La ViaRhona 🚴

September 5th

Today we drove to Sablons and parked at the bike trail along the Rhone.  The ViaRhona bike trail is part of the EuroVelo trail system and is labeled as #17.  The trail runs from the east end of Lake Geneva all the way along the Rhone to the Mediterranean.  Some parts of the route are dedicated, traffic-free trails while others are on small roads and in a few places along busier highways which we like to avoid.  Since we have a car we can pick and choose where to start each day by driving to a location along a good section of the trail.  There is also train service along the Rhone so we sometimes take a train out to where we want to ride.  We rode up to Condrieu about 18km away and back to Sablons.  The trail had a very nice surface for a while but there were tree roots for about 6km before we got to Condrieu.  There was a nice park along the river with a picnic table in the shade for lunch.  I always appreciate the shade when we are riding in mid to high 80 degree weather.

As we were leaving this morning we 

spotted our host's Tesla charging out front 

We always appreciate helpful bike signs

I love this house that we get to see every time we walk 

back from dinner or return from a bike ride

On our way back to Tain l'Hermitage we stopped for groceries at an InterMarche.  Every grocery store here has their own system for checking out and it is especially challenging with the fruits and vegetables.  In some stores you weigh the un-barcoded items and a little sticker with the price and a code pops out but this particular store didn't have that. We were stymied until a nice gentleman told us they would help us up at the front.  A nice store clerk helped us out so we could be on our way.  Because we didn't have dinner reservations we purchased items at the store, a delicious looking chicken curry over rice and a green salad.  We needed wine to go along with the dinner and found a fairly decent white Rhone at the store for only 3.60 Euros!

Nothing to write home about but we didn't have to spit it out.