France: Pont-en-Royans

Bike: Grenoble to Pont-en-Royans, 40 miles, 2000 feet of climb

Accommodation: Hôtel du Musée de l'Eau (Booking.com). Comfort double room with double bed, private bath. Breakfast and dinner at extra cost.

Dinner: Hôtel du Musée de l'Eau, trout with parsley ravioli, lamb with potatoes and seasonal vegetables, and walnut tart (all regional specialties)

The first 20 miles of the ride were on a dedicated bike trail along the River Isere--beautiful, flat, easy, fun. We saw lots of bikers out for day rides. The last 20 miles, we climbed up into cornfields and walnut orchards, piecing a route together on a combination of agricultural roads and small highways through villages and hamlets.

About halfway through the day, we stopped to eat cheese, sausage, and melon we had brought with us. About an hour later, we saw a sign advertising walnuts for sale, and pulled into a farmyard where a family were sitting at a picnic table. They all called "Bonjour," and the woman came over and motioned for us to park our bikes in the shade and follow her to the barn. Inside the barn were huge tractors and machines for maintaining the orchards and for harvesting, sorting, and cleaning the nuts. She showed us a video of the process, cracked nuts for us to try--all in French, while we did our best to follow along. She was so nice! We bought a small bag of walnuts in the shell and another of caramel-covered walnuts, thanked her, waved to the family again, and headed on down the road.

By the time we rolled into Pont-en-Royans, it was again over 90 degrees and all we wanted to do was drink water. Lucky for us, our hotel was connected to the Musée de l'Eau, which included a water tasting room with a whole wall full of different natural and sparkling waters from all over the world. In the cooler, we found a liter of a sparkling water from Barcelona that we had really liked when we were in Spain, sat down with two glasses, and talked to the woman hosting the tasting room while we drank the whole bottle.

The tasting room host told us we should tour the water museum because the tickets were free for hotel guests, so we did that, wandering through its scientific and art exhibits about water. At the end, we took an interactive video quiz on water facts, and together managed to score only seven out 10. Each time we got a wrong answer, the screen got dark and thunder roared and water sprayed down from above. So we got wet three times. We are pretty sure the quiz had a few trick questions just to ensure that visitors would get the full water experience.

Then we headed for the rooftop restaurant, where we could hear a band playing 70s American music, but we were stopped at the top of the stairs by a security guard who told us it was a private party and we were not invited. So we went on a hike through the medieval part of the little city, which was awesome. Partway through, we found ice cream and sat in the shade.

Pont-en-Royans is a really small town with just two hotel restaurants, a bar, and a pizza place. We opted for the restaurant at our hotel and were not sorry. While we waited for it to open at 19:00, we laid on the bed in our room with the a/c running. I think this was the first time we had a/c that actually worked during the whole trip. A fan would have been fine, but all we had was the a/c and we used it.

By the time we were done with dinner, it had cooled off and the town had quieted down, and we were happy to go to sleep.

Ken taking a break along a tiny farm road through a walnut orchard.

Nuts, nuts, and more nuts. This family runs a huge, clean, organized walnut orchard and farm store. Ken was careful to fit the John Deere table and stools into the picture, to show my Uncle Marvin, who lives on my mother's heritage family farm and has a nice collection of farm tools and machinery.

Our route took us through little villages and hamlets built of field stone with red tile roofs.

Beauvoir-en-Royans, a tiny hamlet about six miles before we got to Pont-en-Royans.

After showering and drinking a liter of water at our hotel, we hiked around the medieval center of Pont-en-Royans. Our plan was to hike up to an observation area where we could see the ruins of three castles, but it was just too hot and steep.

Pont-en-Royans is known for its old houses overhanging the Isere River.

The buildings along this alley beside our hotel used to be a silk factory.

A waterfall just out of the frame to the left of this photo spills over into a series of ponds and down into the river. The river is just knee deep along the beach at the base of the ponds. People filled the small beach and park on the hot afternoon we were there. Food trucks and craft stalls were parked a little way upstream. The town is small, but it was very busy for a Monday afternoon.