Day thirteen

 

A bridge in Vienne that crosses the river Rhone, a river as wide as the Thames in London.

I leave the campsite in Lyon around 10:00 and after an easy and beautiful ride arrive in Vienne just after midday. It's hot and sunny but quite pleasant when riding with a light breeze. 

The view traveling south from Vienne and the river Rhone.

I continue heading south towards the Cote d'Azure, it's certainly getting hotter and the mosquitoes are quite active at this campsite. I meet a French guy on this stretch who studied interior design near Manchester who spoke perfect English. I finish early (15:30) as it's Sunday, normally a rest day, but still covered around 40km and will head for Valence and Avignon tomorrow. Also it being the weekend campsites get pretty full later in the day and last night the Lyon campsite got quite packed soon after I had arrived. However I had lovely neighbours, a Dutch couple touring with a camper van, a group of young German students heading for Spain like me and a wonderful Dutch couple returning from Spain on their bikes who gave me lots of useful tips. I have my first beer since leaving Germany in a relaxed restaurant where I can work on my laptop sat at a table. It's not a cheap campsite but at least I can charge my power bank, laptop and smartphone all at the same time as there are three power points and they only charged 0.50 cents for electricity unlike yesterday. I may even have fish and chips later as it is on the menu. I have covered about a third of the distance but that in two weeks which suggests it will take me six weeks to finish all being well. The bike has now done around 800km since I started riding it and it has performed perfectly. Top speed today 44kmh on a long downward stretch, however I always pay the price later having to push the bike up the next hills.

Correction it was of course the River Rhone and not Saone. Sloppy work I know but always under pressure to complete editing quickly due to battery life and Internet connections. No wonder it was big! One of the world's most famous rivers.😉