Tuesday July2 - Day 6 - 59 miles - Total 228 miles
Today we packed up our campsite of 2 days (what a luxury). Andrea's knee is on the mend thanks to Bruce's marvelous bike adjustment skills. We went to the little boulangerie for breakfast and made coffee in a little gazebo. We watched the beginning of field day for a local elementary school start in the gardens of the banker's mansion.
Right out of Bar Le Duc, we had to huff it up a pretty big hill and after that we followed the Voie Sacree (Sacred Way) which was the supply route to the front lines during the battle of Verdun in 1916 (WWI).
Note: Wind turbines are always located at the highest point in an area as to catch the greatest amount of wind.... this would be very interesting for someone who saw many of the up close and personal except that means that one must reach them... by bike... to the highest elevations in an area... up a 12% incline... ouch.
Then a lot of rolling hills of France until the town of Commercy, where they have a chateau that looks like a mini Versailles (but Versailles is HUGE so this place was still pretty big). We had lunch in a restaurant in the courtyard of the chateau called the Fer de Cheval. Plat du jour on the menu and all was well! - We had a french flan for dessert!
We left town through an archway past a strange modern fountain and past a velodrome as well.
In a little village called Geville, we stopped at a strange little fountain with lion's heads as the spigot and dipped out bandanas in the icy cool water to cool down. This water was straight out of the earth cold! Later we found out that it was an old village washing station for washing the community's clothes.
Up and down and up and down and up and down in 90 degree heat...
Until off in the distance we saw a vision. Two touring cyclists a few hills ahead of us, hazy in the heat of the day. We waved and then lost them over the crest of the hill. We were catching up to them, seeing them at the tops of the hills and then losing them again. We thought we saw them turn to see us but they never stopped and waited for us to catch up. They were obviously male and female, which would have been great to meet and chat about where they were going and what not... We were less than a block behind them when they turn up the road going towards Toul... a different way than we were going and they were gone! Very strange, as usually you stop and chat with other touring cyclists and pass on any tidbits of information gleaned and exchange pleasantries....so for them not to stop was kind of a breach of protocol, but whatever.
We were hot and tired from trying to catch up so we stopped in the shade. We were greeted by a very nice old French lady with a Dachshund. She babbled to us in French and we nodded nicely until she walked away... As they walked away, we got a look at the dog from behind and that dog had the biggest "doggy cajones"you have ever seen. They were practically on the ground!
Confused the happenings of the past several minutes: disappearing cycle tourists and a dog that was ALL DOG! we pushed on through Sanzey, Menil la Tour, Marbache and other villages until we reached Pompey, near Nancy. We did a quick supermarket run and found out that there was a hotel slightly out of town near Custines. We huffed it back up a small hill, over the River and found the hotel.
They only had a room with twin beds left and it was on the 3rd floor (US) 2nd floor (European). The good part was that they had a locking garage that we could leave the bikes in. The bad part was that we had to take all the bags off the bikes (like the Eurostar again!) and huff them up to the 3rd floor as there was no elevator!
Then we started discovering issues with the room, which you don't want to do after 60miles on a 90degree day. The airconditioning didn't work; the balcony door didn't close properly (letting in bugs); the storm shutter was stuck in a half closed position; and worst of all the toilet smelled really bad.
Andrea figured out the storm shutter (it had a turning rod contraption hidden behind the 1970s orange curtains - similar to retracting an awning).Knowing that the restaurant was closing soon - we hightailed it down there and would deal with the other issues later.
Dinner was interesting. We finally ordered the "Completo" buffet, after a strange multilingual conversation with the owner? of the place, which was basically a choice of a the Shaw's salad bar... no not the nice green pretty one, but the one that is mostly black, with the olives and other pungent salad bar options, followed by Chef Boyardi spaghetti for Andrea and a turkey fritter and fries for Bruce. With an Orangina chaser. Dessert was funny because we thought that we should go back to the buffet but when we asked the young waiter "Dessert? Buffet?", he shrieked a little and ran away, getting the other young waiter who spoke a tiny bit of English to help us do exactly what we thought we were supposed to... pick from a small cold case on the wall. We had Tiramasu and Strawberry glace. That was nice.
We passed the vacant reception desk... When we got back to our room, we called to try and get some help with our dysfunctional room. Soon there was a knock at the door and the Owner? of the restaurant was now our maintenance man with a key to another room down the hall. After taking a whiff of the dodgy toilet he switched us to a room down the hall. We lugged our gear down there and finally got some shuteye for the night.
