20th of July our breakfast showed already its French side. There was no more Birchermüesli from Switzerland, but Gilles and Isabelle offered us self-made yoghurt and jam with the croissants and Morbier cheese. Gilles was a bike and motorbike fan. He admired my special check rail for my bike which I use to fix the GoPro. I explained him that Robert didn’t want to see me with a GoPro on my helmet which looks in his eyes more than ridiculous. Gilles agreed and said it was very reasonable not to fix it on a helmet as it probably had caused the cerebral trauma of Michael Schuhmacher during his ski accident. One of those details I had somehow missed back in Germany.
Starting from Les Rousses it didn’t take us very long and we found ourselves again on a cow-trail to avoid traffic. But this time with the heavy luggage which had to be moved through gravel and meadows. Robert took it with a grin that the bikes will not get any cleaner this time. Once we joined the “Route National 5” again we couldn’t escape from the busy road and had to go with the flow which was actually easy because it was all downhill into the deeply cut limestone canyons. At Morez we could at least take the smaller roads through town, where Robert ran into Gilles again at a Garage, which was open on a Sunday. At the end of town immense viaducts spanned over the valley of a former railway. We still didn’t know at this time it would be part of the highlights of our bike tour for the day.
At Col de la Savine we had climbed up again to nearly 1.000m from where we enjoyed more downhill until we finally could leave the RN5 at Saint-Laurent-en Grandveaux. Suddenly we entered a “Tour de France” region with all the villages being decorated for the upcoming event next Saturday the 26th of July. There were bikes hanging everywhere and huge hand painted billboards at La Chaux-du-Dombief.
The Jura is structured in huge layers of limestone which were lifted up diagonally offering space for nice lakes, swamplands and forests before another cliff drops into the next valley to get you one more step lower. It was the total joy to roll through lush green meadows and woods. I said to Robert it looks like the cows are all members of a Golf Club and my association was not so far fetched because this part of the region is called little Scotland.
From Châtilon we were lucky to catch up again on the former railway line which was turned into a bike and hike trail or as the French call it: “voie verte”. It’s perfect for cycling as it always goes with a certain slope and gets you through beautiful valleys over bridges and into tunnels. The last steep cliff drop before Lons-le-Saunier was the most spectacular. Three ladies walking their dogs proudly said it’s the most beautiful part of the Jura.
They were right because I actually biked back to the bridges and tunnels to get out my GoPro to film the downhill again. At the exit of the third tunnel I nearly ran into the ladies with their dogs as they were blocking the complete passage me being in full speed for the camera. We had to laugh so much because I had announced to them that I returned to film, but they didn’t expect me to be so fast. They counted their dogs and they were still all three alive.
When we arrived at Lons-le-Saunier huge thunderstorm clouds developed in a dramatically fast manner that we decided to stay in town and look quickly for a hotel. We found one by the station and had just brought up the luggage to our room when the rain started. After another 73km leg we had a well-deserved Siesta and slept more than two hours while it poured outside.
For dinner we found the perfect restaurant “Aux Plaisirs d’Antan” which once was a former “Bain-douche” and had on each floor a little model train driving along the stations of our bike tour as a beautiful reprise of the day. With Jurassic specialities in our stomach we walked through town and discovered the famous citizen of Lons being Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle who composed the “Marsaillaise”.
With a slight change of the lyrics I hummed: “Allons Enfants chargent la batterie, le jour de gloire est arrivé!…” Bon nuit et -hopp- aller au lit!
