to get to LYS while everyone else on the flight is checking in? We both wanted to ride today so we decided to choose the ‘Fast Forward’ option. OK, next question: What is the Fast Forward option? We couldn’t just tear open the envelope like they do on Amazing Race. Belley is not served by the train so we would take the bus to a town with a train station that serves LYS. OK, done. Off the the bus stop we went (1 block from our hotel). The bus pulls up and it’s the smallest bus I have seen in France! The tunnel to Chambery is under construction so they are using a small van instead to transport passengers. Sorry, we couldn’t possibly take your bikes. Believe me, if they could, they would. OK, next question: Which town will we ride to? Not all trains go in the direction of Lyon so we needed to choose a town on the right route. Mr Google told us it would be La Tour du Pin. OK, done. Let’s go. OK, next question: Do we ride the Via Rhona cycle path or take the D road? Cycle paths don’t seem to serve our needs and the D roads have been really quiet, so the D road it will be. OK, done. Let’s go.

But first, we meandered through the market which was in full swing by this time. The vendors' booths were overflowing with whatever it was they were selling. Abundance. That’s what I love about these markets and which I miss in the markets at home. The white asparagus were calling my name as I went past, then the olives sent wafts of delicious-ness at me, then the seafood paella nearly tripped me up. It went on and on as I savoured our slow exit from Belley.

White asparagus in the market caught my eye.

We set off south along the D road towards the Rhone river. Yet again, we had the road to ourselves as we passed through forests of hardwoods interspersed with fields planted with wheat or other grains. The songbirds were out in force and the small villages we passed through were quiet, perhaps due to everyone being at the market in Belley. We crossed the Rhone and at Aoste our route headed west to La Tour du Pin and the headwind started to pick up.

The Rhone River, wide and peaceful albeit fast flowing.

Eglise Notre-Dame de l'Assomption at La Tour du Pin, with its glazed tile roof.

Judging from the map, this would be a challenge to get through the tangle of traffic and find the train station. But it went very smoothly and we executed a direct hit! At the train station, I asked for two ‘aller simple’ tickets to Lyon Airport but was told that would not be possible. We would have to travel into Lyon, then back out the the airport. It seemed wasteful to me so plan B was hatched. How about tickets to the station closest to LYS? No problem. The train left in 45 minutes for La Verpillière and the bikes travel free. We would cycle from there.

Again, the navigating looked like it would be tough so I did some online research using my favourite map apps, maps.me, google maps, and michelin while we waited for the train. Like clockwork, the train picked us up and two stops later we were hopping off near La Verpillière. When my map reading skills kick in like they did this time, I manage to match up what I see infront of me while I'm cycling with what I remember on the maps. It’s like weaving a needle through a haystack.

Roads around La Tour-du-Pin looked worse than it was.

The TER trains are modern and efficient and take bikes for free.

How would YOU get from La Verpillière to LYS and through the other end?

After some steep long grades into a decent headwind followed by a flat windy grunt we arrived at Terminal 2 of the Lyon Airport. We were greeted by the smokers lined up outside the terminal. The KLM service rep checked us in and gave us our boarding passes for all of our flights to Victoria.

That step fulfilled, we set off into the headwind for Villette d’Anthon, weaving our way through parking lots then along a variety of roads that passed over major train corridors and highways, around several large roundabout, through the cornfields and eventually to our chambre d’hôte, La Leva. We were greeted by Virginie with her open arms and huge smile. We had completed the whole loop, 1475 km, and were both feeling quite chuffed about the experience.

This chateau is a home for the elderly with dementia.

Our room at La Leva, next to what was a fromagerie where they made chevre.

I got cleaned up and headed for the salt water pool while David tackled the dirty job of disassembling the bikes and packing them in the suitcases. We packed our clothing into vacuum bags and packed them away in the duffle bag before we got too relaxed.

Salt water pool at La Leva was 28 degrees C. What a way to cap off the final day.

After a short rest it was time to head out for dinner at the local pizzeria. We were greeted there by the owner and her daughter, who had seen us off one month ago. They were very pleased to hear what we had done and once again, treated us to limoncello's after our dinner. On our way, we dropped our Hippocket Wifi device in the mailbox. It's been our reliable non-stop internet connection.

Our last pizza dinner (Reine Supreme and Forestière).

What's a trip to France without profiteroles?

The Hippocket mifi (wifi) just goes into the nearest mailbox at the end of the trip.

One more sleep and we will be on our way back home to Victoria with KLM.

Today's ride: 68 km (42 miles)
Total: 1,414 km (878 miles)

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