And spent!
The World is Ours!
Today we packed up our campsite of 2 days (what a luxury). Andrea's knee is on the mend thanks to Bruce's marvelous bike adjustment skills. We went to the little boulangerie for breakfast and made coffee in a little gazebo. We watched the beginning of field day for a local elementary school start in the gardens of the banker's mansion.
Right out of Bar Le Duc, we had to huff it up a pretty big hill and after that we followed the Voie Sacree (Sacred Way) which was the supply route to the front lines during the battle of Verdun in 1916 (WWI).
Note: Wind turbines are always located at the highest point in an area as to catch the greatest amount of wind.... this would be very interesting for someone who saw many of the up close and personal except that means that one must reach them... by bike... to the highest elevations in an area... up a 12% incline... ouch.
Then a lot of rolling hills of France until the town of Commercy, where they have a chateau that looks like a mini Versailles (but Versailles is HUGE so this place was still pretty big). We had lunch in a restaurant in the courtyard of the chateau called the Fer de Cheval. Plat du jour on the menu and all was well! - We had a french flan for dessert!
We left town through an archway past a strange modern fountain and past a velodrome as well.
In a little village called Geville, we stopped at a strange little fountain with lion's heads as the spigot and dipped out bandanas in the icy cool water to cool down. This water was straight out of the earth cold! Later we found out that it was an old village washing station for washing the community's clothes.
Up and down and up and down and up and down in 90 degree heat...
Until off in the distance we saw a vision. Two touring cyclists a few hills ahead of us, hazy in the heat of the day. We waved and then lost them over the crest of the hill. We were catching up to them, seeing them at the tops of the hills and then losing them again. We thought we saw them turn to see us but they never stopped and waited for us to catch up. They were obviously male and female, which would have been great to meet and chat about where they were going and what not... We were less than a block behind them when they turn up the road going towards Toul... a different way than we were going and they were gone! Very strange, as usually you stop and chat with other touring cyclists and pass on any tidbits of information gleaned and exchange pleasantries....so for them not to stop was kind of a breach of protocol, but whatever.
We were hot and tired from trying to catch up so we stopped in the shade. We were greeted by a very nice old French lady with a Dachshund. She babbled to us in French and we nodded nicely until she walked away... As they walked away, we got a look at the dog from behind and that dog had the biggest "doggy cajones"you have ever seen. They were practically on the ground!
Confused the happenings of the past several minutes: disappearing cycle tourists and a dog that was ALL DOG! we pushed on through Sanzey, Menil la Tour, Marbache and other villages until we reached Pompey, near Nancy. We did a quick supermarket run and found out that there was a hotel slightly out of town near Custines. We huffed it back up a small hill, over the River and found the hotel.
They only had a room with twin beds left and it was on the 3rd floor (US) 2nd floor (European). The good part was that they had a locking garage that we could leave the bikes in. The bad part was that we had to take all the bags off the bikes (like the Eurostar again!) and huff them up to the 3rd floor as there was no elevator!
Then we started discovering issues with the room, which you don't want to do after 60miles on a 90degree day. The airconditioning didn't work; the balcony door didn't close properly (letting in bugs); the storm shutter was stuck in a half closed position; and worst of all the toilet smelled really bad.
Andrea figured out the storm shutter (it had a turning rod contraption hidden behind the 1970s orange curtains - similar to retracting an awning).Knowing that the restaurant was closing soon - we hightailed it down there and would deal with the other issues later.
Dinner was interesting. We finally ordered the "Completo" buffet, after a strange multilingual conversation with the owner? of the place, which was basically a choice of a the Shaw's salad bar... no not the nice green pretty one, but the one that is mostly black, with the olives and other pungent salad bar options, followed by Chef Boyardi spaghetti for Andrea and a turkey fritter and fries for Bruce. With an Orangina chaser. Dessert was funny because we thought that we should go back to the buffet but when we asked the young waiter "Dessert? Buffet?", he shrieked a little and ran away, getting the other young waiter who spoke a tiny bit of English to help us do exactly what we thought we were supposed to... pick from a small cold case on the wall. We had Tiramasu and Strawberry glace. That was nice.
We passed the vacant reception desk... When we got back to our room, we called to try and get some help with our dysfunctional room. Soon there was a knock at the door and the Owner? of the restaurant was now our maintenance man with a key to another room down the hall. After taking a whiff of the dodgy toilet he switched us to a room down the hall. We lugged our gear down there and finally got some shuteye for the night.
And spent!
The World is Ours!
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