Mr & Mrs E .... .: Rhone Valley Yenne to Langieu. End of cycling tour.

Bridge with funny little fake chateau under the rocks

Not all our cycle rides have been warm and sunny. Yesterday temperature 26 degrees.
Today 13 degrees with rain and wind all day.

The Valley of the Rhone cycle path is excellent most on small roads or purpose made path. It starts at Geneva but is difficult to follow from the centre. After about 6 miles you get out of the suburbs and after Chancey you are high on a cliffs above the Rhone Gorge on minor roads - which is absolutely terrifying when you have to move to the side for a car or lorry. Even with a barrier, the drop is so sheer and I seem to be drawn to the edge! After Seyssel the path is smooth tarmac and easy to follow along the wide Rhone valley plain. We left the path at Lagnieu heading for Bourg en Bresse in the pouring rain. Tomorrow we leave Bourg en Bresse and will arrive back at the boat.

Monastery in Yenne our overnight stop. It was packed with people on a course. Just was rolling his eyes when he told me that they were walking around the garden chanting. He has no sensitivity. The old monastery is on the right, we were in the unattractive modern wing!

Julian sat in the garden whilst I went for a walk along an overgrown track. As I had bare legs I found a long stick to pat the grass ahead in case of snakes - not really thinking I would find one. Before long a saw two intertwining yellow and black heads rising up from the grass and another head poking out of a hole in a gnarled tree trunk. I later found out that I had come across a lair of Whip snakes.

As I was nearly at the end of the track which was in sight, I made sure that the snakes were to my left in or near the hedge and with more prodding first with the stick on my side, I nipped past them, on the basis that there was probably not going to be another snake den in the next 50 yards.