This week’s on this day post comes from the 5th-August-2010, and I’m cycling with Katrin, the Swiss cyclist I’d met in France the previous month. After completing our ride along the Loire valley, we cycled to England. And now we’re heading to Switzerland. And today was one of our longest days.
Thursday 5th August. Vitry le Francois to Toul. 91 miles
We didn’t finish cycling until 7.30 today, but despite it being a long day. It was much better than yesterday, and I also found my newest favourite shop.
It was a bit of a cold, damp start this morning. But as we left Vitry le Francois, we found a cycle path running along the Canal de la Marne, which we managed to stay on all morning. And even after the canal, the roads we found ourselves on were good. No cornfields, well, maybe a couple, but the majority of roads were through tree-lined valleys.
After about seventy miles, we stopped at the small town of Vaucouleurs, hoping to find a hotel or campsite. Unfortunately, there was nothing there. The lady in the “office du Tourisme” said some hotels were twenty miles away but were in the wrong direction. She didn’t know of any hotels in our direction until Nancy. But that was thirty miles away! We contemplated heading off to the hotels in the wrong direction, but that just didn’t feel right. In the end, we decided to put our heads down and head for Nancy.
Luckily we only had to cycle another seventeen miles before we came across our hotel here in Toul, which was just as well. We were both pretty worn out. And as I said earlier, I discovered my newest favourite shop, Lidl. Five large cans of beer, two bananas and a large packet of crisps, all for less than three euros! The bananas were the healthy option for Katrin!
