Day 51: Dole to Chalezeule (a bit beyond Besancon): Allez! Allez! The Tour de France!

July 9, 2012

Our day started calmly (but it sure didn't end that way!) This is a river and canal ride, so it is normal that we are usually near a river or canal. But with the canal you are often right alongside, on a path without vehicles, for long stretches. That is calm and enjoyable in every way.

Our canal for now is the Rhone to Rhine. It is several hundred km long, and part of an extensive canal system in France.

There are many of these locks along the way

It seems we encounter many giant mowing machines along the way. Dodie is nto cowed by them and usually succeeds in staring them down. We think her experience in the streets of Paris helps with this.

Dodie just about scared this machine into the canal

Other sights greet us along the way:

Too bad we can't have a spare car on the back of the bike

We are in the Jura region now, and the style of churches is changing

The land is changing too - now cliffs, soon mountains

In a corn field, they built it, and they came. Only thing, this is Europe and what they built was a soccer field. Oh well.

Near Etrepigney we came across Marc, a retired psychologist from the French Alps. He is on his way to Mulhouse and will take the train home from there. He has a grandkid babysitting date to keep.

Right then, though, he was going exactly nowhere. With a broken chain, the pin in his hand, and only a pliers in the toolkit, there was no way to make a repair. Fortunately we were carrying both a couple of quick links and a chain breaker. It didn't take long to put the show back on the road. Don't be fooled by this photo. The delicate parts in the vice did not belong to me!

Near Etrepigney we came across Marc with a broken chain.

Chain fixed, Dodie and Marc look at the route

We set off together - the chain stays fixed

As we pedalled along we began to hear cheering. Our path lead straight to it, and we came upon a crowd waiting expectantly by the roadside. I had already guessed what was going on, but I asked a man what was happening. He explained, but must have thought I was the only one in France who was not aware of the Tour de France.

The riders were being released onto a circuit, one every few minutes, from a starting point some minutes away from where we were. In due course, one or more police motorcycles and lead cars would come barreling along, followed by a bike rider moving at incredible speed, seemingly motorized too, followed by a chase motorcycle and who knows what else. Four minutes later, to cheers all around, the same thing again.

This man was tracking the riders and was in communication with the starting line

The riders were so fast, getting a photo was tough. Dodie snapped this one.

Have a closer look at the rider and motorcycle:

Take a closer look at the rider and the chase motorcycle

We love it when we come across a local celebration, and always join with the crowd in enjoying it. But this was the Tour de France. The atmosphere was electric!

As usual, we joined in with the crowd, waiting for each competitor to pass

and the (sort of ) famous yellow jersey!

After a long time, we reluctantly continued our journey. But not for long! We crossed a bridge and arrived at the starting line. Here there were more people and an announcer, and gendarmes and medical support people.

We caught the Tour again at Avanne-Avaney

Dodie assigned the gendarmes to guard the bikes

Across the rivers the Tour riders hit open road. We could race them from our side. (They won).

Tour fever was everywhere, and it manifested itself for us in crowds of lycra clad cyclists zooming along the usually sedate pathways that we follow. We arrived beneath Besancon, but knew that Camping was 6 km beyond, and so did not stop to see the town.

Not only were cyclists zooming around in numbers, but in line skaters too. In line skaters are a bit of a bug, because their arms and legs swing all over the place, a hazard on a narrow path. Usually the ones we encounter out on the road are skilled and fast moving. As we approach we stake out territory on one side or the other of the path, and flash past each other.

At Besancon, though, two of the skaters were clearly beginners. We gave them a wide berth, but after we had easily passed each other, one went down heavily. We stopped and sent our "nurse" back to check them out. They were OK.

Skaters. Dodie is helping, not berating this pair.

Not so OK was the tunnel pictured below. It was quite long, and Tour fevered cyclists were zooming along it, passing anyone slower moving silently and without warning. When one such passed Dodie, but right in the face of an oncoming cyclist, cutting back in at the last second, Dodie lost it. She called him an "Idiote" and a "Stupid Head". He shouted backwards a stream of insults that left Dodie planning to bone up on her French swearing. Actually it means we are feeling quite a home here (not that we usually swear at people at home!)

We found the Camping with the usual amount of puzzling over the non-signs, and there found our "family" from Dole, including Jo from Nantes and Marc of the broken chain. We set our tents together and made plans to go over to an Italian restaurant we had spotted nearby. They advertised wood fired oven pizza!

Meanwhile, Jo was having some equipment problems. We had earlier looked at his Spork - this one made in Sweden. Every Spork we have heard of is a broken one:

Jo's bike computer also fell off, and he bought another at Carrefour. Here is part of the manual:

It's actually not that complicated, just that in France by law these manuals have to be in 27 languages or something.

The pizza? Too bad. It was sort of ok, but the crust was floppy, the flavour mediocre, and the closest they came to a "pepperoni" like back home was "salame".

Back at the Camping, a sign that we hope does not become too common:

But we too are "complet", that is, we've had enough fun for one day!

Today's ride: 73 km (45 miles)
Total: 2,096 km (1,302 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	1
Comment on this entry	Comment	0