Across Champagne

June 15, 1996 to June 20, 1996

So this last five days of the ride leaves us the least material to work with. No journal. No map (I'd at least still had the Michelin map of Alsace with our route marked on it to work with, but the one through Champagne is unmarked). Only about a dozen photos, with only these captions: "Champagne"; "Marne Valley"; "Chalons". And our memories. I've made several stabs at piecing together our route and where we stayed, but I'm uncertain still.

Oh, wait - we have one other resource I'd forgotten about: our wall map of Europe, that hangs in our den. We've marked it up with the route of every tour in Europe we've ever taken. We got it after we returned from our first tour, in 1993, and have faithfully kept it up ever since:

There's nearly 25 years of history in that spaghetti code. I always knew this would come in handy some day!

Some of the lines have gotten quite faint by now, but fortunately the pen I used for this tour has held up well, and I appear to have marked the route accurately based on reviewing what came before this final stretch:

This looks convincing to me: we went that-a-way.

Bit by bit this is coming back to me, and I think I've figured out where we stayed. I've been able to identify some of the unlabeled photos from the album and establish some fixed points, and fill in the rest based on reasonable guesses based on distances. So, taking this all in with a grain of salt, here's the final 5 days of the tour:

Saverne to Luneville (55 miles)
Luneville to Neufchateau (55 miles)
Neufchateau to Saint-Dizier (50 miles)
Saint-Dizier to Chalons-en-Champagne (50 Miles)
Chalons-en-Champagne to Dormans (45 miles)
Dormans to Paris (60 miles)

So, there's the route? What happened? Not much, that either of us can recall. I'm really surprised to look back on this and see how many days we took, because so little stands out in our memories. By and large we found Champagne to be a disappointment - fairly featureless and undramatic compared to all we'd seen so far on this tour. Looking back now, I'd say that we were probably suffering from end-of-tour syndrome, and our 'wow-muscles' were getting worn out, as well as our legs. I suspect that riding this country now we'd find a lot more of interest. And, I suspect our days were too long for the level of rider we were then. The miles above are all low estimates, based on reasonable routes on the map - but we always end up adding miles here and there, particularly when we used to navigate by paper map. I imagine we arrived at most towns pretty late in the day, and pretty tired. It feels like a lost opportunity in some ways.

We do have two clear memories that have survived the years. One was the big couscous blowout at some Levantine restaurant, probably in Luneville or Neufchateau. I don't think we really knew how to order in this type of restaurant, or what was expected; but the waitress arrived at the table with an enormous tureen filled with broth and vegetables, and an enormous plate of couscous. We didn't know if we were expected to eat all of this, or just take a part of it; but in any case it was way more than we could begin to consume - it's probably the largest meal we've ever been served. We did our best, overeating to the point of discomfort; but still we left at least half behind. I left feeling guilty, and not knowing for which reason - did we make complete pigs of ourselves and were expected to eat much less; or did we insult the restaurant by leaving so much behind?

And, we recall very well our arrival in Paris and remind each other of it fairly often, as a cautionary tale. Our bike ride ended somewhere in the northeast suburbs of the city, when we reached the end of a metro line and caught the train the rest of the way to Saint-Denis, where we planned to stay for three nights and soak up the sights before flying home. Since we boarded at the end of the line, we had no trouble getting our bikes onto the train; but as we got nearer to the center it became more and more crowded, and our bicycles were more and more in the way. At one stop, I had to get off the train with my bike so that other passengers could disembark; and I came very close to not being able to force myself and the bike back on again before the doors closed. It was a very panicky, frightening moment for both of us - we feared being separated in a megalopolis, with no plans for how to meet up. Ever since, we've been careful to think ahead about contingency plans for the unexpected.

Here's one thing I recall about this country - the distinctive architecture. I don't recall seeing these chalkish, open-beamed homes anywhere else.

In Champagne, along the Marne. Actually, this is part of why we were getting tired here - we did a lot of climbing above the highway to get a better view and escape some traffic.

The old collegiate church in Chalons-en-Champagne

Le Castel Marie Antoinette, Chalons. I can't find any real information about this, or why it's named as it is. It looks like now it's a hotel or convention center.

The memorial for the Battle of the Marne, Dormans. We wandered around and admired this monument late in the day, not really knowing what it was at the time.

The memorial for the Battle of the Marne, Dormans

Today's ride: 450 km (279 miles)
Total: 1,915 km (1,189 miles)

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