Not a good day
Friday 10 October 2014
My proposed route will take me from
Corps to Le Pont-de-Claix on the N85 Route Napoleon where I will join
the autoroute to Voiron, avoiding Grenoble city.
Then onto the D1075 to Les Abrets, Morestel, Amberiue-en-Bugay, and Bourg-en-Bresse. Then back onto the autoroute for a blast to Dijon, Nancy, Metz, and into Luxembourg where I will pick up the main highway through Belgium and into France for Calais.
It would be faster and shorter to ride straight across France, but then the autoroute charges start to stack up quite alarmingly. I'll just see how far I can get before finding an overnight pit stop.
But first, last night's dinner. The Hotel del la Poste in Corps is a grand Belle Époque hostelry with astonishingly fancy decor, charming staff and an excellent restaurant. At €55 B&B it is also pretty good value for a touristy area in France.
I wasn't feeling particularly hungry so I asked for something light, and chose the potage du jour and a mushroom omelette wit a half bottle of local Rhone wine.
We'll that is all I paid for but the meal was a little more than that.
First I have a beer in the charming bar. It comes accompanied by a complientary plate of hors d'oeuvres with toast and small mannequins of olives, gherkins cheesy snacks.
Next is the soup, a thick vegetable potage with giant croutons. Then the omelette accompanied by garlicky dauphinois potatoes and, nice touch, whole boiled chestnuts.
Finally
a sweets plate with lemon and strawberry profiterole pastries and
crispy sweet wafer cones encased in flaked nuts. All quite amazing and
served with immaculate timing. Nice orchid on the table too. And all for
€15 excluding the wine.
So back to the journey. All went well until I got on the autoroute at Bourg en Bresse. It started to lash down with rain after an hour or so and then the plug in the front tyre failed.
I thought of just skipping this episode in the blog because it's all so depressing. However in the interests of veracity I'll summarise.
It was very wet, getting dark and the autoroute was very busy. No compressor this time so it's phone time. My breakdown insurance (Axa through Carole Nash) cannot recover me themselves from the autoroute, telling me I have to go through official channels.
They are very quick and efficient. A truck arrives in 30 minutes and we load the bike and are off the highway and at the local breakdown depot an hour later.
It's after six now so no chance of a fix tonight. Axa book me a hotel and send a taxi. It's quite comical because the hotel, unknown to me, is only 300 metres down the road. I could have walked it in five minutes.
 |
| dining at the Hotel de la Poste in Corps |
Then onto the D1075 to Les Abrets, Morestel, Amberiue-en-Bugay, and Bourg-en-Bresse. Then back onto the autoroute for a blast to Dijon, Nancy, Metz, and into Luxembourg where I will pick up the main highway through Belgium and into France for Calais.
It would be faster and shorter to ride straight across France, but then the autoroute charges start to stack up quite alarmingly. I'll just see how far I can get before finding an overnight pit stop.
But first, last night's dinner. The Hotel del la Poste in Corps is a grand Belle Époque hostelry with astonishingly fancy decor, charming staff and an excellent restaurant. At €55 B&B it is also pretty good value for a touristy area in France.
I wasn't feeling particularly hungry so I asked for something light, and chose the potage du jour and a mushroom omelette wit a half bottle of local Rhone wine.
We'll that is all I paid for but the meal was a little more than that.
First I have a beer in the charming bar. It comes accompanied by a complientary plate of hors d'oeuvres with toast and small mannequins of olives, gherkins cheesy snacks.
Next is the soup, a thick vegetable potage with giant croutons. Then the omelette accompanied by garlicky dauphinois potatoes and, nice touch, whole boiled chestnuts.
 |
| Thick soup and giant croutons |
 |
| Mushroom omelette with whole chesnuts |
 |
| Lemon and Strawberry Profiteroles |
 |
| Nice touch |
So back to the journey. All went well until I got on the autoroute at Bourg en Bresse. It started to lash down with rain after an hour or so and then the plug in the front tyre failed.
I thought of just skipping this episode in the blog because it's all so depressing. However in the interests of veracity I'll summarise.
It was very wet, getting dark and the autoroute was very busy. No compressor this time so it's phone time. My breakdown insurance (Axa through Carole Nash) cannot recover me themselves from the autoroute, telling me I have to go through official channels.
They are very quick and efficient. A truck arrives in 30 minutes and we load the bike and are off the highway and at the local breakdown depot an hour later.
It's after six now so no chance of a fix tonight. Axa book me a hotel and send a taxi. It's quite comical because the hotel, unknown to me, is only 300 metres down the road. I could have walked it in five minutes.
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