Annonay to Saint-Etienne

An unexpectedly difficult day today, but mainly due to the weather.

I woke to find that it was cold outside and that it had been raining during the night but fortunately the rain had already stopped. I had the fairly standard breakfast at the hotel, it being Monday, including yogurt that was yogurt today J I then packed and was taking the bike out of the room when I realised I had a flat front tire, bugger L Still, if you’re going to get a puncture what better place than in a nice warm quiet hotel room? I found a couple of suspects, a piece of glass and a piece of steel belted radial, hmmmm… the steel belted radial of course.

With that fixed I finally left about 9:20. The good thing is that the rain appeared to have completely cleared away so I set off in cold but sunny weather. The ride out of the town was a long uphill slog so even though wind was cold I was pretty warm by the top. I followed a Google Maps route to get out of town (it is fairly good for that) and then had to negotiate a few red roads to get completely away from Annonay. Fortunately most of the traffic was going into town and most of the roads had a good shoulder and even a bike path in a few spots.

Once well out of town I turned onto a minor D road that was completely deserted and remained that way until I rolled into town at the other end J The first part of route went up a long gradual hill, most of which was still in the middle chain ring, to a nice lake. From there the road resumed climbing; the route was pretty much all uphill to the Col, about 20Ks and then the last 18 Ks was all downhill to Saint Etienne.

The first town of note after the lake was St Julien Molin-Molette which seemed pretty enough but I hadn’t planned to stop here. However just as I was going through the town it started to rain. So I stopped at a bar where a lady walker was also sitting the rain out. I got black tea which turned out to be a large pot so I sat there for quite a while with my two large mugs of tea until the rain stopped. Yay! And while it got close it didn’t rain again today!!!

Then it was back to the climb. The sun came out but it was initially quite cold from the wind but then I began to warm up again as I got into a climbing rhythm. The climb is normally not that steep, granny gear but not first gear. After some time there was a downhill; I’m going to have to check later to see if that was a Col, it certainly looked like one.

After a short descent it was back to climbing to the town of Graix which I arrived at just before midday. I stopped in a sheltered spot and the sun came out while the church bells pealed midday. I had a bit of a break and then continued on.

The next section was the worst part of the day. After about a Km the road became very exposed, there was a strong head wind (which doesn’t make that much difference up a steep hill) and the road had just been resealed with a ghastly chip seal. Chip seals really suck with all of the little stones and can make piles of gravel on the sides of the road. Combined with that the wind was very cold and I’d stopped for too long in Graix and cooled down. In the end I pulled over and dug out the thermal top (good thing I didn’t send that back in the postal box) and switched to my yellow lenses. Ahh, that was better, warmer, and now it didn’t look so dreary anymore.

It was not actually that far from there to the top. It was a relief to get there and I took a photo of the Col sign.

There was a nice restaurant/bar/hotel at the top so I went straight there, I put the Gortex Jacket on to keep warm and then went in for lunch. What a lovely, warm, restaurant! I was looking at the menu when the waiter came around and said a lot about some menu and then said it is tres popular with cycliste. So okay, why not!

A lovely meal then ensued; a Choucroute plate with bread, a simple hot rosti with salad and bread and then a blueberry tarte with a nice sorbet. It was funny I thought he said it was two courses so I got up to pay after the main and they wondered why I didn’t want the dessert!

After that lovely interlude (which Strava completely failed to detect) I went outside and it was Freezing! So I put on my Gortex pants and long finger gloves. I think today I could have done with thermal longs! Fully rugged up I started the lovely long descent to St Etienne. The initial 3 or 4 Ks were very cold but then as I got lower it started to warm up a bit. The descent is a lovely long one with a few places where you still need to peddle gently and a few rippers!

The road takes you to within 2 or 3 Ks of the city centre and I stopped at a traffic light and took off the pants and long finger gloves then followed Google Maps to the hotel. No problems checking in fortunately (she went on a break just after I arrived for 90 minutes) and I was straight up to the room with the bike in a garage.

The room is ‘ok’. It’s not particularly large, the WiFi is hideously slow, the TV is small but functional, the shower is tiny and the room is very hot; overall it’s not too bad for one of the cheaper hotels in town. The location is very central which is nice except of course it is Monday, so almost everything is shut; but not as shut as Annonay was yesterday.

After showering I went for a long walk around town which I think may be going through hard times; there are a lot of empty shops for lease even in the main square. Being Monday even the main Cathedral was closed today! However there was a nice church at the top of one of the hills which was in good nick and had some nice wood and stone carvings. I bought a couple of Michelin 3xx maps which are 1cm = 1.5Ks. I hadn’t realised the scale was different to the 5xx series, they are actually easier to read; possibly even without glasses! After the walk I went back to the room to do the diary and watch TV but was so tired I set the alarm and had a bit of a nap until 7pm.

Just before 7 I woke up and slowly got ready and then went for a wander to find somewhere to eat. I noticed an area quite close that had a couple of brasseries but, being Monday, they don’t server food tonight. I ended up in the main town square where there was a wide selection of… Italian restaurants and one French one. I picked an Italian one and had a nice three course meal; an entrée of shrimps and salmon rillettes on a green salad, a main of lasagne which was really delicious and a dessert of Tiramisu which was so so.

Then back to the hotel and I did washing, finished the diary, and looked at maps for the Dijon area which I think I will catch a train to tomorrow. I watched a Midsomer and then passed out around 11.