Haute-Loire and a bit of Drôme and Ardèche too, 18.9-2.10.2022

This was a mixed vacation, combining bicycle touring and hiking, and planned as we went. Only the first night in Valence (the same place at which we stayed for a week in June) and the first two nights in Annonay were booked ahead of time.

Just like in June, we rode to Gières, about 16 kilometers from home, and hopped on the train there. This time the friendly conductor waited for us to board (which was also much easier than last time, since the train was a new with a low floor), but hushed us to hurry so that the train won't arrive late in Valence.

We faced some obstacles on our way to Gières, likely a result of the storm that had passed at least a week before. We took the train just to Romans-sur-Isère and started riding from there towards ViaRhôna and Valence.

Before reaching ViaRhôna, we rode through the town of Châteaneuf-sur-Isère. We took a quick toilet break (we had been there in June so we knew that the public toilet was in the church building). When leaving the town we passed the Salle des Fêtes, and a jolly bunch of people who had been enjoying the Fête de la Bière since 9am. We were invited to join them to taste local microbrews, and their last bites of sausages. It was Sunday so the festivities were destined to finish by 1pm., like all public social activity in France on Sundays.

Back on ViaRhôna.

Next morning we were on ViaRhôna again, this time heading North to Sarras. The wind was very strong already early in the morning, so that we considered taking a train to Annonay, but could not find any with a decent schedule. So we started riding to the headwind.

Tournon-sur-Rhône.

Vineyards of Tain-d'Hermitage in the background --- that's where we hiked in June on our Drôme vacation.

Saint-Vallier on the other side of the river Rhône.

From Sarras we continued a bit North and then took D270 (Valley of the river Cance) up to almost Annonay.

This probably was the most scenic ride of our whole trip. The guests at the beer festival and also our to-be Airbnb host in Annonay (on phone before our arrival) tried to warn us about the huge climb we were to face. However, it was probably the most gentle uphill we have ever ridden on the mountains.

The narrow road was also very quiet; there were no cars and only a couple of other bicyclists passed us.

This section of D270 will eventually be an official section of ViaFluvia, the bicycle route between the rivers Rhône and Loire.

The last few kilometers to Annonay we were on a highway busy with afternoon commuter traffic. Especially the climb to the town was quite stressful because of the steep and narrow streets and the number of cars picking up kids from schools --- we on our bikes were clearly an obstacle.

We had a nice and quiet apartment to ourselves on the upper part of the town --- actually the town was built on several small hills at a confluence of two rivers, Cance and Deûme. The only downside was that the apartment was so full of stuff that it was tricky to fit in. Despite the clutter to our surprise the place was impeccably clean.

We even had a small garden.

Next morning opened equally bright, albeit a bit cold at +9°C.

This was the city day. Little trivia: Annonay is best known for Montgolfier brothers, pioneers in paper industry and hot air balloons.

As usual we did the tourist walking tour in the old town. Given the size of the town, it didn't take long.

Many businesses had been closed down.

We finished our tour by locating the starting point of ViaFluvia. That's where we were planning to continue on our trip. Before that, though, we booked two more nights in Annonay.

ViaFluvia begins by following the river Deûme.

Another bright and cool morning at +10°C. This was a VTT ("mountain" biking) day. We actually had quite a hill to climb to the trail but once there we mostly stayed on a plateau.

Today's route was not long, just 15 kilometers, but the trail was narrow and rocky, and at places hard to ride (with our current level of skills in off-road riding).

We enjoyed the lunch at the picnic area of a sport complex in Davézieux.

Our luck with the Sun continued. This day's plan was to have an easy hike to the top of the Montmiandon mountain (10.5K with D+/D- 435m).

A lot of the ascent took place before we even left the town --- as mentioned earlier, Annonay was built on top of several hills.

We had expected an easy walk, rather than a climb, but the trail we ascended was steeper and rockier than we thought. It also traveled on a South-facing slope, so it became quite hot quite quickly.

