Wednesday, August 24, 2022

France: Moutiers / Salins-les-Thermes, Day 3

Bike: Salins-les-Thermes to Moutiers and back, 4 miles, 400 feet of climb

Lunch: Auberge de Savoie Restaurant, vegetarian ravioli with crab and quinoa, truit gravalax with salad

Accommodation: Au pied des tois vallées et à tois kilometer brides-les-bains (Airbnb)

Today we explored Moutiers. We found Matthieu, our host, outside snacking after his morning workout, and he recommended we visit the old church, go through a tunnel to a park along the river, and eat at an Italian restaurant in Old Town. That sounded good.

We coasted downhill, walked our bikes through the tunnel to the small park, and then wandered back through the maze of streets and tunnels making up Old Town. We could not remember the name of the restaurant Matthieu recommended, but we liked the look of the Auberge de Savoie restaurant in the park. We ordered the two daily special entrees and shared them. Awesome, unusual, fresh food.

On the way back to our gite, we detoured to the grocery store and ran into a bit of a traffic jam that led to a second detour. The Haute Route cycle event was going through town, and the police routed us out of the way of riders shooting through the intersection. That event is held in seven stages (over seven consecutive days), for a total of 492 miles and almost 70,000 feet of climb. Impressive.

We found our way to the grocery store and back out around the Haute Route event, back up the hill to our gite. This time, without packs, I made it the whole way without walking. Woo-hoo!

The River Isere flows around Old Town and the old church.

Ken liked the covered timber bridge.