September 13, 2021
Le Mêle-sur-Sarthe to Bagnoles de l'Orne
The fact that the sun doesn't rise until after 7am makes it difficult for us to get an early start. Today, however, we were up at the crack of dawn, slowly but steadily advancing through our morning routine, until at last we rolled out of the campsite at 9am. Where does that two hours go? I can never figure it out.
After riding through this beautiful little town of Le Mêle-sur-Sarthe, we were back on the rail trail with our sights set on Alençon. Did you notice I said "rail trail"? Today it finally clicked that the cute buildings we passed at every town and village were in fact at one time railway stations. The trail's designers didn't start hitting users over the head with the train stuff until we encountered this near the end of our ride today:
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We arrived at Alençon at 11am, which is not too early for us to enjoy lunch. We shopped, then found a park near the river to chow down. Sunyoung found some good stuff, including olives and mixed greens to accompany our standard bread and cheese routine.
Since the park lacked shade, we headed over to the cathedral. All this time, in the corner of my mind was this idea that we're not going to pass through another city of this size or bigger until, I don't know, Nantes? Did I forget to mention that the French government still hasn't processed our passes sanitaires (I'm just guessing as to how to pluralize this)? There just happened to be a tourism office nearby, so I sent Sunyoung in to ask if they thought we could get them by going to a pharmacy. Good thing she went, because the lady there didn't speak English. Anyway, next thing you know, we're outside the pharmacy celebrating our status as officially recognized not-too-dangerous tourists! And they didn't charge us a dime. Just swell people all around. We bought a few things we needed from the shop as a small thank-you.
Wouldn't you know it, when it came time for our midafternoon break, we couldn't find any suitable spot to sit until I noticed a sign advertising a little snack stop. It was the restaurant of a hotel, but they were working hard to also gain the business of trail users. They sure got us! And we got to use our passes for the first time. They worked like a charm! We got to enjoy a nice patio and a couple of cold refreshing adult beverages in style. Our tour is just getting fancier and fancier.
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Speaking of fancy, I booked us a gite for two nights at our destination of Bagnoles de l'Orne after taking one final look at the weather forecast for tonight and tomorrow. Whether it rains or not, we're close to being due for a rest day, and I'm starting to realize that part of resting is also getting out of camping mode for a bit. Besides, camping in the rain is Type 2 fun at best. Wet camping doesn't even make for great stories. It just makes you wet. I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunity to both camp and ride in the rain before we get to sunnier climes.
I should mention that, in order to make better time, we opted for the easier southern option when the Veloscenie splits in two west of Alençon. It consisted of a long but mild climb, followed by a long, mild, fun descent, with some hilly roads at the end to spice it up a little. Not very much in the way of villages right off the trail, and therefore not much in the way of trail users either. We sometimes had the hardpack to ourselves for over an hour at a time. Pretty neat.
Tomorrow we'll get to see what this little town we're in has to offer -- that is, if the rain isn't so bad that we just stay holed up in our little cottage all day. I'm ok with either outcome. It's very peaceful here.
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Today's ride: 80 km (50 miles)
Total: 439 km (273 miles)
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