Day 37 - Ligny to Vitry La Francois
We were determined again to get an early start to the day again . So awake at 5.30am and packed and ready to go to the Boulanger for breakfast…. Yes it was 2 croissants and a can of peach juice for me! Gosh I am eating well these days!
After breakfast we were off at about 7.00 am with coolish weather at around 12 degrees with no clouds. I had arm warmers on as it was a bit cool.
We had a shorter ride today which was basically flat although the cycle.travel navigating profile showed we were to drop about 170 metres for the day.
The route was basically along the Marne Rhine canal. There were a few roads we travelled on during the day….
Seems we have almost been on the canal for its entirety during the days from Strasbourg! I think of it as an “old friend “ who has navigated us through some lovely places and very scenic countryside.
The maintenance on the canal seems like almost non existent compared to the earlier days we travelled as the canal itself had a lot of weeds and the banks where the towpath is located was very poor to travel on. It meant we had to be careful as we rode.
It was also evident that the poor state of the canal was attracting little or no river traffic… I cannot remember seeing a boat travelling through the canal today!
We made a stop at Bar Le Duc for morning tea and enjoyed a coffee or 2 ….nothing to eat at morning tea today! This was about at the 15 km mark.
Getting back on the canal track again it was getting worse and the track was quite rough which required some considerable concentration to ensure we picked the best path to travel.
We were making good time and agreed it was best to make for Vitry La Francois, being our destination for the day. We arrived at 12 midday which was perfect time for lunch.
There was a market in town so I got a baguette and strawberry tart for lunch together with a drink and an ice cream!
We needed to wait for the check in at our accommodation which was 2.00 pm…and as we were waiting who should attribute our friend on the penny farthing bike. It was good to see him again and we took a few photos…. He was keen to know a bit more about Australia as he is looking to do a ride around Australia on his penny farthing !!!! Good luck!
As it was time to check in at our accommodation we made our way to the address provided by Booking.com…. And we could not find it!!!! So after making a few enquiries of some locals, we were sent off to a new address for the agency looking after our accommodation. As it turned out the office of the agency had is booked in at an apartment at the back of the agency office. It turned out to be a really good surprise as the apartment has a swimming pool and very generous accommodation for us all!
Sometimes luck falls your way!
Today we entered the Champagne region of France and the next couple of days we will see all that the region has to offer. The town we are in tonight has quite a pretty town square and seems well laid out.
Today we travelled 72 kms and climbed 92 metres.
The pictures today are:
The route
Morning coffee…. Cappuccino with cream!
Entering the Champagne region
The village square in Vitry with cathedral and Olympic flags
An interesting structure we saw along the way which had a big water trough…. Or was it a swimming pool?
The trail beside the canal gets a bit rough!… no problem for us though
A selfie of us all with the rider from Germany riding his penny farthing
Our accomodation with it’s swimming pool !!!!
The front door of our apartment
