Day 19: Bisel to Rang

April 14, 2018

Chantal fed us a good breakfast and set us up with sandwiches for the road, while Jean Paul gave a few more thoughtful tweaks to loose bolts on our bikes. I convinced Jean Paul to try out my bike to see what the e-assist is like, though these two are still extremely strong and unlikely to have a need for the technology any time soon. Jean Paul thought that the push the bike gives was very gentle. That, of course, is how we like it.

We were really glad we made the detour down to Bisel. We feel we formed a much stronger link with Jean Paul and Chantal, with the immediate benefit of soon following their Cycleblaze blog in Spain with a lot more insight about who they really are. We also learned more about Alsace, and made the acquaintance of Louis, a real Alsatian dairy farmer.

Jean Paul was sort of underwhelmed by the assist part of the electric assist.

Chantal and Jean Paul, a fine couple of cyclists in Alsace.

Our first chore was to make our way back up to the EV6 route, which here follows the Rhone to Rhine canal. There was bike path most of the way, and it was no problem. Before reaching the canal, in Hindlingen, we encountered quite a large number of storks in nests. On closer inspection we found that many were within an enclosure, but others were not. There was no explanation about what this was all about, and even the internet has not given any clues. The storks did not seem to care one way or the other, except for one who was pacing up and down in the enclosure looking peevish.

The crabby guy is in the lower left of the photo.

Our bird adventures continued when we reached the canal. There, about thirty swans came in for a landing, looking very aeronautical as they did it. We were too late to get a photo of the main group, but did catch a couple of stragglers. As the birds zoomed in past us you could hear the wind in their feathers as they presumably adjusted their "ailerons" before splash down.

Swans on the canal. The one in centre frame looks like it actually crashed!

The next bit of wildlife that we ran in to was that weird species, the French canal fisherman. We and lots of others have commented on them before. They have lots of equipment and they sit patiently by the water for hours, never seeming to catch anything. The most notable equipment piece is the super long rod, which I guess spares them the effort of casting bait out. But then there is kind of a bag like escalator from the bank into the water. No idea what that does.

A stork-like gathering of French canal fishers

What does that thing in the water do? (Surely it could not be for storing the catch!)

This page seems to be developing into a bit of an animal feature, so here I will add that we have clearly entered Charollais country. It seems a bit early, since we are 250 km from the town of Charolles, but here they are, and looking very handsome too!

Charollais cattle will likely fill our days for the week coming.

We arrived in Montbeliard quite early in the afternoon and in very good order. We were immediately rewarded with some entertainment. It seems the national government has cooked up the reasonable idea of having the speed limit on secondary roads be 80 km/h rather than 90. For comparison, where we live on Vancouver Island the limit is generally 80, even on a main road, except for limited stretches of 90. For secondary roads the limit is 60. But here a limit of 80 has raised the ire of motorcyclists, and according to their poster, 40 million total road users. So several hundred motorcyclists were gathered in downtown Montbeliard for a very noisy demonstration. They had a lot of fun revving their engines, and I would rather have them doing that than habitually speeding on the roads we too are trying to use. I mentioned to one that our speed limit with the bikes is 25 kph, so there. That did not seem to make much of an impression. It turned out that guy was actually from Quebec - Baie Comeau.

Yesterday I had sucked Jean Paul into helping me raise the mount for the handlebar bag on my bike a little. Having the bag riding higher would allow me to see the map case better, and with all the weight I was putting in the bag it was tending to sag too much anyway. Though it sounds simple enough, adjusting an Ortlieb handlbar mount is not actually that easy. There are a few principles of how they actually arrive at using a cable to create a rigid mounting, and you do have to understand these to work on the thing. Certainly if you just start from scratch with a new cable and follow the instructions it works dandy. But if you are trying to change an installation, and to do it quickly, there can be problems.

So Jean Paul and I with our various smarts and understanding made a quick adjustment yesterday. But today within 1/2 km the bag was a sorry sight, sagging and leaning on the headlight for support. I had time to think about where we went wrong while cycling and to develop the idea of how to redo it, but now I lacked one necessary tool - a needle nosed pliers.

So that's why we were actually in downtown Montbeliard. Dodie favoured finding a bike shop. Not that she mistrusted my ability or newfound insight, but she did keep pointing to the sagging bag and tsk tsking. I would have preferred finding a pliers. However, as it happens all those nice looking shops that you find downtown in a French town are actually pretty useless. That is, if you are looking for a pliers or a bike mechanic.

After watching the hundreds of motorcyclists go by we focussed our attention not on one of the two types of shops we might use, but on finding the Tourist Information (TI) so they might direct us. That produced a lot of fun following the Tourist Information signs. These famously never really lead to the place. But we waylaid some municipal employees, and they directed us, more or less, to the TI.

The lady in the TI (which was open!) denied that the town had a bike shop, but recommended Decathlon. I was doubtful of going to a box store, but ok, worth a try. As it happens, the Decathlon - on the edge of town - was right by a LeClerc - which is a sure source of a pliers.

We tried Decathlon first, and they said sure, just roll it on in. I set about giving the mechanic a mini tutorial on the principles of the Ortlieb mount. It is kind of tricky and I had to repeat some of the key points, but he caught on and I was able to step back while he had at it. But, just like Jean Paul and I, he was not starting from scratch, and the first few tries were failures. I waded back in with some more advice, while my mechanic was joined by one, then two, colleagues. It was "Ok, yank on this while I shift that bit" kind of stuff. And eventually, they did it! It had taken about an hour, and including watching the motorcyclists it had taken us an hour to find them. Then it took us an hour to find our way back to the cycle route. That's three hours. Remember I said we had arrived in Montbeliard early and in good order, well we were now not at all early, but of course were in better order.

We and the mechanics were quite pleased with ourselves about it all. Here they are:

Things are getting tense, reinforcements have arrived.

Success. (And p.s. no charge! Chalk one up for Decathlon!)

We could have planned to stop in Montbeliard, and we did know a hotel there where we had stayed before. But to get round France we had set some key dates for arriving at various towns, and to hold to the schedule we would have to move on. We had, in fact, booked a B&B about 20 km down the road, near l'Isle sur le Doub, so we had to get on with it.

Though it may have been getting a little late there really was no problem, and we found the B&B easily. Called Les Charmettes, it is in a building from the 18th century, and yes it does have a lot of charm. We are up a couple of flights of stairs, in the attic. The furniture is all real wood, and again I am typing this on a real oak table.

The view from our window in "downtown Rang".

Today's ride: 88 km (55 miles)
Total: 1,101 km (684 miles)

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Mike AylingHandlebar bag mount - there is a product by Rixen and Kaul called Kwikfix.
Ortlieb bag compatible and clamps to the bars with four screws.
Much easier to adjust and get the bag on and off the bike!

Mike
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6 years ago

Keith KleinHi Steve and Dodie,
I se,that you are getting close. When do you think you'll be passing through Losne?
Cheers,
Keith
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6 years ago