Since the first rest day the Tour de France has traveled through some absolutely gorgeous countryside. Limogue was the start town the day after the rest day, the 14th of July. The race course went straight north to Issuodun and this is an absolutley gorgeous part of the world. The stage after that went to Saint Fargeau and in those more or less 400 km of terrain there are beautiful churches, chateaus and gorgeous countryside. One thing about France is that they try to keep the commercial installations near the larger roads so the countryside remains incredibly rural. Those towns are linked by a network of tiny roads that are perfect for doing bike rides. Having seeing this countryside I have decided to eventually come back. Hopefully when I have more time to ride my bicycle through the communities and town of Saint Fargeau with less than 4000 inhabitants.
In fact I have decided I will make the cycle touring journey at some point starting somewhere near Limoges and taking in the countryside all the way to Vittel maybe 3, 4 or 5 days ride. The riders have done it in 3, I might try to make it in 6. That way I can go half the distance and enjoy twice the hotels, twice the food and adult beverages. I will definitely spend a couple of days in Vittel , a spa town where the thermal hot springs and spas adopt the landscape and beautiful Bed & Breakfasts are everywhere. Those are ideal conditions for touring on a bicycle on small roads and maybe a trip into the mountains, the mountains outside of Colmar which is the finish of Fridays stage 14 some very tough climbs. Driving through there this evening, it was great to see some change in terrain after 3 days on the flat lands.
Its very hard to go wrong in this part of the world by bike, train motorcycle, hot air balloon. Any means of conveyance you can find you’re going to enjoy yourself. In this area it’s hard to find a bad meal, hard to find mean people, but easy to find a beautiful site.
When the tour come through here, which is not very often you can also see the very greatest bike race in all the world, the Tour de France.
