The Annual Bike Trip - Day 4

We arose the next morning and had breakfast at the hotel.  We discussed planning our route and trying to avoid having the GPS directing us onto unsuitable dirt/mud/steep/rocky trails.  The weather looked threatening – gray, occasional drizzle.

Breakfast Thursday Morning

At one point we stopped to check our route and got into a conversation with a retired meunier, or miller in the town of Charbonnay.  [I may have the town name incorrect – cannot find it online.]  He and David discussed flour-milling a bit as years ago David had worked at a flour mill that stone-ground its flour.  The GPS continued to sometimes ‘suggest’ that we go off in another direction, but we managed to stay on decent but narrow paved roads with few cars.

For about 45 minutes before Champagnole, we had spatterings of rain, but the speed of the bike meant we were pretty dry by Champagnole.  We found a sort of food-truck type of restaurant with semi-permanent covered seating in the square at Champagnole in time for lunch.

Lunch at the Food Truck

We fell into a conversation with some folks at another table – the man said he had recently vacationed in Belize but “everyone was on strike – just like in France”.  At John’s suggestion, the three of us shared fondue, with bread chunks and Gruyere cheese.  We enjoyed it with a bottle of Chapoutier Côtes du Rhône that unfortunately had been stored in the refrigerator, and so was cold.

After lunch, we headed off for the small town of Ney, about 2km away, where our Gite was located.

The weather began to further deteriorate after we arrived at our Gite, a nice ground-floor apartment with two bedrooms and a roll-away bed.  Since David had gotten first choice of sleeping arrangements the night before, he wound up on the roll-away in the kitchen.

As the evening came on, the weather further worsened and since none of us wanted to go out in the rain, it began to look as if we might be reduced to granola bars for dinner.  Then our hostess showed up with a homemade clafoutis for dessert.  She then found out that we had no dinner options and announced she would fix us a dinner, over our protestations. 

Dinner Before we Dug In!

John and David Toasting Our Rescuers

David's Bottle of Arbois Red

Roger and John Enjoying Dinner

After 45 minutes or so, she and her husband appeared with lentils and vegies, pasta, and with a dish of a fried eggs on a ground beef patty for each of us, called, David thinks, oeuf à cheval.  David broke open his bottle of Jura red wine that he had bought the day before, and we had quite the meal.  And the French are so rude, stand-offish, and unhelpful - right!

Our Great Thursday Hosts

Total for the day – 45km.