Eurovelo 15 - Day 9 - Basel to Neuf-Brisach

After my day away from pedalling, I've finally reunited with my bike named Myrle. We've become very close over the past couple of weeks travelling together from Australia and now cycling the Rhine. Myrle is named after a human Myrle. Myrle (the human) and I first met on a motorcycle ride in Myanmar and, at the time, he was in his early 80s - although ageless to his travelling companions. His age was not about to stop his love of travel and adventure, and so very inspiring for me when I was thinking about this trip. Myrle (not the bike) is a great human and someone I'm proud to call a friend.

I was off by 7.30am today and the legs were quick to complain after a day off. I weaved across the Rhine, and then back until I had left Switzerland for the final time. I was now back in Germany. As I reached the halfway point on a bridge dividing both countries, I saw a tourist cruise boat for the first time - the type that tours up and down the navigatable Rhine, and the tour my wife, Kathy, and I were on when I was first inspired to ride the Rhine.

 

 

After riding through some back streets and then through parklands, the path changed to well-compacted gravel, and riders and walkers became fewer. Today's ride would be quite flat all the way to my proposed stop at Neuf-Brisach. As usual, I'd get there and see how I was feeling and perhaps travel on for another couple of hours. 

At one stage I heard loud squeaking noises coming from behind me and getting closer ... suddenly a large flock of wild geese flew low level directly over the top of me. Magic! A couple of minutes later a cyclist rode by me calling out "Bonjour!" - I was in the 5th country of my tour - I had arrived in France.

Bonjour! I had this. Both Hello and Thank You were my standouts in 8th Grade French class at St. Mary's College, Gunnedah. That was until abruptly, after 4 lessons, my French teacher determined that I had no aptitude for foreign languages, let alone a classic like French. She sent me to the Art class. I had no aptitude for Art either.

The ride continued on gravel forest tracks following the Canal du Rhone au Rhin. The canal was gun barrel straight for many kilometres and therefore so was the road. It was many kilometres from the Rhine itself, in fact, there were a couple more canals between the Rhine and where I was riding. To give some variety, the route does move from the right side to the left of the Canal, and back, every so often!

 

 

I found it really important to have at least 2 bottles of water on this leg, especially if riding in summer. The route skirts towns so it's not easy to access water as it has been on the ride to date.

 

I was finally back on a bitumen pathway near the small village on Niffer which runs by another Canal, Grand Canal d'Alsace ... getting closer to the Rhine again.

 

 

Just when I'm starting to wonder if I'll reach some sort of civilisation again, I make a turn onto a main road, although thankfully with little traffic (although one DHL van wanted to break speed records as it whizzed past me). Finally village life and sights! I did enjoy the long forest ride, however it was getting a tad monotonous. I entered the wonderful French town of Blondelsheim - I loved this town because within 100 metres I came to a patisserie.

Now not only do the French love their food they also love their language, so anyone walking into a shop just speaking English ... well, wars have been started for less. I've found the Swiss and Germans quite forgiving of English-speaking tourists launching into their native tongue.  However, the French dutifully expect that you give their language a crack. You will feel the wrath of the French shopkeeper if you don't at least try. So before entering the patisserie, I studied a few quick sentences on Google Translate. 

"Pardon, Je suis Australien" (Excuse me, I am Australian) - I want them to know I'm Australian so they are prepared that I'm about to butcher their beautiful language ... however I do have manners. Also I'm not English with whom they have a love/hate relationship.

"mon français est terrible" (my French is terrible) - again, warning them and also in case they are related to my Grade 8 French teacher.

"un éclair au chocolat et un croissant au chocolat, s'il vous plaît (one chocolate eclair and one chocolate croissant please) - let's get down to business, and a reminder that I have manners!

Now pastries and cakes have been my lifeline around mid-morning each and every day, so I've become a bit of a connoisseur ... no one, absolutely no one, does pastries like the French. This patisserie was an Aladdin's cave of delights. I limited myself to just two of those mouth-watering delights ... I still had 9 km to go today. I also noticed how cheap food was compared to Switzerland (I had thought I might need to delay retirement for a year to pay my Swiss bills).

I now head off on the final leg of the day.  I've already decided that 68 km will be enough. The day off has made me lazy! This stage is through farmlands - corn fields mainly, and it's here you can see the effects of the current drought covering much of Europe. We're no strangers to droughts in Australia - they can devastate families and whole communities. In this case, near Blondelsheim, the corn cobs have not received enough moisture to grow. The kernels are small and shrivelled, unlikely to even be useful for stock feed. 

 

 

The ride continues on well-formed bitumen paths all the way to Neuf-Brisach. This town is steeped in history, built in 1699, as a French fortress. Before checking in at the local campsite, I did a quick ride around the town and toured its historic fortifications.

 

The campsite, while basic, has very good amenities dedicated just to tent dwellers. Mobile home and caravan travellers are sent off to a different part of the grounds with different amenities. Finally, respect for tent dwellers!

Before finishing up for the evening I took Myrle (the bike, not the human) off to the nearby car wash and gave him a bath ... he loved the suds!

 

 

Thanks for reading. 

 

I'm doing this ride to raise funds for Blue Dragon Children's Foundation. I'm self-supported so all donations go directly to Blue Dragon. If you can give please do at ... https://au-bluedragon.givecloud.co/fundraisers/pedalling-for-a-purpose. Alternatively, go to Blue Dragon's website at bluedragon.org