Day 25: Massieux to Roussillon (approximately)

April 20, 2018

Morning found us back with that choice between the D road and the dirt path, that had plagues us the day before. Some votes came in for the dirt path, until we remembered the Classens' report that the last 20 km into Lyon on road had a bike lane. Since we were exactly 20 km out, we eagerly expected that lane to appear. And actually it did appear, but not before just a little more adrenalin was expended out with the cars.

As you see, Dodie accurately rides the white line. You have to be able to do that to survive in even the most bike friendly countries.

Hey, even after we found the bike lane a bike eating cleaning machine went for Dodie. Was its appetite whetted by that street beggar yesterday?

And finally, here is the bike/bus lane that was highly praised by Kathleen Classen.

Shortly after we did find a bike lane, and after deking out the street cleaning machine, we came to a much more pleasant obstruction in the path. It was a complete food market, sitting right in our path! A market is just about our favourite thing, and this time more so because we had rejected the lame breakfast offered by the "Premiere Classe" and so we were starving.

As is usually the case, the vendors asked some of the Usual Questions (UQs) and commented favourably on our trip. The fruit man who sold us bananas and oranges also threw in two kiwis. Really nice.

We often find at markets the benefits of immigration, in the form of exotic foods that are available and prepared by people from foreign lands. This was the case with a stall where three men were preparing a variety of flat breads, with names that we mostly unfamiliar to us. No matter, they made us one into which was wrapped chicken, cheese, and potato. It was so good!

A few stalls down a vendor had baguettes, among a variety of other foods, and Dodie just instinctively ordered one. Some feet back I was jumping up and down saying "Warning, warning - not top quality!" But Dodie missed this subtle signal, and 80 euro cents later we were the proud owners of an (admittedly fresh) baguette. A few stalls later, we came to the "real" bakery. This had many lovely breads and also seeded baguettes. So we invested there is a flax seed one. The bag explained that the flour was local, sourced from only four named farms, and so forth. This type of thing, plus claims to have been making artisanal breads for the last 300 years, etc. is normal here. And the thing is, these breads really are terrific.

For bread like that you need good cheese. No problem. A quick discussion with one of the cheese stalls produced a small, soft and mild St Marcellin. You can read about it on seriouseats.com. That is not to say we knew what we were buying at the time - we just took the cheese lady's advice.

Come with us to the market:

Olives - our daughter Laurie's favourite

Some of the real breads at the second bread stall

Ah some brioche - our friend Michel's favourite. How much fun would it be to have Laurie and Michel and other friends here to help us enjoy this bounty.

An apple tarte. Love these, but actually got a small apricot one.

Clutching our market treasures we voluntarily swung over to the river side path to find a place to sit. I started to feed the first bread to the swans, but also tasted some myself. Hey, not all that bad! So the swans only got part, and later in the day the remaining bread tasted fine with the good cheese.

Bread snob feeds the swans, but later he was glad to have bread, any bread, with the cheese.

Our trajectory was bringing us down the Saone. But at Lyone the Saone joins the Rhone. The Saone is on the west, while the Rhone is coming from Geneva and so arrives at Lyon on the east. Our route put us in a bike and bus tunnel that cut us over from the Saone to the Rhone. So after that we continued down on the east side of Lyon. Here is the picture:

The Saone on the left, the Rhone on the right. The old town is on the west bank of the Saone, as the the symbol of the city, the church Notre Dame de Fourviere

As we pedaled down the east bank of the Rhone, we could look across to the buildings on the peninsula between the rivers, and we could look up to Fourviere. The confluence of the two rivers is called La Confluence (figures) and that is the location of a very weird modern architecture museum.

The very modern 1.5 km tunnel takes cyclists from the Saone to the Rhone

The Basilica as seen from across the Rhone

Looking towards the Saone from the Rhone

The city has four riverbanks - all offer good access for the public to the water side.

The radically designed museum at the Confluence

Lyon is without doubt one of the most beautiful cities there is. With the two rivers and surrounding hills, the setting is spectacular. The buildings are elegant and the old town (which we did not visit this time) has a lot of interest all on its own.

We were thrilled to be back in beautiful Lyon, and we were happy to at last be on the official bike route, the Via Rhona, not to mention happy to be on the Rhone, which would soon take us to Montelimar nougat, the Cotes du Rhine wine region, Provence, and the Camargue! What we forgot, what we would have known had we re-read our own 2013 blog, was that Via Rhona signage is virtually non-existent in Lyon and for 30 km beyond, and that those 30 km are tortuously twisted as they rise and fall in the hills above the river. I think I would now add to that that while the drivers are skillful and reasonable, the cars come at you in this section from all angles and speeds and if you do not stay fully alert you are not coming out of it, even if you would be able to beat the hills plus find your way.

Yes for 30 km it was up and down and all around, stop in the shade to check the GPS, backtrack, cross roads after pushing the pedestrian button, challenge cars to give you a break at crosswalks, cycle with semis on your tail, and so forth. After a whole lot of climbing through urban sprawl, we did come to some areas of fruit tree and grape cultivation. Then all the climbing became a breakneck descent, making us glad of our Magura brakes.

A rather stylish look at grapes, up in the hills - where we were! Soon we would see that all the east facing slopes by the river are planted with vines.

Finally at Givors, just after a session on a narrow road with a semi behind, and semis approaching, we bust out onto the Rhone. Remember, the Rhone!

And pretty soon we actually saw another Via Rhona sign! It had been 30 km in the desert but now here we were. "Here" turned out to be just the way we would have hoped from the start. A nicely paved path, mostly by the river, and with any turns Via Rhona signed. It was great, but then we really needed it. We still had 30 kms to go to the gite we had reserved.

Only with perfect conditions would be have a chance of getting there any time soon. And in fact the conditions were perfect. Not only was the path and signage good, but there were interesting things to look at. There were towns, like Vienne, with its hilltop chapel and 12th century cathedral in the town, and there were hilltop wine villages, with the vines high up, but still below. One thing we especially liked was seeing a group of kids, out for an expedition on the veloroute. One day we want to bring our own grandkids out for similar riding.

Notre Dame de la Salette chapel, above Vienne

12th century cathedral St Maurice in Vienne

Hilltop villages with vines in terraces below

We finally arrived at our stop, which is called Gite des Oves, on a island in the river. It is by a nature reserve, and I am listening to the frogs singing there as I write this. The place is isolated, and it was nice to just park our bikes on the porch without any locks or worries. Breakfast is extra and would be just a minimal French one, but we went for it since it will be about 10 km to the first next place to find something once we leave here. Besides, the prospect of waking up to breakfast is always nice. And this time it will be after a restful sleep, loudly serenaded by frogs.

Today's ride: 92 km (57 miles)
Total: 1,568 km (974 miles)

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