| Day 1 - Basel -> Vichy | Day 2 - Vichy | Day 3 - Thiézac | Day 4 - Sarlat-la-Canéda | Day 5 - La Grande Côte (Coast) |
| Day 6 - Rigny-Ussé | Day 7 - Cosne-Cours-s/Loire | Day 8 - Cosne-Cours-s/Loire | Day 9 - Riel-les-Eaux | Day 10 - Montbéliard |
Sunday
Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire -> Riel-les-Eaux
Map Link
When we left Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire that morning it was under grey skies. And not just grey, but “wet and grey”. At least wet enough that we pulled over so that I could put my rain shell on (good call, by the way!). While it was never a heavy rain, it would have made for some wet clothes.
Tonight’s goal was another campground. It was getting to that tricky part of the trip: calculate the number kilometers to home, the number of days, and just how much riding we wanted to do each day. We were getting close to home, but we couldn’t arrive early, as our cat sitters were still there. We had poked around on GoogleMaps and found this campground with amazing reviews. It wasn’t near “anything”, so it would be one of those “park the bikes and be done for the day” kinds of days.
The riding was good, rambling through rolling farmland and steadily bluer skies.
We arrived at Campground Marias in the early afternoon. It was a tiny, well-maintained place, with only 17 camping (tent or caravan) spots, trimmed hedges offering some privacy, and a well-stocked lake.
Once we had set up our tent and stored our gear we were left with not much to do. We really were in the middle of nowhere. I saw in the distance the village of Riel-les-Eaux and suggested that we walk there. So many times I’ve rolled through these tiny, sparsely populated hamlets but rarely have I stopped.
The walk wasn’t terribly interesting: we followed the road there, all 2 kilometers of it. The village itself wasn’t all that interesting. I did enjoy seeing the various states of the buildings: some looked recently renovated and others looked ready to fall down with the next strong wind. There were just a couple of people in sight, but to be fair: this was mid-afternoon on a Sunday.
With not much to see, we returned, taking a farmer’s track through the fields and along the hillside. It was a much nicer route. When we got back to the campground we had a bite to eat, but it was still early so we took a long walk around the lake and listened to the frogs and the birds. I was especially taken with the Bluethroat – it has an amazing song!
That night was quiet – once our RV neighbors stopped watching the television inside their camper. A light rain fell overnight, and I had a good night’s sleep.