Bikng Day 11

• Length ridden: 117 km
• Ascent: 1,200 meters
• Rating: 8.5 out of 10 - wonderful areas that day!
• Highlights: Gorge of River Ain, Royal Monastery of Bourg, the friendliness of the French
• Lowlight: None, really
• Map of the day

OK, I'll admit some technical info: remember, I switched the SIM card from my main cell phone to the back-up one. This means that I currently do not have access to my photos (as it was not synched with OneDrive on the old phone), without these, I have no recollection as to where and I rode that day and to what I saw. I have to find my back-up phone and it power it up to help refresh my memory. Also missing is the Google Timeline, as it was also not syncing. I do carry one more thing - a smart watch, which luckily tracks my trip, so I was able to prepare the map of the trip. I shall write the story of this day later, once I have access to the old phone. I do recall I found a nice lake that day, got a hair cut, and that a very nice couple allowed me to pitch my tent in their garden that evening...but not much more...

UPDATE: So I have found back-up phone and can write the story of this day. Here it goes.

I got up quite early, packed and was ready to roll around 6:30 am. Nothing and nobody bugged me during the night, luckily - however, there was one big thump not too far away from me during the night - or maybe I just dreamt that? The area around me was a bit like in Styria - there was even a hot-air balloon rising into the crisp morning air. They must have had beautiful views.

I was now riding in a valley of the Semine river, part of the Rhone basin, on a motor-road with little traffic, as next to me was a highway. I spotted the scenic Lake Sylans, on the shore of which were the ruins of an ice factory from the 19th century. - however, I did not visit it.

At the small town of Nantua was a wonderful church, the Abbey church of St Michael originating from the 11th century (so about 1,000 years old!). In the church was a painting by Delacroix. Despite its historical and artistic significance, I had the entire church almost to myself.

Who would have thought, Nantua is located next to Lake Nantua, which is a glacial lake. I rode next to it and was a bit disappointed to see that swimming was prohibited, well, there was a very small area dedicated to swimming, but that was not appealing. At the northern tip of the lake, I saw that quite a few people were bathing in the lake despite the restriction, so in I went for a short, refreshing swim. I warmed up after the swim in the sun and dozed off for a few minutes.

After the swim, in Montréal-la-Cluse, I got a haircut. The barber was of Turkish origin, born already in France, he told me he felt very much French, despite having Turkish as the native language.

A somewhat larger town came, called Oyonnax, an industrial city. Despite this, it had a pretty center - this picture could have been made in Paris.

A bit of a climb started after town, then a sharp descent, onto the basin of the Ain River. I believe the surrounding mountains are called the Jura mountain range.

Now I crossed the river and was riding next to it - it was a wonderful sight!

It came to a pretty steep climb and at the top of the climb, with wonderful views of the Ain river, I reached a place called Corveissiat, where a farmers` market was in full swing.

The next town was Bourg-en-Brasse. First I found a nice cathedral from the 16th century, called Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Annonciation de Bourg-en-Bresse, not a short name.

That was, however, not the main sight in that town of just 40,000 inhabitants- the "jewel" is the Royal Monastery. Margaret of Bourbon, wife of Philip II of Savoy, had intended to found a monastery on the spot, but died before her intention could be accomplished. The church was built early in the 16th century by her daughter-in-law, Margaret of Austria, wife of Philibert le Beau of Savoy, in memory of her husband. Impressive are the Burgundy-style glazed roof tiles.

Unfortunately, it was quite late, past 7 pm, so the abbey was closed. Well, that plus the wonderful basin of the river Ain are reasons to return there.

After town, Google wanted me to do a visit in the nearby forests, not sure why, but it thought best to take me on small unpaved roads, in the midst of woods and some recommendations did not work, so had to turn around and backtrack for a while. I was getting tired and did not find any covered place to stay, neither was there a campground. Coming out of the trees was a nice harvested field, that would be good to pitch my tent. There was a house with a beautiful garden next to it, with a gentleman busy outside. I thought it would the best strategy to "register" myself and ask him if he had anything against me crashing close to his house. He looked at me and said, you can come and sleep on my yard! It was so well groomed I was afraid to damage it with my tent, but he did not let me leave. So now I was in this amazing garden, sort of a mini-paradise, got some fresh water, plus I was able to charge my electronic stuff! Amazing, these friendly French people!

I rode some 117 kilometers that day and had a splendid night.