Metz to Nancy: It began well, but became a challenge
Today was quite an experience. It began so well, as we left Metz on a great bike path. It became a test for me of nerves, endurance and attitude later in the day.
I need to start this post though with some pictures of the cathedral last night. It was a great show. We felt very lucky that we were able to see it. And that was a bust. Pictures won't load at all. They time out. I will try again in the morning. On with the story.
We started out around 9 AM and left Metz with absolutely no drama. We were on the Charles le Temeraire bike path and it was brilliant. We had a wicked headwind again today. The weather forecast said 30 km an hour winds, but I have no way of knowing how strong they really were. Of course my new rule is NO DRAFTING, and I stuck to it, but it was very tempting to draft, believe me.
It couldn't have been better, other than the wind of course. We had done some reading and anything we could find talked about the difficulties of getting to Nancy by bike, and at this point in the ride we were wondering what they were talking about.
The first twenty five km were brilliant. We went through the trees much of the time, and that was not only beautiful, it really helped with the wind. We arrived at Jouy-aux-Arches and spent quite a bit of time there. It was almost as stunning as Pont de Gard, and we had the whole place to ourselves. The only other soul we saw was an elderly French woman trying to find her very elderly cat. Success on that score by the way. She was lovely and lived directly across from the arches.
We spent quite a lot of time here. It was so amazing and the information was so well presented. Plus we found a fabulous bakery just around the corner.
After that the trail continued to be fabulous for a few more km and then suddenly it became a narrow single track through the woods. It popped us out at brand new asphalt and for the first time in my life I got first tracks on a road. This asphalt was so new it was still warm. A few more km of blissful, if windy riding and then the whole thing changed.
Wheeeee! First tracks! The asphalt was still warm. I double checked that it was okay and away we went. It was like riding on butter it was so smooth. Love, love loved it. We had several km of trail joy before it came to an abrupt end.
We bumped and struggled over probably the worst surface I have ever ridden on. We weren't alone...we could see two other touring cyclists ahead of us. There were no more trees for a wind break and we were headed right into the teeth of the wind. It was stressful on so many levels. We finally bumped out at Pont-A-Mousson and begged permission to eat our lunch in their Festival de Musique tent so we could be out of the wind for a little while. It was a lovely looking town and we had some laughs with the festival volunteers.
This fellow was on our side of the fence and came over to say hello. Poor guy, his forelock needs some serious attention.
Leaving Pont-A-Mousson there was supposed to be a new and just opened bike route to Nancy. We couldn't find this mythical trail so bailed to the D657. It was okay...more traffic than we would have liked but for me the big deal was the wind. It was unrelenting. It wasn't the effort of the cycling that I found so disconcerting, it was the noise. A constant roaring in our ears. Next time I will break out the ear plugs. When the road would curve I would find the buffeting from the side nerve wracking as well. Okay, and there was one semi driver I would like to have a little chat with! We stopped for a restorative cup of tea in a small town that had certainly seen much better days.
For this guy we bailed to the sidewalk to let him by. He really was great, and had no room. The one I would like to talk to was further down the highway and couldn't be bothered to move over a centimetre. Keith even stopped to check on me. Fortunately shortly after that we crossed the main highway and that was the end of the trucks for the most part.
Shortly after that we returned to the bike path and happily it had become a paved and beautiful trail. The wind was not as bad with trees on either side offering some protection and we had a nice final few km into Nancy.
And then we turned around. Turns out the bike path was right above us on the embankment. It was a bit of a struggle to get the bikes up there, Keith wrestled them up a set of stairs with me pushing, but we managed.
Nancy is not the most bike friendly city we have been in, but in Europe riding on the sidewalks isn't generally a problem so we made it safely to the hotel. We are just back from a walk and explore of the city. I will try and load the pictures in the morning. One note...we stopped at tourist information to see if we could get any ideas about bike routes heading south. The woman we spoke with was so surprised we had biked from Metz. She said it was awful! Well, parts of it were, but the first half was plenty awesome and we got to see the viaduct at Jouy-Aux-Arches.
Ont he walk to the shopping area and Stanislas Square.
