Our bicycle touring has been on hiatus for a few years for various reasons, but we are resuming this much loved recreational activity this Summer.  We are planning a 2 to 3-week tour later in the Summer or early Fall, probably La Via Allier — a new route following the river Allier from Nevers in Nièvre department to Langogne in Lozère. We started our La Loire à Velo tour from Nevers in 2020.

This past weekend we did a three-day practice trip to Montmélian, a small town in Savoie department some 40 kilometers North-East from home. It was an easy ride on a newly paved dedicated bike path in the Grésivaudan valley. Since we knew beforehand that the weather was going to be quite nasty on the first day, this ride also functioned as a rehearsal for bad weather preparedness — on  longer tour one really cannot choose the weather, and taking day off from riding is not always an option. So, it was +9°C in the morning when we started from home and it rained intermittently for the whole day, quite heavily at times. We also had a chilly headwind. We had a brief break at our favorite lunch spot by the Cheylas reservoir, but did not feel like eating our sandwiches in the rain.

Our original plan was to go hiking to the vineyards from  Montmélian on the second day, but the weather was not much better, although it rained less, so after our morning run we explored the town,  visited the vineyard and wine museum of Savoie (Musée de la Vigne et du Vin de Savoie), and climbed to the remains of the ancient castle of Montmélian on the top of the very steep hill. The castle dates back to the 11th century, and not much of it is left today.

The wine museum was very well implemented, informative and entertaining — the texts were all in French, but the museum offered an audio guide in English (which we did not take). We felt we learned a lot. Especially there was quite an impressive collection of old grape presses of varying sizes, from massive to smaller ones, kinds that can still be found on the yards of some houses here where we live.

The weather on the third day when we rode home was quite different; it was still chilly and windy, but the little warmth from the sunshine made it much more tolerable. And this time we did enjoy our lunch sandwiches by the reservoir.

France has three public holidays in May, which means that in most years there are several extended weekends in that month. We already have our next bicycle trip planned and booked for this coming weekend in Saint-Marcellin in Isère department.

Epilogue

This was probably the first time we rented a private room (with a private bathroom), not an entire apartment via Airbnb, and I am not sure we want to do it again. Even if we were free to use all the facilities including the kitchen, living room,  and the terrace, but excluding the hosts’ bedroom and office, it was somewhat an hassle to plan the meals around the hosts’. And then there was the cleanliness issue:  we have had some problems with Airbnb apartments that were not inhabited by the hosts themselves but were solely rented out, but the French being infamous for not wanting to waste time cleaning their own living space, lifts the problem to a completely new level.  Our room and the bathroom were relatively clean, but the public areas not so …