The final ascent to the summit traversed a spruce forest.

Table d'orientation.

From the heights Annonay looked deceptively flat for such a hilly town.

We took another steep and rocky trail down.

Next morning it was time to start riding on ViaFluvia to Yssingeaux. The whole leg had not yet been completed as a dedicated bike path, so we found ourselves on all sorts of terrains from a crappy forest road to a busy highway with a lot of truck traffic.

The first 15 kilometers to reach Bourg-Argental were relaxed riding on an undulating bike path.

This kind of shelters remain from the times when this route used to be a railroad.

This huge and steep zigzag uphill was the last section of developed bike path. While Tomi pedaled, Tei walked her bike all the way up. Even that wasn't easy.

From this paved bike path we continued on a bumpy forest road, which looked like it is one day going to be the continuation of ViaFluvia. We got suspicious when we realized that the road was turning to a strange direction, and turned back. Then we followed the GPX-coordinates we had of the unfinished section of ViaFluvia.

That was a mistake, since we ended up riding several kilometers uphill on a highway. Instead, after inspecting the very schematic map of ViaFluvia, we should have stayed on that forest road after all.

Once off the highway we continued on a bumpy dirt path.

Another shelter house in Riotord, which is the official starting point of the rest of the completed ViaFluvia.

From Riotord we had a nice bike path to Yssingeaux, all 40 kilometers downhill.

This was a long day of riding, and we were completely exhausted when we reached our destination around 8pm. It was already getting dark.

After a quick shower we headed out to find a dinner place, and entered the first restaurant we saw, Le Patio. However, as it had started raining, we were seated indoors. 'Chef's fish' turned out to be blackened shrimp, served with pasta pearls prepared like risotto.

Café gourmand for dessert.

We hadn't planned staying more than one night in Yssingeaux, but we changed our minds in the morning. Our current hotel, Logis Cygne, did not have any availability for an additional night, but a bit fancier Logis Bourbon did. The service at Bourbon was way better than in Cygne.

We hauled our bikes and luggage over to the new hotel, and headed out to a town walking tour.

First we climbed to Colline St.Roch to have a view over the town and surrounding 'sucs', domes of dormant volcanoes that do not have a crater.

Town hall of Yssingeaux.

We had beers at Central Bar while doing laundry at Speed Queen, a fancy new coin laundry. Although, very seldom one uses coins in those laundries anymore, but debit/credit cards or even apps.

For dinner we chose the hotel's (Logis Bourbon) restaurant. For starters we had a green bean salad, and

a cauliflower salad. For mains we had fish (Tei) and sausages (Tomi). We were positively surprised by the quality of the food.

Next day started mostly sunny and cool.

But soon the sky was completely covered, and we had to add layers; riding the whole day downhill was a chilly business.

The spokes of Tomi's rear wheel where kind of loose.

Ravines of Corboeuf, site we had visited two years earlier on our way back to Grenoble from Le-Puy-en-Velay, the town we were currently heading to.

About 14 kilometers before Le-Puy the rain started, but it did not last long.

The gorge of the river Loire was scenic, and on Sunday the highway traffic light.

When we arrived at the Airbnb place in Le-Puy, the host was still cleaning the apartment, so we had about thirty minutes to spend before we could check in.

We had a quick stroll in the tourist center, looking for a supermarket that would be open on Sunday, but didn't find but a couple of ethnic grocery stores.

The view from our window.

The cooking area was poorly lit, as have been most kitchens in the old buildings we've stayed in that have been renovated for Airbnb or other accommodation purposes.

The next day was a hiking day.

The walking tour 'Le Parcours des Chibottes' started from Vals-près-Le-Puy, about two kilometers South of Le-Puy. 'Chibottes' are small cabins built from dry stones that were used seasonally as shelters by farmers when they were working on the fields.

The trail was relatively easy, except of a couple steep sections and the rock slides we had to climb over.

This moss looked like velour.

