Part III, The Second Day – In Which We Discover That as Old Men, We Can Still Get It Done.

The next day June 13, dawned bright and clear – although I certainly did not see the dawn.  I actually slept until 8AM.  Roger was up earlier and had had a look about town, which sits on both sides of the Rhone.  It had once been two towns in two countries – France and Savoie, complete with border posts. 

Sign near the hotel

 After breakfast we decided to cross the river and go down the right bank, as this was the first time we had actually been right on the river this trip.  We were both pretty fatigued as we had never done anything like the previous day’s trip.  But, we were in flatter, more populated territory and planned to take it easy, pedaling leisurely along the river and stopping in the late afternoon, probably at Groslée, about 60 kilometers away. 

Bit of scenery along the way

 

Dam on the Rhone

We started on the paved road in Seyssel, and soon struck out along the flat gravel path along the top of the river levee.  Lots of scenery, no hills, no trucks and cars, some runners and other bikers - great for relaxed biking.  We made reasonable time and arrived at the town of Belley for lunch.  There was a bit of a hill right before the town, but nothing we couldn’t handle.

Rhone with bike path

 Nice lunch outside at a small brasserie with lots of wine and good food.  When David went in to pay the bill, the man behind the bar offered him (free!) two glasses of Chartreuse, a liqueur made from a centuries-old recipe at a local monastery in the town of Chartreuse.  Very interesting, and lethal, stuff.   Another twenty minutes later, we finally wobbled out of town on a paved bike path along the river.

Decommissioned nuclear power plant at Malville

Again, the going was fairly easy and we arrived in Groslée, a fair-sized town, a bit after five, with about 70 kilometers done.  We searched around for a hotel and finally asked a woman if there was one in town.  No hotel here was the response, nor did she know of one nearby.  Great consternation on our part, it was very warm, the skies were starting to look threatening, and a nasty headwind was picking up.   The woman consulted with her friend, looking at our maps and finally came up with a place about 15 kilometers away.  Roger’s cell had no service, so we could not make any calls – we would just have to push on and take our chances. 

Flower baskets on the wall - note clouds thickening

 We came to another small town, Flévieu, shortly – again, no hotels.  A few drops began to fall, so we took shelter in the building that housed the old community ovens, and waited to see what the weather would do.  The drops stopped so we decided to press on.  We now had a very stiff and steady headwind that made progress very difficult.  Any upslope reduced our progress to a crawl – it sometimes was easier and almost as fast to get off and walk on the hills.  We checked out a couple of places that used to be hotels or inns – no longer operating as such.

Community oven in Flévieu

Old community laundry

 We got onto the town of Les Granges around 7:30 and there was the hotel at the crossroads.  The women at Groslée had thought that it was located just before the town so we were a bit concerned when we didn’t see it.  Roger checked his odometer – 85 kilometers – second most ever – so much for our easy day!  An average of about 100 kilometers a day for two days - we were feeling it, but we had gotten it done.

Hotel Rolland in Les Granges

But again, a very nice hotel with a pleasant and efficient woman in charge. It's been in the same family for four generations!  

We had a great dinner with a nice bottle of Mercurey [red burgundy].  While we ate, it began to rain, hard - a very narrow escape.  We talked about the next day and figured we had only 60-70 kilometers to go to Lyon and would be home by evening, a day earlier than expected.

Dominique, Roger’s wife, was returning from a two-week visit in Ireland to see her daughter and grandchild.  I had not called Anna the night before as it was a bit late, and tonight Roger’s cell had no service.  Oh well, two peaceful days for Anna, or so I thought.