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| The turrets at the Chateau in La Clayette |
After catching up with a few
people in NZ this morning we thought we would take the bikes for a bit of a
ride around the roadways through the vines before we left. I thought it would
be no problem tackling the hills with my electric bike – but I was wrong! Got
halfway up a hill and neither the bike nor me could go any further, we had
reached our limit! It seems that I will have to get a bit fitter.
Decided to take a scenic drive
around this area and head up into the hills which is the home of Charolais
cattle. After leaving the lower rolling hills of the Beaujolais we continued
along the D roads to La Clayette. The
countryside was a picture, with meadows and small groups of cattle interspersed
with small villages. Stopped at a boulangerie in one of these and got our
baguette for lunch along with a wee sweet treat to go with a morning
coffee…yum.
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| The vines in this area are cut very low to the ground. |
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| Delightful villages nestled into the hills. |
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| Charolais cattle everywhere. |
La Clayette turned out to be a
rather a delightful town with a fairytale type of Chateau surrounded by a lake,
looking truly majestic on such a beautiful day. Meandered around town, but as
always, it was around 1pm and everything was shut. Picked up a few supplies at
the supermarket and continued our circular tourist route, saw a sign that said we
were in the Rhone-Alps and it really was a climb up into the hills before
dropping back down into the valley. Couldn’t get over the huge amount of
forestry and the associated timber mills.
Arrived late this afternoon at an
Aire in Villefranche beside the Saone River. It turned out to be quite a
mission just getting into the place with a barrier that required a card – and
that had to be obtained at another machine which needed me to punch in my email
address which it quickly said wasn’t correct. Finally managed to work it out,
using friend Steve’s email address (thanks Steve!) put my credit card in and
finally received a card that we could use to open the barrier arm. Felt a bit
negative about the camp, but by the time we settled into a spot under trees
beside the river and sat outside in the breeze, all was good. Might even stay
another night!
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| The Chateau |
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| Forestry in France - just for you Big Ed! |
Comments
Thanks to him, my nightmares are now bearable, as whenever I have one,I think of Ian in a French vinyard, riding his bike.