Day Eight

Marcilly le Hayer to Vouécourt

102 miles 4692 ft climbed

As Chris would say, today was magnificent. The temperature had dropped making cycling more pleasant and after two and a half days crossing the flat central plain the countryside began to change as we entered the Champagne region with rolling hills, woods and mixed agriculture including vines of course.

The name of this small village we passed through was therefore very appropriate as we had certainly crossed over into a different world.

Just as we got up this morning the heavens opened and we had torrential rain for ten minutes or so. This slightly delayed our departure as for a while we couldn’t even see the other side of the campsite, so heavy was it falling

However we were lucky as the two big storm systems were once again either side of us and we only ever got a smattering of rain a couple of times during the day.

Our first stop was early after only 20 miles as we had agreed to an additional detour to climb up to the Champagne village of Montgueux. Our standard coffee & croissants were followed by a visit to Olivier Lassaigne champagne. https://www.champagne-olivier-lassaigne.fr/fr/content/79-oenotourisme-champagne-olivier-lassaigne.

Having chosen Champagne Olivier Lassaigne we were shown round by his wife Stephanie. She explained that this small village is on a rare outcrop of chalk equidistant between the northern Champagne producers near Reims and the southern producers in the Aube department. Apparently the grandfather only started producing champagne in the 1950’s for the big Champagne houses but they started to produce their own champagne in 1974. Olivier produces his own today but sells his excess to Nicholas Feuillette & Veuve Cliquot whose bottles we see grace our supermarket shelves. As a small family producer ( 19000 bottles) She was very concerned about climate change ( a producer only half a kilometre away lost everything to a hailstorm two weeks ago) and also the champagne houses who are setting the price of champagne too high so people drink an alternative.

Leaving the hill of Montgueux Nick and I sped rapidly downhill into Troyes helped by the slope and tail wind averaging almost 30 mph for a couple of miles. Getting into Troyes we had fun negotiating the traffic lights in company with two guys, one on an electric cargo bike the other an electric scooter.

Troyes is a super pretty city and formerly the capital of champagne until Reims took that title. Having been amusingly abused by a large, toothless, 62 year old man because he had six daughters, we got our passports stamped in the tourist office and exited the city entirely on cycle paths.

Although this was a long leg we had a tail wind and had good cycle paths alongside a river or the huge man-made lac d’orient often shaded by the trees of the adjacent forest so could not complain.

Nigel came out to join us for the final five miles before our lunch stop, enjoying being pushed along by the wind.

With no rain forecast for the afternoon. Nick & I decided we could power on to a slightly longer tea stop at Colombey Les Deux Églises, famous for being the birthplace of Charles de Gaulle. The terrain had changed and became a bit bumpier but was enjoyable No doubt because we had passed into another world.

We had a couple of longish hills before enjoying our tea and biscuits on the grass by the Charles de Gaulle memorial- I wonder what he’d have thought of the English having tea on his lawn. Although we didn’t want to go round the museum we did ask the very lovely ladies to stamp our passports which they were very happy to do.

Whilst we had already added some extra miles we agreed to finish the last 15 miles in style even though there were four more categorised climbs. All were negotiated well and we enjoyed some more long descents apart from a gravelly moment on our last turn into one village. We finally finished at 7pm after having left at around 8.30 this morning- a long day.

A long day but over 100 miles successfully completed. Much more enjoyable for so many reasons than the struggles in the heat yesterday.

The campsite is genuinely picture postcard and again only costs €13. The scent of Lime trees and Heron on the river just adding even more. The village is pretty too with the Victorian laundry house housing a colony of bats as a bonus.

We now only have two days left to complete our trans country journey. Again we expect the sun to shine and the temperature to rise tomorrow. Until then ….