August 22, 2016
Feurs: The climbing has really started
Getting out of Roanne was the easiest part of the day, the traffic was light and the route very easily found. We crossed the Loire and found the D56 which we were to follow for most of the day. What we had imagined was a fairly gentle meander beside the river with views along it. We couldn't have been more wrong. What we got were very steep up hills, occasionally you would get a steep down so you could climb up again. The road was labelled "Route Touristique" which is of course code for almost impossible to ride. Actually I managed quite a bit better than I thought I would even though my progress was extremely slow. The countryside is very beautiful, still there are a lot of cattle and doted around patches of bush. There were small hamlets off to the sides some of which we felt fairly sure would have bars to get coffee but we were reluctant to add more hills to our day. We were quite a long way from the river as at this stage we could only get occasional distance glances of it. What we could do however was to look across at the villages nestled around the tops of hills, most of them as a centre piece seemed to have a magnificent structure which included a tower.
At last we reached St Jodard, surely there would be a bar. No luck but out of the kindness of her heart the lady in the tiny shop made us one. Ken was keen to push on as he was concerned that it would start to get hot and I would start to collapse. The surprise was fantastic, a long downhill all the way to the river and when we reached it the road just followed it along all the way to Balbigny. One of the nicest surprises was the Chateau de la Roche, a magnificent building sitting in the middle of the river like a fairy-tale castle. I couldn't imagine a more perfect setting.
There were no seats along the way to stop for our lunch so when we came to a small restaurant at Bwe called in. The kindness of the French never fails to amaze me and Madame made us exactly what we wanted, a small salad. We would have enjoyed a beer but in the interests of safe riding just settled for a jug of cold water. From there it was only about 10km to our hotel in Feurs, rest up and do it all again tomorrow,
Today's ride: 62 km (39 miles)
Total: 959 km (596 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 0 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |