Day 51: Saint Thiébault to Langres

September 29, 2024

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The unseasonable weather thing took another twist today, with a starting temperature for us of 3°C. For me that meant adding the down sweater to all the other gear, and for Dodie it was extra clothes as well. We then heated yesterday's soggy kiosk pizza in the microwave, and in principle were set to brave the day's ride.

We did notice some interesting stuff right out of the gate. There is a cheese that Michel from Nantes introduced to us years ago, and that has become one of our favourites. It's called Caprice des Dieux and is basically a spreadable Camembert. It seems like we were just down the road from the factory! But in the cold, 2km over to the town of Illoud and back felt like a lot. Plus, even though they have tours, 7:30 on a Sunday morning was likely not prime time for them to be open! Ok, next time.

Next we looked up, to the fortified town of Bourmont. Dodie thought it looked magical in the misty cold. I thought it looked up, and cold!

Next we passed the corner from which I had spied the pizza machine, the thing that had saved the evening (and the next morning) with its soggy underbaked delicacy. Looking from the corner and rolling through at speed, Dodie marvelled at how I had spotted the kiosk.m She got me to take a photo (below) showing exactly what I saw from my bike yesterday. Can you find the kiosk? Dodie can spot a fox in a field at 600 feet. But if you need a bakery, or a pizza at distance, I'm your man!

Our next nearby find was a bakery that we saw yesterday but that did not have any opening times posted on the door. This time it was Dodie that spotted someone inside, and yes, it was open! It meant we would have lunch after all!

When I snapped the shot below, I thought I was getting a great image of a church and town, lost in a valley with frosty mist. I guess I did get that, but here in the "lab" I also see that lots of that mystical mist is exhaust from some sort of factory installation. I suspect that will keep me from winning any sort of awards for the great shot!

Ok, how about these lovely white cows in the green field?

We were reminded that we are on one of many "Camino" routes here, by the welcome sign of a cyclist and pilgrim friendly gite. It was nice to see, because really being a cyclist or even a walker here is a lonely occupation.

Notwithstanding, in terms of natural beauty the last few days have been outstanding for us. Just look at the shot below!

Although this shot (below) also helps show the beautiful area, I actually took it because of the many birds in the field. We make these to be Northern Lapwing, something that is reaching near endangered status in Europe.

Near Lenizeul we crossed the Meuse, and wow, is it ever a fraction of the mighty river we had crossed so often in the past ten or more days!

We passed this beautiful rustic farm house, and then arrived at our next big thing!

The Meuse starts here, and proceeds as we well know, to join the Rhine and then to enter the north sea near Rotterdam. The map shows that the drainage basin is surprisingly narrow, sandwiched between that of the Rhine on one side and the Seine on the other.

This is it! the spot where the Meuse comes out of the ground. From that point it has a scummy pool and then a ditch that runs by the road. But as we know, in just a few kms it starts to look like a respectable little stream.

We were stoked from our encounter with the source of the Meuse, because it was an achievement to have cycled basically the whole thing. Also, at the source the three countries that the river passes through had put up a lot of signage, and also a very nice shelter with picnic table. This helped us a lot, as a place to eat our lunch and to prepare for the second half of the day's ride.

The high and the lunch saw us through some fairly serious climbs, such as after Neuilly-l'Eveque, but we were fine, until the powers that be helped us out with a "voie verte". Voie vertes are often great, but sometimes they are "green washing" for the idea that bicycles don't count, so let's toss them onto that old dirt track, and call it green. Below you see Dodie on the voie verte approaching Langres.

It also looked like they wanted us to tumble down this, but we found a safer way.

The safer way put us on a "voie bleu", meaning a nicely paved path beside the Champagne to Burgundy canal.

Our problems were not over, though, because we had to leave the canal to get into Langres. Langres is a walled, fortified city, high on a hill. You can actually cycle almost all along the ramparts, if you can get there!

Our way into town began with this road. It is as steep as it looks, probably more so.

There are two levels of defence where we chose to storm the castle. This first gate is at the Tour Virot, built 1470.

Our next challenge was to push up and through the Henri IV gate. That is a 13th century thing, though it has the recent time stamp of 1604 on it now.

1604 - seems like a recent development. Henry IV was king of France from 1589. He was assassinated in 1610!

Looking past the cyclable ramparts to one of the lakes around Langres. You can see that we are quite high up.

Here on main street: Rue Diderot, we finally found some level ground. It's a relief to be able to go back and forth without pushing.

Looking the other way on Rue Diderot we see something of a cathedral.There are a ton of things to see inside the old town (ok, 34 things on the tourism office list). But we need to get to Dijon tomorrow, and will probably just do a quick back and forth in this town.

Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 2,601 km (1,615 miles)

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