Story of my tour through 7 countries in Europe

Camping La Louvière
Champagney, France
20 July 2013

I slept long that night. I knew I shouldnt have because I had a long ride ahead of me, but the next day would be at the place where I had originally planned my first resting day. I could've kept on going, but I decided that the first resting day counted as an extra one. So the next day I would have a well earned resting day at a lake. I ate some crackers with jam ('merkins call that stuff jelly right?) and went to brush my teeth with sub-zero water, before I started to pack.

Clean pitch and ready to mount the 'saddlebag'.

Enough drinks to not run out of hydration for long a ride. When all was packed and ready to go I went to look for the owners. I still hadn't paid for the night. It wasn't all too early yet there was complete silence. No camping owners out there or other campers for that matter. It was 8:45 and I couldn't afford to stick around much longer. Not that they'd go bankrupt over the €3, but I'm not the kind of person to steal. Especially from nice people. It crossed my mind to leave the money in front of the owners' caravan, but I had no idea which was theirs. With honest remorse I hit the road that day a criminal.

With my stomach not too suffused, after an hour in the saddle I stopped at a LIDL to hook up on some pains au chocolat. There I saw this, in well shape, Peugeot, which I'd quite like as pubber.

I remember my father disliking to cross this part of France by car when we'd go on holidays, but I remember enjoying very much these roads and views from a cyclists pair of eyes. It was a beautiful day and I felt strong. The sky was blue, yet it wasn't too hot, and sometimes a delightful small cloud would protect me from the sun for a little while. These were good moments to pedal slowly and sip from a water bottle. The first 50 km were rather flat, slightly descending actually, and my average speed was close to 30 km/h, which was the fastest I'd ridden since with a laden bike.

There I had entered Lods, Un de Plus Beaux Villages de France (One of France's most beautiful villages). It was breathtaking indeed. Immediately after I exited the village I started one of many steep climbs. It was hard but very doable and I enjoyed the effort.

After every climb came a gorgeous valley.

Lausanne. I was closing in on Switzerland. Pontarlier was not far from where I was going, so it was a good sign to see its name come up.

Hard to see on the photo, but this climb was steep indeed.

The salt on my arm as proof of hard work. As you can see, my legs were always tidily shaved.

This building was extended at least three times. It was at this point when my Garmin went out of battery. Because I hadn't have the chance to charge my Garmin 500 the night before on that natural camping I was tracking with my Garmin 800, which didn't have what it takes. Before I switched to the 500, which had sufficient battery power left to finish the day's ride, I checked where I was and found out that I'd taken quite the detour. No real problems, but with 140 km and some steep hills already in the legs it would have been nice to relax for a bit soon.

It didnt come all too soon. This climb was not an easy one, but it was the last. The rest of the route was going down all the way to the valley where lay Lac-Saint-Point, my lake of destination. The name confused me a bit, as the name of the village next to the lake where I was heading was called Saint-Point-Lac.

Down at the lake I got stuck in a queue... After that was sorted, I entered the camping and was helped by an incredibly nice and beautiful girl, who opened the shop next to the reception for me, which was actually already closed for the day. She gave me one of the last free pitches. I was lucky to get one as it was a busy period she said. I bought some canned stuff and some fruits and veggies to eat, a big bottle of water and a refrigerated can of orange juice.

After setting up camp I sat down in front of my tent a bit and refuelled. I was starting to get a cyclists tan and I was proud of it.

Then before bed I hung out at the lake and with some swans.

*Champagney - Saint-Point-Lac
171.8 km
2119 m *