France: Val-de-Travers

 Hike-a-Bike II

Bike: 47 miles, 3500 feet of climb

Accommodation: Elegant Studio de au Coeur du Val-de-Travers (Airbnb); host Gaelle. Studio apartment, lower level of family home. Kitchen, private bath, wifi, patio, in Neuchatel, two miles from Couvet. Newly painted and decorated, very comfortable with snacks, cold drinks, and lots of little touches that made it special.

The climbs were much shorter today, and mostly not quite so steep, but there were lots of them, and I did a fair amount of hiking.

We started out hungry. It being Sunday, we knew many restaurants and grocery stores would not be open, so we spent some time scrolling through our route ahead of time, locating the few that Google said would be open.

Our first pick was a boulangerie just a mile or so into our route. It was closed. But about three miles later, we spotted a horse club (like a golf club but with horses ☺) with a terrace cafe that was open. We were able to get coffee and croissants there, while enjoying expansive views of the horses and countryside.

On one stretch, the auto traffic picked up and we had to wait while quite a few cars passed us and turned into a large field. We spotted a sign saying a jodler festival was taking place over the weekend, and of course we had to ride in to see what it was all about. We found a large tent with live music coming from inside, and just hung out for a few minutes listening.

On our way again, we spent several hours rolling up and down the Jura Mountains, through herds of horses and cattle, past Heidi-like farms and villages, mostly on small single-lane country tracks. We joined and passed lots of cyclists out for Sunday morning rides, a few on cross-country treks with saddlebags. At one point, a cyclist stopped us to check out how our saddlebags and racks were attached to our bikes. He owns a titanium bike company in France or Switzerland, and has been to the United States several times racing mountain bikes in Utah and Arizona. We had fun talking about bikes, bike gear, biking, travel, and politics.

According to Google, all the restaurants and all but one little market in our destination village were closed until at least Monday. We figured we should locate something to cook for dinner. About halfway through the day, we detoured a mile off the path through a large town to a grocery store that Google said would be open. It ended up being just a small market with a few vegetables and fruits out front. I went in while Ken watched the bikes. The store opened into two smallish rooms lined with shelves of Middle Eastern foods. Not only were the labels not in English, they were not in French. I spent quite a while finding a small box of orzo-like pasta and a jar of roasted red peppers with onions. I also grabbed a couple bottles of water because we were getting low on that.

The proprietor did not speak English but conveyed to me that the water I had chosen was not normal, it was special for Muslims. He disappeared into the back room and returned with two bottles of Evian. He also communicated that the jar of peppers and onions were very good. Smiles all around.

Back on the trail, about an hour later, we passed a self-service farm shop with eggs, ice cream, meat, wine, and jellies. We couldn’t pass up the ice cream and four eggs. These farm shops were all over the countryside—a cash box and ledger in the window, chairs and tables out front.

After all the up-and-down cycling and hiking, we swooshed into Val-de-Travers at the bottom of a huge downhill, and found our apartment with just a little searching. Val-de-Travers is a community made up of nine small villages, and we spent the night in one of the smallest.

We dropped our bags off at the apartment and continued to the boulangerie, which was still open and had bread, breakfast rolls, milk, and sparkling water.

Back to the apartment for showers and dinner.

Another day done.

Coffee and croissants at the horse club.

The horses ignored us as we made our way through their pasture.

While we biked through horse pastures in France, Izzie took her pal for a walk in Minnesota. It looks like it was a little cool there this morning, too.