August 30, 2011
An Idealic Ride Alond the Doubs to Montbeliard
Leaving Besanscon is exciting as you ride through the canal tunnel (built in 1878) that goes under the citadel. It was cold, dark and spokey inside and I was sorry that there were no boats going along at the same time and as usual grateful that I didn't fall into the canal. Once we were out of it we could still barely see anything as there was a thick fog on the river and it was cold which made us put on our coats, this has the dual purpose of also making us more visible. Last time we came along here on our way from London to Rome we left this easy river route and went straight up the very steep sides and had to push our bikes for miles. Today was different however and we sailed along the river bank largely on Voie Verte. The fog didn't clear until about 9.00am and when it did we saw we were in most spectacular countryside. There were limestone cliffs on each side of the river and forest. The route for boats is interesting (I now talk as an expert!) as it was largely on the Doubs which is controlled by weirs with locks on each side of them, fairly difficult to navigate I imagine. We saw few boats on water apart from little dingys with the ever hopeful fishermen in them.
A stop at the little village of Laissey for our best ever coffee. It was large, strong, full flavoured and what is more was served with a small chocolate. Two passing cyclists came and sat down and chatted to us. They came from nearby and were having a day trip. They were interested in our trip as they are thinking of riding along the Danube next year and wanted to know how we organized things. I hope I didn't mislead them to much with my terrible French. And all this for only 1.80Euros a cup.
The delights continued and we passed through lovely places many of which would have been charming to stay at. Ken I could sense had his heart set on getting to Montbeliard where the Peugot museum is and was making alsorts of encouraging noises about how well I was cycling! We had our final coffee at L'Isle -sur-Doubs talking to some Swiss cyclists going the other way. It was still 28km to Montbellird and they told us it was pretty easy. I was fresh so we decided to press on. They were partly right but the approach to Montbeliard is a nightmare of busy roads but we eventually found the Tourist Information and this really very lovely hotel ( above our usual price but the only one close by). I feel very sorry for Ken because the Puegot Museum is about 6km out in the country, shuts at six and would be almost impossible to find. I have suggested we look for it tomorrow but he says no we will press on. There are lots of things in this town relating to Pugoet so he has been hunting them down. Did you know that the first things that Puegot made, before they made cars, were coffee grinders.
Today's ride: 98 km (61 miles)
Total: 1,279 km (794 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 0 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |