Dijon to Geneva

So after arriving in Dijon I decided to stay a day and explore the city.

More churches. This is Dijon Cathedral:

Notre Dame cathedral

On the side of the cathedral is probably the most famous thing in Dijon, a small carved owl statue that's supposed to grant you a wish somehow. It took me forever to find this since I was expecting something slightly different.

All over town they have these historic and tourist markers that if you follow will take you to the major landmarks, kind of like the freedom trail.

The place de la liberation:

Next to the town hall is the Musée des Beaux-Arts, which was the one museum I wanted to see, but of course it was closed.

Next morning I left Dijon, and headed south straight into wine country. 

 This is probably more impressive in summer.

Also, grapes vines are funny looking

At the suggestion of my hosts in Arras I stopped by the Hospice de Beaune which was an old hospital built in the 1440's turned into a museum.

One of the renovations done was to separate these hospital beds from the chapel with a divider so the sick patients didn't have to watch the last rites and funeral services being performed.

Leaving Beune, I headed further south and when it got dark I knew I was going to be on a canal for the rest of the way into a major city, so I decided to try my first actual campsite in France which turned out to be nothing but the largest RVs I'd ever seen, so I setup my tent just out of the way, if not out of sight.

Waking up I had the usual rain and 30+ mph headwind I've come to expect when leaving a country. Barely able to keep the bike straight I would've stopped to camp sooner, except I knew I had a warm place to stay in Bourg-en-Bresse, so I made it there around 9pm and met some of the nicest hosts so far.

I stayed to explore the city in the morning. They have a famous monastery  but of course the chapel area was closed for renovations. That's what I get for touring in the off-season I guess.

They still had their museum open which had some interesting sculptures and artwork. This is St Nicholas on the right:

Who gave this kid a holy hand grenade of Antioch?

Also in Bourg, they have a lot of old building with wooden paneling

Leaving town, it was up, up, up into the Jura mountains, with some actual decent weather for a change. Most of it was struggling along at 4mph, or pushing up some of the steeper grades, but it was all worth it when at the end of the day I got to overlook my target of Nantua:

And then, I saw this sign:

One quick brake tightening later, and this happened:

weeeeeeeee

I set up my tent at a campground in Nantua that was closed for winter, but they were happy to take my 9 euros and let me camp anyway. It rained during the night, but for once it stopped before I had to leave my tent in the morning, and the ride into Geneva through more mountains was quite pleasant. I took smaller roads that mostly followed the A40.

I can see why they nicknamed it the avenue of the titans

Looking back at a train line across a river:

I'm even down to two layers in this picture!

I made it into Geneva no problem, where I am currently. I was riding around town for a bit exploring and getting slightly lost before I met my host here. I still had the full gear on my bike, and get plenty of interesting looks. I even noticed one guy taking my picture from a bridge I passed under. Time to get used to being a tourist attraction.

Tomorrow I leave for Lausanne, and then I will spend 8-9 days in Switzerland following the national cycle route through the country. More on Geneva later.

500 miles through France

500ish miles and 9.5 days in France

Quick summary:

Calais to somewhere near St Omer, camping - 40ish miles

camping to Arras - 50 miles

Arras to Amiens - 65 miles because of detours for WWI things

Amiens to camping near Noyon - 50 miles

camping to camping somewhere else in the french countryside, east of Soissons - 50 miles

camping to Rheims - 40ish miles

Rheims to camping just outside the city - 20 miles

camping west of St Dizer - 50 miles

camping north of chaumont - 50 miles

camping south of Langres - 50 miles

Dijon, finally - 65 miles

Okay, so France

The first three days were great. I got off the ferry from Calais and was instantly told my O2 sim card was useless. No calls, no data. GPS didn't seem to be working. "It's okay, I planned for this. I still have the maps on my phone. Now to just find where I am." I head into town because the only other direction seems to be towards a motorway. I think I can follow the signs to the train station which should help me find my place on the map, but once I got into town my GPS is suddenly working again. Hurray. I started my journey towards Arras, and on the way, around dinner time I found my way into a small town where a guy had setup a food cart out of a double decker English bus named "les frites qui roule." I managed to successfully order a sausage and fries and successfully give a blank stare when he asked me something back. A few miles down the road I wandered into an Auchan to buy a tart and french sim card before finding a place to camp. I realized I had forgotten just how enormous french supermarkets are. I think it took me 5 minutes to walk from one end of the store to the other.

Day 2 in France.

It was very warm. For the first time in a month I was down to only two layers and I took off my winter gloves to switch to the fingerless gloves. A few differences between England and France so far: Everything is in french, most of the farmland isn't fenced in like it is in England, and the hills are longer and lower grades making it actually possible to ride up them. Also the better gear ratio from the new rear cassette probably helped with that last bit. I made it to Arras to stay with a nice French family where I saw a few churches and their large squares.

Day 3: Off to Amiens.

Also a nice day, but not quite as warm. Between Arras and Amiens there are tons of WWI battlefields and graveyards that I detoured to see. At some point I stopped detouring and taking pictures because it was getting a bit depressing.

I'd say about half the tombstones are unmarked like these:

Several of the sites had these signs:

A ridiculous amount of explosives were dropped in the war and many of them are still around, killing people each year.

The South African war memorial in the Delville wood. 3200 soldiers were ordered to hold this forest. After 5 days, 140 men came out alive.

It doesn't show up in pictures well, but the ground in the entire forest is shaped from explosions

The Theipval memorial:

Lochnagar crater, also known as "La grand mine" where the british dug a tunnel and detonated a lot of explosives under a German strong point.

After all that I arrived in Amiens to stay the night with another nice french couple.

Day 4: Amiens

Amiens has a cathedral, and this one is a Unesco heritage site. To be honest with all the camping I did I don't think it's possible to be out of earshot of a church while in France.

 I probably would've paid more attention to the sermons in church if they were given from this pulpit:

 Obligatory statue of jeanne d'arc

Leaving town I went through these weird floating residence things in a park:

Here is where the weather took a turn for the terrible. As I believe the saying goes "no good day goes unpunished." I'm starting to dread the good days because I know what will follow. Three straight days of rain turned what should've been two days of travel to Rheims into three days of pain.

Apparently in France it's common to close for lunchtime and I wandered into this cathedral in Noyon at noon only to have the door literally closed in my face with a French lady telling me to come back in two hours (yeah right like I want to stay in this nowhere town for 2 hours just to see my hundredth church of the month).

At least I decided that since I was in France I had to class up my camping dinners a bit. A sampling:

Main course: Spaghetti and meatballs with the best nonalcoholic drink ever invented:

Course two: fresh baguette with Camembert. According to my hosts in Amiens, it's better when made with raw milk than with pasteurized. I would agree it does have a bit of a stronger taste, but so far all I've tasted has been store bought, so the jury is still awaiting additional evidence. If it's wrong to eat 250g of Camembert in ten minutes, I don't want to be right. Also in the slightly warmer weather it wont keep for more than a day or so in my bags. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Course three: Eclair(s).

I'm fairly certain the patisseries have been lacing these with cocaine because I can't stop eating them. In other news I think I'm gaining weight instead of losing it like most cycle tourists. Probably not related.

Day 5:

Nothing remarkable. Another day of cold and rain through nowhereville France. I did find it interesting that in all these one-horse towns I passed through, if there was a boulangerie/patisserie it was always the busiest part of town with at least 5 people in it at all times. Oh look, another church:

I was slightly outside the map I had pre-downloaded to my phone, and not sure exactly how to get to Rheims, so I decided to try my brand new, revolutionary method of navigation. Forget maps, forget GPS, forget navigating by the sun (can't see it anyway most of the time), forget navigating by the stars (also can't see them), instead I have been able to navigate by wind. My method so far is thus: at the beginning of each day, point my bike into the wind. That's it. With about 90% accuracy, that's the way I wanted to go. The stronger the headwind, the more confident I am that I'm headed in the right direction. 

Day 6: Made it to Rheims

Surprise, Cathedral: (didn't see that coming did you)

Come on Rheims, You're supposed to have a famous cathedral, and this is the best pulpit you can come up with. Have you see the one in Amiens? This is what you answer with?

Staying with a host in Rheims, he was having a bit of a dinner party with 4 other people. Never before has it been apparent how useless 3 years of French lessons in school were because I didn't understand a thing. Next morning I explored Rheims a bit more, and went to visit Pommery, a champagne house. When in rome... well I still don't like the taste of champagne.

I went to visit the museum where the Germans surrendered in WWII. They still have everything in place like these cool war maps:

Also, for some reason I really love soviet era propaganda (Forward, victory is in sight!):

Days 7-9

Uggggg the weather. France you're supposed to be better than this. Non-stop rain and snow. Four days of camping, while riding along the canal/river. Nothing particularly interesting. Here is France in one picture:

You have your farmland, you have your small town, you have your church steeple, you have your rain/fog. If only there was a way to show a soul-crushing headwind, it would complete the picture. The next two days were unremarkable, except for the fact that spending time sleeping at night was drastically becoming my favorite part of the day (it may look stupid sticking off the back of my bike, but I love my sleeping bag for how warm and cozy it has been keeping me).

