October 11, 2021
La Salle to Belleville-sur-Saône / train to Lyon
Today's theme: diversity. Different riding conditions, different modes of transportation. It started with a tasty breakfast served by our host, Marie Paule. I felt bad for Sunyoung, who handled all the social pleasantries as I feasted. Marie never spoke a word of English. My guess is that she knew some, but she detected Sunyoung's interest in practicing and simply exercised a wonderful amount of patience and understanding with her. We cherished her sincere and gentle hospitality.
We started with a little climb to the picturesque village of Saint-Martin-Belle-Roche:
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We then descended and rejoined V50 and the Saône as far as Mâcon:
The city itself was beautiful:
Then, unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse:
I was surprised to see a river cruise boat plying the waters northbound:
We gave this section of the trail many chances to improve. It never did. I finally asked, "What do you think of finding a road on the other side of the river to ride?" Sunyoung agreed with me that it had to be better than this Paris-Roubaix experience, so we crossed the next bridge and hopped on the nearest departmental road. We had to re-desensitize ourselves to the noise of oncoming and passing cars. Overall, it was fine. Left to my own devices, I would've ridden this all the way into Lyon.
However, Sunyoung was lagging. Too many days without resting was now catching up with her. We stopped at the nearest market, headed to the nearest train station, and ate lunch. I bought a ticket, the train arrived, we ran to the front car, we heaved our bikes up the STEPS -- yes, two steps up to the passenger compartment -- then we were suddenly moving towards Lyon under electrical (perhaps nuclear!) power. I picked my bike off the floor, removed the panniers from Sunyoung's bike, hung it, and found a secure parking spot for my bike. There were plenty of people on the train, but few in the front car. Except for that initial adrenaline rush of boarding, it was another successful multimodal endeavor for us.
Once in Lyon, we oriented ourselves and sped to our hotel for the next two nights. Thankfully traffic was reasonable and navigation was straightforward. We passed block after block of mid-rise apartment buildings, and then our destination came into view.
The hotel clerk let us check in early and stow our bikes in their luggage room. We were now safely and comfortably ensconced in the bosom of this vibrant city, ready to relax and explore. We went for a long walk along the Rhône and started to piece together a city tour itinerary for tomorrow.
Today's ride: 46 km (29 miles)
Total: 2,093 km (1,300 miles)
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