9 Reims to Châlons-en-Champagne
387m climbing
4h 45m elapsed
27th July 2019, 15°C, rain
60.35 km
3h 17m moving
72% off-road
The route today followed closely to the official Via Francigena, apart from a small detour in the morning to a Decathlon store in Reims.
Red line - the route I took, Orange line - “official” Via Francigena, Blue line - Sigeric’s probable route
Bad weather creates memorable days
This was a great day. Since in summer the weather is generally sunny and warm on the Via Francigena, memories of some of the days kind of merge into each other. But when the weather is awful it simply adds some spice. Today was like that. It was pouring down most of the day.
First up was an obligatory stop for a spare inner tube (my rule being if I use one, I should find a spare again). Finding spares is pretty hard once you're out of big towns and since the local Decathlon store was almost on the route today I headed out there.
If you don't know much about Decathlon then it is your friend... think the Ikea of outdoor stuff.
Clay + rain = !*#~!
The fields just out of Reims had been dry for a long time and the clay surfaces of the trails were basically covered in very fine dust. Today that "moon dust" had become mixed with water forming a perfectly fine artistic material but my experience was far from artistic...
I'd zoomed off into the fields at speed thinking "wow this looks fun", the trails all looked so flat and moon-like: perfect gravel bike territory. However after a few hundred metres the bike started wobbling. "Not another puncture!", I thought. I continued a little but the bike got harder and harder to pedal, eventually having to stop. I got off, well almost fell off, and all the drive areas were caked in clay: no wonder it was impossible to pedal. I scraped a good few kg of clay off the bike and got going again... only having to stop every frew hundred metres to take more stuff off. Eventually I got to some hilly parts of the vineyards and due to the rain there was plenty of running water and amazingly somebody had dumped a small brush by the side of the road > problem solved, just wash the bike down and clean it up. All fine from there, though I did carry the brush in my hands for a good few km until I felt safe to be away from the "moon clay".
Plenty of choice language both verbal and body, lead to a rather shaky photo.
I stayed in the grass here, the “moon clay” on the path would have been a dumb move.
The Mumm champagne windmill at Verzenay.
More fun with clay
I'd stopped for lunch in a covered small square outside the bakery at Condé-sur-Marne. Was nice to get out of the rain. After lunch, I'd packed up and headed off down the canal. The last 20km of today was along the canal latéral à la Marne.
About a km or two down the canal, I wanted to take a photo of the canal and went to get out my phone. Now normally I've got the phone mounted on the front of the bike but because it was raining all day I'd put it away (it was an old phone, not so waterproof). I couldn't find it anywhere! "!#*!". I'd last used it at lunch and the most likely explanation was that I'd left it where I ate > so I rushed around and cycled full speed back to the square.
Unfortunately the tracks on the side of the canal were clay. And coming down from one of the raised parts of the tracks (where there's a bridge or simliar) I put on the brakes slightly... and just like last year the bike skidded and I lost control. "Smack" at full speed down into the ground... ending just inches from falling in the canal.
Unlike last year when I fell, this time I needed to get moving. "Surely my phone was still in the square" I thought, so even though my money had gone flying everywhere in the crash, I got straight back up and focused on the phone.
10 minutes and a sprint later. Result! The phone was on the floor under the bench I'd been sitting on! So that was good news, then got back to the 20km of canal... briefly stopping to collect all the coins I'd just left a km or so out of town on the tow path.
My last "adventure" of the day was whilst sheltering under one of the bridges over the canal... a small piece of it fell off right next to me... about 1kg of rock!
20km of this into Châlons-en-Champagne
Overnight: Châlons-en-Champagne, Hotel D'Angleterre
The smartest hotel in Denmark is the Hotel D'Angleterre in the middle of Copenhagen so I jumped at the chance to tell the folks back home I'd stayed at the Hotel D'Angleterre.
I arrived, as usual on this trip, early afternoon and the hotel didn't have a room. In fact I think the folks at the hotel were a little surprised at my appearance: scraping clay off a bike and cycling through mud all day in the rain will do that to you. I did wonder if they'd let me stay but after a few smiles they found a room and even found a bucket and cloth to help me clean the remaining clay off the bike.
Highlight of today was dinner. The hotel is owned by chef Jérôme Feck and the restaurant has a Michelin star. Unlike Copenhagen, the hotel and the food is reasonably priced. I think food was around €90 for dinner and wine.
I would definitely recommend staying here.