Yesterday I awoke to find my right shifter cable had frozen in place and I was unable to switch from the gear I ended the previous day in for the first 10 miles or so until it warmed up. Yes, yes, this is what I expected from France in March:

At least the bike is holding up. Even if my new favorite hobby is swearing at the weather, I know the troll will get me where I want to go. I am counting the days until I am in the desert (it'll feel good to be out of the rain).

Day 10

Another decent day. No rain. Snow for only an hour or so. I think I blew some Frenchman's mind when I told him in broken french that I was headed to Istanbul.

This is the face of someone who hasn't seen the sun in days and who knows he'll  be leaving France soon (also four days of helmet hair):

Finally arrived in Dijon where I'm staying with another host. I will spend one day exploring and resting in Dijon before riding onward and upward towards Geneva.

As I head to higher altitude, I only expect it to get colder. why can't it be summer all the time. :(

Cambridge and London

Another large update as I have been without internet for a while. Travel distances were as follows:
Cambridge to a field just south of Cambridge - approx 25 miles
Field to London - 70 miles
Three days in London - approx 30-35 miles each day
London to Folkstone - 70 miles
Folkstone to Calais to outside Longuenesse, France - 45 miles
Longuenesse to Arras - 40 miles

After arriving in Cambridge late, I decided to stick around for a while in the morning, exploring some of the colleges, and looking for a replacement part for my rear rack. I didn't find the part, despite Cambridge being essentially the bike capital of the UK. I don't think I've ever seen so many cyclists in one place before.

Notice all the bikes parked in front of what is either Trinity College or St John's College:

King's College:

A panorama of the King's College green:

Leaving Cambridge, there was a DNA sequence on one of the cycle paths which had been added when Sustrans made their 1000th mile of cycle routes through the UK.

I left Cambridge late, not planning to do many miles before continuing south to London, and found a place to camp in a field near a public footpath. The next morning I cycled to London, arriving late after having to check my map quite a bit. A large part of the cycle route followed the canal into the city but it still wasn't clear exactly where to go. Also, once I reached London they had part of the waterfront by the Thames closed which is where the cycle route runs. I was staying in Chislehurst with a great host and a great bunch of people in what used to be an old people's home but what is now short term life housing which as far as I understand it the city owns the property and they're trying to sell it to developers, but until then people can live in it cheaply. It was an environment much like a hostel, and several of the people living there all worked in the Brixton Cycles bike shop. As soon as I mentioned that I was looking for a replacement part they mentioned that they would have it. Next morning I went straight to the shop and it turns out they sell a lot of Surly's and had the exact part I was looking for. I also had them take a look at the bike since my front shifter had been acting up, and they replaced and turned a number of things, including the chain, cassette, and the handlebar wrapping since I had put some holes in it already. I also had them extend the rear fender since the very end of my sleeping bag stuck out past the end and was getting muddy. After visiting the shop, I did a bit of sightseeing. London is where all the tourists are apparently, because there were tons of people everywhere.

Apparently this tower isn't actually called Big Ben. That's the name of the bell inside it.

Westminster Abbey

There are other statues in this square, but I'm fairly certain people only ever take pictures of this guy:

I think St Paul's Cathedral looks a lot like the US capital building

Near Hyde park

Buckingham Palace

I spent 3-4 hours in the British museum wandering around. I probably could've spent a week without seeing something twice.
I found this plaque in the Islamic art section and found it particularly interesting because it has Timur's Tomb in Samarkand shown as a great example. In Several Months I hope to replace this picture of a picture with a picture of the tomb itself.

Statues from the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos

University of Greenwich

Greenwich Royal Observatory, where they have lots of old clocks

An interesting Sundial

And the prime meridian of the world

Leaving London I made it to Folkstone, but was unable to contact anyone about taking the train to Calais, so I stayed in my first hotel on this trip so far since it was supposed to be the pickup point for the bike shuttle to the chunnel. In the morning the Eurotunnel phone line was open, but it turned out since they were closed on the weekend and they needed 24 hours notice, they wouldn't take me until the next day, so I cycled the 10ish miles to Dover and took the ferry, which ended up only costing about 8pounds more than the train and only took 90 minutes.

Finally out of England and into France but I will update more later.