Ranchot-Dole-France

Route 2,978,920 – powered by www.bikemap.net

We rode a very short distance today, only 15 miles to Dole. We had no supper the night before, no breakfast, and no stores were open because it’s Sunday. This has become a constant dilemma for us; we somehow seem to fail at planning properly for this. So we were pretty hungry when we set off in the morning and had decided not to cycle far, but to find a place to eat and refresh ourselves.

We rode along canal Du Rhone Au Rhin and Le Doubs River, through pretty countryside and past old buildings that stood against time.

As it happened, it was a 60% day of rain;  we made it to Dole with enough time to see the sites of the old city before the rains hit.

Dole is interesting. It has a huge cathedral that looks like it was built 1000 years ago. The town is old and not restored completely and yet has a stature that says I’m still here.

Anyway, we went to the campground in Dole and set up quite early in the morning about 11 o’clock. The ground was so wet; it looked like a rain forest in Costa Rica. Sections are closed off for flooding. But we found a high spot on a piece of grass with a picnic table and set up camp.

Everything looked closed down. Everything looked like tourists have never been here before. Yet, the campground had filled up by evening.

It will be September 1 tomorrow and the campground restaurant will close. We went for dinner expecting to get lasagna or chicken but everything was sold out including all the wine that they had in stock. They are closing tomorrow for the season. So we opted for a hamburger which had no bun, no onions no anything other than a big plate of fries. This is the most interesting aspect of French food that we did not expect. Every plate that we have ordered so far has been 75% fries and the rest the main part of the meal.

I simply cannot process all the impressions that I have in one day. But one of the things that strike us as interesting about France is the different arrangement of the public facilities, the showers, the toilets, and the wash sinks. We have encountered the round building. It has a separate space for a toilet, shower, and even the sink behind a closed door. They are mixed to the extent that anyone who walks in male or female will use one. The toilet paper, if there is any, is on a wall in the aisles not in the toilet area. So if one goes into the toilet and forgets to collect some toilet paper there’s a bit of a problem. When you finish using the facilities, you walk out and are completely lost as to where your campsite might be. This is the interesting thing about traveling. Nothing is familiar everything is strange.