Bicycles and Baguettes (Sept. 2)

Another day another beautiful sunrise. I could get used to this. Who am I kidding? I AM used to this. Okay, maybe not the part where I’m waking up at sunrise but the beautiful sunny conditions have been great.

Today’s plan was to continue to head south towards Lyon where a flight awaits me on Tuesday. I’m actually making much faster progress than I anticipated. I’m not sure how. I THOUGHT I had planned it out properly but I think I’m a day ahead of schedule. Oh well, it’s a good problem to have and I can certainly use the time to get some work done.

Despite rising at sunrise, I couldn’t get on the road today before 9:00 because I left my Anker battery backup charging overnight at the reception desk – the battery takes a LONG time to charge. I didn’t realize the office didn’t open until 9:00 when I made the decision to leave my battery overnight. That said, it’s not like being on the road before 9:00 has been commonplace on this trip. Plus, with sunrise getting later each day I’m still practically sleeping in even when I get up with the sun.

Sadly, my plan to charge my battery didn’t entirely work out. I can’t be sure but I think when the office closed last night they may have turned off the power bar into which they had plugged my battery. So, instead of having a fully charged battery I only had a half charged battery. Fortunately, half a charge of my Anker battery would still last me a couple of days.

My first stop of the day was at the Lidl grocery store a couple of kilometres up the road. Unlike yesterday’s grocery stop I would not be forgetting batteries. I would also not be buying ice cream (sadly).

With new AA batteries installed in my Garmin, I was ready to navigate to wherever I was going today – which, if all went well, would be a town called Mervans. I’m not going to lie, even with my e-Trex 20 working again, navigation during the early portion of today’s ride was a bit of a mess. Garmin once again wanted to send me a VERY long way so I had to ignore its suggestions and figure things out for myself (with the assistance of Maps.Me). It took some time (over an hour) before Garmin and Maps.Me were on the same page – or map, as the case may be. Once that happened the ride was very enjoyable.

As it happens, much of this morning’s ride followed the canal again and the Eurovelo 6 route (aka. EV 6). That said, I have no idea where the EV 6 actually starts and ends so I couldn’t just blindly follow it. It was nice to follow it as long as I did but eventually our paths diverted and my route became more like the road routes of my North American tours (minus the wide shoulders … of the road, not me). Despite the lack of shoulders, traffic wasn’t much of an issue. There wasn’t much of it and when there was the drivers all gave plenty of room when passing.

Once back on the main roads, the ride was practically effortless. Not that I was looking to make good time today but I definitely felt like I was making good time today.

As mentioned previously, my destination for today was the town of Mervans and, more specifically, the Municipal Campground in Mervans. Given that it was a municipal campground I made a couple of assumptions. It was probably going to be cheap. Basic. And lacking of WiFi (although, that kind of goes with basic). It turns out, I was right. Although, it wasn’t all that basic. There were nice washrooms and showers. And potable water. You know, the important stuff. Oh, and it was only 3.70€. Side note: I’ve yet to really figure out if the “€” should go before or after the price.

The campground was particularly quiet when I arrived. In fact, there were only three campers at the site and it appears that the site will actually be closed for the season in a couple of weeks. Given that there was no one manning the office I decided to pedal into town to see if there was anywhere to get some provisions. There was.

As far as I can tell, Mervans is a quiet little town with only a few shops but one of those shops is a Carrefour. I’d seen signs for “Carrefour” along my route over the past couple of days but I wasn’t really sure what it was. I’d heard of it. But that was about it. In my head I kept asking, “What’s a Carrefour?” Of course, my head would always respond, “Driving, silly.” Not helpful.

The Carrefour was actually rather helpful as it allowed me stock up on a few more groceries. If all went well I probably wouldn’t need another grocery store before I reached Lyon.

Perhaps my most significant purchase at Carrefour was a baguette. Even though I’ve been in France for a few days now, I’ve yet to purchase a baguette – not for lack of availability. Pretty much every campground has them available in large quantities. And people buy them in large quantities. I felt it was time for me to have the France/baguette experience – which, of course, included putting said baguette on the back of my bike. If I didn’t know better, I’d think there was a law that required cyclists to travel with baguettes on their bikes. That said, the baguette I had was very good – even if it didn’t come from a fancy bakery. Side note: All the small bakeries were closed when I went to get food – the Carrefour was my only option. Did I mention that Mervans is small? Very small.

With my baguette securely fastened to my bike, I returned to the campground to set up for the night. As evenings go, it was pretty quiet. I set up my tent, made some pasta, and of course ate my baguette (with some Nutella). I’m not going to lie, I may be addicted to Nutella. Then again, that’s probably not much of a surprise.

Today marked my fifth consecutive day of pedalling in excess of 100 kilometres. If all goes well, it will also be my last day of pedalling in excess of 100 kilometres. Yes, Lyon is getting that close.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 120.15 km
Ride time: 5:31:39
Average speed: 21.73 km/h
Maximum speed: 40.88 km/h