'Chibotte'. Similar structures are called 'boris' more South in the Central Massif.

One of the rock slides had a cable to make it easier to climb over.

There were five public chibottes, all of which had names: chibotte la Petite Valladière, chibotte de Perbet, chibotte d'Odile, chibotte du grand-duc, and chibotte du Crouzas. We didn't have access to the seven private chibottes.

When back in town we moved to a new place, since studio of the first night was not available: we had decided to stay a couple of more days in Le-Puy.

The next day it was time to get on the bikes again. The plan was to ride on La Voie Verte V73 to Le Brignon and back, about 48 kilometers altogether. It was all uphill out and downhill back in: also V73 is a former railway bed, like so many other bike paths.

There were five tunnels on our way, and we rode through each of them twice. Luckily they were lit, since we didn't have our lights with us. The first tunnel, Tunnel de Taulhac, was 1141m long. The ground in this tunnel was super bumpy.

The second tunnel, Tunnel de Riou, was 1268m long. This tunnel offered a much smoother ride.

The third tunnel, Tunnel de Malpas, was 564m long. The fourth and fifth tunnels, Tunnel de Pradeaux and Tunnel de Veneyres, were 370m and 281m long, respectively.

This was a really chilly day --- the wind was especially brutal. The only sun we got was on our lunch break in Le Brignon.

Then to the next day: This was supposed to be our last day in Le-Puy, but later when planning the return trip we found out that there was going to be a strike the next day and no trains were moving. So, we ended up booking two more nights in Le-Puy, and then the last one in Chambéry (and ride home from there).

This day's hike took us to a fortress town of Polignac about four kilometers away.

Early on we were hit by a couple of heavy rainshowers with strong and gusty wind. The first downpour started when we hadn't even left Le-Puy yet, and fortunately it did not last long, but the second came just few minutes after.

The walk to Polignac was an easy one, but the nasty wind and occasional light rain showers made it not that nice.

Once again we found ourselves at the destination during the lunch break, so the visit to the fortress was not available.

We just strolled around the village following the marked tourist walking tour, and then headed back to Le-Puy.

The lunch spot with a nice view. Luckily the sun came out again.

City hall of Le-Puy with Ukranian flag for a moral support of the war. Slava Ukraini!

The first thing next morning was to move to yet another Airbnb apartment. Then we decided to stay in the town and visit the museum, Musée Crozatier.

The museum is a mix of archaeology, geology, natural history, science & technology, and fine arts.

Laced 'Venus of Willendorf'

Our last day in Le-Puy opened grey and gloomy. We had planned a bike ride, but then we remembered how miserable we had felt two days ago when riding in chilly wind --- and now it was also drizzling --- so we decided to go for a walk instead.

Our destination was a monumental statue we had seen before but never been to: Saint-Joseph de Bon-Espoir.

A view to Le-Puy with Statue Notre-Dame de France and Rocher Saint-Michel d'Aiguilhe. We visited these two place on our first trip to this town.

Then it was time to start the return trip home. Even if it was Sunday and we expected the trains to be full with passengers and bikes, we were really lucky to find practically empty trains from Le-Puy to Saint-Étienne, and then to Lyon, and finally to Chambéry.

There was a tight connection in Saint-Étienne but we made it just fine.

Part-Dieux in Lyon had new signposts.

All three trains were also in time.

Last day of the vacation started grey and rainy, but it felt warm, so we started riding home. It wasn't long until the sun came out and the clouds dissipated. Lac de Saint-André.

"Non au Lyon Turin" (high-speed railway).

Bassin du Cheylas. This Summer and Fall we've had quite a few lunch breaks by this "lake".

A lot of murky water in Isère --- very different view from earlier this year.

Not the most interesting picture to end this travel log. On this two-week vacation we rode bikes 345.5 kilometers and hiked/walked 57.15 kilometers. There was only one day on which we did not do any of these activities, but visited the museum (of course we walked there :)