Day 22, 12 6 2013, Andacette to Saou
Last night’s accommodation turned out much better than we could have hoped, as is often the case with Chambre D’hotes. We had an excellent meal on the patio with our hosts, aperitif, salad, main course, fruit, cheese platter, coffee and as much to drink as we liked, on a balmy summer night.
Our host has an interesting business. He is an electrical engineer, who has spent a lot of time working in Africa. He now has his own business supplying generators to African enterprises. These generators may be in near new condition, having been used only as emergency sets for hospitals or the like. He checks them out, perhaps replaces dated instrumentation, and sends them on. I find this sort of enterprise fascinating.
So, all up dinner, bed in as lovely room, and an excellent breakfast, 110E, which is very good value for what it is.
Our host also advised us that we may be better leaving the Rhone River and riding through the foothills of the Alps, a move we had been considering, so this is what we did. We turned off as the GPS track below shows, and rode on a beautifully engineered road that converged gradually on the Alps. Over the last 10Km or so on our way into the village of Saou we rode up and around a major col, before the breathtaking view of this valley opened up. Hills obviously require more work, but they do pay off. This was not hard riding today because we had a solid tailwind, again.
The village of Saou is particularly beautiful, nestled between huge rock outcrops. It is home to a burgeoning artist community, and the little market in the town square showed the work of alternative food growers, bakers and the like. We picknicked on their produce, a dinner of duck, bread, cheese and salad.
We are now more than halfway through our trip and have yet to have a sustained headwind, so whatever happens from now on we are ahead of the odds.
Another realisation at this halfway stage is that we are not going to ride from here to the Pyrenees, and then on to Paris; we will run out of time. So something will have to give and perhaps we will need to catch a train at some point.
98 excellent Km today.
This will be posted a day late as we have no Wifi.
Roz says:
The fourteen year renovation and the fabulous décor at last nights Chambre d’Hote (B&B) was amazing. They were so kind to provide an attractive al fresco dinner with them as it was late and the nearest café was not close.
This Drome area is such a huge and pleasant surprise, none more than arriving at Saou tonight OMG village in enormous rocks WOW.
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