We stayed the night with Leslie and Paul who are wonderful hosts (thank you again!). We feel asleep like rocks after the bad last night in Paris and the hungover ride yesterday.
Paul, Leslie, and Rebecca, their oldest, joined us on our way out of Fontainebleau, where we stopped quick to look at the impressive palace. Paul was doing the first ride on his road bike since he installed a new set of wheels after an accident a few weeks back with a car that broke his wheels and injured his hand. Leslie was on a fully and Rebecca was on Leslie’s nice road bike (sooo light, I miss riding a light road bike).
In the small pack, we rode out through the woods toward Sens. After about 15km, Leslie, Paul, and Rebecca had to turn around to be back in time for French lessons, so we took pictures together at the church outside La Genevraye and said goodbyes.
With still about 70km to go, Liz increased the pace a bit and I noticed that I was still not a 100% and had trouble keeping up with Liz. We stopped for a stroopwafel (still from Fort Bakkerskil) and a cereal bar, which helped a bit. But I definitely learned my lesson about alcohol on a long bike trip now. We not only have to take care of the bikes and its gears, but also the motor driving it for all these kilometers.
Thankfully, the roads and landscapes were amazing today, which helped a lot with the struggle. It seemed like we were riding through France’s granary with wheat fields as far as the eye can see.
Given my struggling, and the many kilometers ahead of us, we did some route optimization near Saint-Sérotin and decided to skip Sens to save a few kilometers. At the same time, we also started going downhill more than uphill and made very good time down to the Yonne which we followed to the bridge taking us to Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, where, just a little outside, we arrived at the B&B for the night.
It was very nice to arrive early, around half past three, since we could relax a bit (I napped) before going back to town for dinner. Finding a restaurant where we would not sit next to speakers blaring music was a bit challenging since most restaurants in town were having music night, maybe related to summer solstice. We really wanted to have pasta tonight, but no dice because of music night, so we settled for a rather fancy French restaurant. Another good night’s sleep and I will be back on track tomorrow, I hope!
Total distance/elevation to date: 2317km/13’658m
Rest days: 7
Day 30 Route and Stats
The 1948 Tour 
Leave a comment