Day 3. St Dizier to Moirans. 472 Kms, 293 miles
We had a very nice meal in the hotel last night. We went for the meal of the day, and had three lovely courses, plus a great bottle of Bordeaux red. We sat at a table next to Klaus and Mitzi, and engaged in pleasant, if somewhat Germanic, conversation. The wine went down well, and soon we were ready for bed.
I discovered that my phone had died during the day. Not good, seeing as I had only received a brand new one the day we left. Buggeration. Anyone who needs me should email me, or contact me via Jelena.
After a decent nights sleep, we had a breakfast of croissant and coffee (the diet is out of the window for this trip), and then got our shit together. My bike gear was still a bit damp, but not too terrible. Load up went as planned, but satnav could not remember my route, so all the hours that I had spent planning and uploading the routes we for nought. It had kept the waypoints though, and upon calculating the days ride informed me that we were in for about six and a half hours of riding.
So, off we rode. South of St Dizier, things began to look prettier. We avoided motorways and toll roads, and rode through very pretty villages and scenery. Lots of sunflowers.
We passed through a town called Langres, which is in the south of the champagne region that we had been traversing. It is a fortified medieval city, and was really stunning to behold. Intact and massive walls around the citadel, great views and interesting looking buildings all added to the charm. I would like to go back and spend some time there.
We stopped at Dijon for a visit to the Carrefour supermarket to buy some lunch. We stocked up on sausage, salad and a beer, and then headed out again, stopping an hour later to enjoy the fruits of our shopping at a roadside picnic spot. As the afternoon wore on, we started to get glimpses of the Alps. We rode up some beautiful valleys, and the twists and curves started to make the riding more interesting too.
The French Alps are really lovely, and as we got nearer to them and climbed higher inland, we got some really good views. The clouds were quite heavy, and made for some impressive scenes. It hardly rained today, but it got cooler as we climbed higher toward the peaks.
We are staying tonight in the village of Moirans, just outside of Voiron in the central Alp region. The hotel is a metal container that was stolen from a ship and plonked on an industrial estate outside of town. Nice shower though, and the bed seems quite comfy. We went back to Voiron to getting our supper from the supermarket, got back quite late, and had a few tins of beer and our dinner. Tomorrow is exciting as we are not planning such a long ride, and we tackle the largest portion of the Route Napoleon. Google it.