Tour de Grand Est - Stage 1 - Day 2

Early to bed, early to rise.

That goes for us and the birds here. 

Another cloudless day started with quiet roads through farmer's fields of wheat and asparagus, with poppies sprinkled in, and cows and horses.

As we have learned, the cows pay attention, watch us go by and literally make us feel noticed, and the horses, well they ignore you. 

The hay is drying in the fields. We have seen the machine making the rolls and a few trucks VERY loaded with bales. Let me warn you, when a truck full of hay goes by, there are at least 20 seconds of holding your breath. Hay and dust consume the air. 😳

Good news! We pre-ordered our first snack of the day and carried the pastries for the first 25 km to help get us through the morning. 

This area is known for the washing huts near the homes. This one looks like a well, but has an old fashioned ringer. 

After the quiet roads we found ourselves on a road that had a higher speed limit and the wind coming right at us.  The road was straight and smooth. A great equation for drafting!  This was my view for several kilometers. I am sure the country side was pretty but I needed help with the wind... Thanks cycling partner. 

We did end up coming down a smooth, long, straight, low traffic hill, allowing for some fast kilometers to make up for the slow ones. Note, Strava recorded max speed of 50.5. whoosh. 

A cute village with a local artist was all dressed up with wooden art lining the road. Quite lovely. 

Back to quiet country roads and a place to stop for our picnic lunch. Love these tiny, two way roads, that are frequented by farm vehicles. 

After lunch in the shade, it was very hot back on the road, and we saw a sign "Etang". Pond!  We followed the dirt road and found a wee pond, with dogs swimming and dog owners wondering what the heck we were up to. 

Shout out to the Milwaukee cooling cap. It is a game changer for me under my helmet on these hot days. We basically cooled off with wet caps and arm covers and carried on happy. 

Good thing we found the Etang, because we had many more hills to climb, and we found we were on gravel much of the time. Hot bumpy climbing. 

At the stop for groceries and we made new friends. Hank and Felicita. From the Netherlands. They have been cycle touring for decades, and are currently doing a three month tour. Super nice, have been to Toronto (and yes they ate at the restaurant at the CN tower 🤣). 

All the gravel and climbing paid off in the end. 

We are at a very lovely campground (Camping Jonquille) run by a Dutch woman.  She offers a beer frig that is an "honest bar", help yourself, write it down and pay on the way out. 

🍻

Cheers to that! 

We have such a lovely pitch tonight, overlooking the countryside (and all the hills we climbed). 

And there is even a little vineyard on the other side of our tent. 

We have one woman from Germany car camping on one side of us (site 13) and one woman from Belgium who is cycle touring on the other side (site 15).  Such a warm and friendly place to relax and enjoy dinner, and plan tomorrow. 

The good thing about hot weather is that all your kit dries.  Even padded cycling shorts dry in this heat, the thermometer is still reading 30 at 7:25 pm. 

Good night 

Tour de Grand Est - Stage 1 - Haute Marne

This is the map of the intended complete cycling route. We may stray, but this is the idea. Today we started at the green arrow, Chaumont, and did our first 50. 

Somehow oatmeal tastes so much better after a night in the tent. We woke to a beautiful blue sky and a symphony of birds, including "Sammy Crow" at the very tip top of a tall, tall tree, somebody caw caw, cawed to me. (Sorry for the ear worm 😍)

The first hill of the trip was in the first kilometer of the day and it was 12% 😳.  Thankfully it was not yet too hot, and only a few cars came by, and were very kind and waited to safely pass. It was a tough climb. 

One of three today. 

The middle section of the day was along the Canal Entre Champagne et Bourgogne.  Very peaceful and pretty, only a handful of cyclists.

We were cycling "up" the canal so a little uphill each time we came to a lock. 

We passed very few towns today. Not what we are used to in France. We could not find a bakery.. 😳

Charming French Marc asked for advice from the local postal worker, and she was full of advice... about the waterfall, the hiking trails, the history, and all the lovely things we should see.  However, not so much help with the food question. 

The little town had one place to get bread:

We actually got a little pastry from the same machine. No idea what it was but we were happy to split it and get back to the canal. 

Lunch was a Solby family favorite, one small packet of peanut butter, shared, on a baguette with some apple. 

Cycling a canal is so peaceful, no worries about cars or directions. We saw one beaver having a swim, and at least four herons.  Herons are so beautiful to watch take off. Hard to capture while riding but: 

Once off the canal the hills were steep and the air was hot. We found a grocery store and enjoyed some air conditioning. 

and then climbed again to find our campground. I had to stop and enjoy the field of daisies 🌸

We have another grassy shaded pitch, with another picnic table, sweet!  The campground is surrounded by farm land and we watched as the cows came home. 

Our touring meal plan has started, enjoying local veggies and trying to make sure we get enough protein.  "I'll have the chopped salad please" 

We are happy to be touring once again. We have learned so much over our trips, we can fall into the rhythm quite easily.  The cows have now gone home after taking on the birds for which animals could make the most noise this evening. Now the bugs are singing goodbye to sun and we will soon too. 

Until tomorrow 

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