My first bike tour
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| One of the views from my training rides. |
In August, I went out on a small cycle-tour this past week along a published route (L'Aisne à vélo : des fables et du Champagne à Château-Thierry). It is the first time I went on a bike tour, where I intended to not return home in the same day. I started out at my home train station, where I had to either descend and cross the tracks or carry this gear laden bike down a set of scaffold stairs. Luckily, I brought my partner along to heave the bike around for me. It wasn't massively heavy, and I could handle it under normal rolling circumstances. But anyone who has ever back or bike-packed knows, every gram adds up and being required to push a laden bike over railroad tracks (which is an very dangerous maneuver) or carry it down some very rickety and suspect scaffolding stairs makes for an inauspicious start to the trip. But I pressed on because I was meeting @bustallthemoves at our starting point station, Château-Thierry.
Château-Thierry is not
an accessible station. To descend from most trains arriving here, there
are two steps down to the platform. From the platform, if you are
unlucky enough to be on the island quais and not immediately adjacent to
the station house, once must climb (and carry a laden bicycle) up to
the passerelle, then down to ground level. There is a plan to address
the accessibility of this station and begin work in 2025-26. So, bear
this in mind while loading your packs. If you're feeling brave, you
could approach the staff of the station to see if they will allow you to
use the not-very-level crossings which allow persons with reduced
mobility onto the island quais, but goooood luck.
After a quick shop to top up our food supplies, we traversed the Château-Thierry using the bike lanes and sharrows to get us headed toward Brasles. And from there the D3 took us east to Mont-Saint-Père. Riding along the Marne on the D3, we stopped at a lock for lunch and enjoyed the benches and shade provided.
Our first stop along the lost art tour was to stop at the Puits de l'Église de la Nativité-de-la-Sainte-Vierge de Mézy-Moulins, before continuing on to Connigis and its lavoir, and a quick stop in Saint-Eugène to see their lavoir.
After a lovely descent into Condé-en-Brie to see their lavoir, and filling up our water bottles at the Chateau de Condé-en-Brie, we headed out of town (up a massive hill) to Courboin. We took a little break, used the playground equipment to stretch a bit, then headed off to our campsite for the night.
Day 2 started by
returning our camp cat to the farm it had followed us from the night
before, then across the plateau through Viffort (and their
café/tabac/épicerie that was thankfully open) to La Chapelle-sur-Chézy
for lunch. Contemplated whether to head home at this point, because it
was a quick and fun ride home here, or whether to finish the loop... but
after lunch, and filling up water bottles from the cemetery, we rode
on. An excellent descent toward Nogent l'Artaud, back over the Marne,
and along the river valley back to Azy-sur-Marne, where we turned back
home skipping the last 6km of the loop in favor of enjoying an apéro
with friends at home.
As I get ready for my second bike touring adventure ever with @lamadjacques
through Picardie, I know this pup will be happy to see me when I get
home, despite any frustration I find in the cycling infrastructure of my
region. She was happy to have me back after my adventure!
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