The view out my window tonight
This morning was a late morning for me. I needed to finish yesterdays ride report - always a problem after a hard day - and I needed to get my digestive system working properly again. I ate breakfast early, then worked in my room till nearly 10 AM, making several trip to the bathroom. When I left, I still was a little under the weather, but feeling much better than a few hours earlier. I think my basic problem is that French meals, which I enjoy, and hard bicycle riding, which I also enjoy, don't work well together.
I started today by riding through Tulle, looking for the Cathedral. Traffic was really bad in this town that is built along a river in a narrow gorge. When I found the Cathedral, it was a challenge just to get near it, because of the traffic, and I could not get to where I could take a decent picture of it because of the traffic and the fact that there was a busy market area immediately surrounding it. After checking with my computer, I rode on out of Tulle by continuing my ride down the river. My software didn't show the 200 m climb that was required to get up to the expressway, nor did it show that the expressway climbed for the next six km. Ah well, it was 'only' about 500 m of climbing. Then there was actually a flat part before it started climbing and descending, over and over again, for the rest of my ride. My average speed today was 10 mph. That is about what I do on the Blue Ridge Parkway with a mile of climbing for every fifty miles of riding. I only rode 60 miles today, but my legs feel like I climbed a mile. That - the Plateau du Limosin - is hilly country!
The climb out of Tulle
Starting out on N89
N89 just after the autoroute parallels it
Extending the autoroute to Tulle - it should be done in 2003
N89 going through a town
A Drivers Ed car passing me by some of the morts along N89
On a more pleasant note, there are no dead pieces of truck tire or truck tire wires on the shoulder on N89. I've often wondered why the US allows trucks to litter the roads with tire carcasses and bits of wire. Tires coming apart on trucks must represent a significant safety hazard, both to the trucks and to the other vehicles on the road, yet we do nothing about it. Apparently they do in France since I saw no tire debris in more than fifty miles of riding on an expressway with heavy truck traffic.
I stopped for lunch in Egletons. I was going to be good to my tummy and not have a real French lunch, so I stopped at a Pizza place. Unfortunately, they had a full lunch - Menu is the word - that was just too good to pass up. I really enjoyed it and, now I hope my digestive system will finish digesting it. Since the riding was hilly all day, there was no period of rest for digestion, other than the hour it took for lunch. I guess I shouldn't have had that dessert, but it was sooo good... On a positive note, I can ride for a long time after a French lunch without feeling hungry!
Sheep along N89 after Ussel
D987 - a pleasant, hilly road with nice wildflowers along the banks
Herment as I was riding up to it - that wall surrounds the graveyard
Graves in Herment's graveyard - I've seen lots of similar graveyards around here
the above ground vaults and the icons on them are interesting
A telephoto shot of the mountains to the west