Mike and Jo settle down with some Champagne beet farmers for a while.6 to 14 Oct 07

Troyes and Champagne

We came up the motorway from Blois about as fast as we want to go on this rig. We had been slower getting away than planned and needed to be at the next stop in Troyes (it’s pronounced something like Troi with a definite rolling of the r) by 1230. Needing to make about even time for the trip we paid our money on the motorway and opened up the throttle.

It wasn’t long before Jo was explaining exponential equations as we watched the fuel gauge expire before our eyes. 15% more speed was costing us a 60% penalty in fuel. At 140 kph (the limit is 130, in fine weather, and most French stay “close” to this) you could almost see the fuel gauge move as you glanced at it.

Clearly, we have the aerodynamics of a barn door.

At home, a day of mixed riding would get an easy 500 km from the 30 L tank. With this load on board, we can get about 350 to a tank on the motorway if we keep the cruise at 120. At 140, the little “feed me now” light comes on at about 280 km.

The problem with this is that 95 proof costs €1.40 / L, that’s about $2.50 in proper money, or better than $50 every time you fill the tank! The only saving grace is that you run out of country after a couple of days. We have a tight budget for this trip, however, and we don’t want to miss out on a decent bistro meal for the sake of a quicker tip up the motorway.

So our rules from now on are clear: stay off the motorway, take a little longer on the back lanes, if you have to get onto the motorway (or the better A roads) stay under 120 kph no matter how good the road and how light the traffic.

Interestingly, you don’t see many fast sports bikes on the motorways but you do see a few big fast super-tourers. The ST1300s, BMW GTs and RT1200s generally have a couple on board in matching leathers and helmets with full luggage fit. They slide by at about 150 tucked in behind the big fairings. We watch them go with a wave and tell ourselves that the decision to bring the BMW GS will pay off later when the roads get bad and the distances get longer.

This photo shows our luggage ready to pack on the bike. The two tank bags double as day packs when needed and contain mainly wet weather gear and stuff needed during the day. We have one side bag each and the back box bag is filled with cold weather gear, computer gear and the medical kit. The plastic box is our “lunch box” and we use it to carry cheese, cold meats, bread, fruit, and the other stuff we buy and eat as we go.

Stopping by the road for a feed is easy and quick when traveling. The things worth noting in this photo are, firstly, the sartorially elegant way Mike uses his neck warmer when the temperature is just 10 deg C, and the small petrol stove carried in the tank bag and used to make a hot brew on a cold day.

So, after turning $50 worth of dead dinosaurs into noise and violence, we got into Troyes in good order to have a light lunch and get out on our feet to explore. What we found was a great town for a visit, and a good base to explore the Champagne region.

The city was mostly burnt down in about 1524 and was rebuilt quickly in the same style.

The buildings are all in the medieval and renaissance (Elizabethan) style. The buildings have a timber frame with the space between the frames filled with bricking.

Rouelle des Chats (Cats’ Alley) shows how close these houses were. At street level there is room for a lane, but at the top the eaves overlap.

A good percentage of the old city is intact and in regular use and they have made a very good attempt to put the buildings back to their original look. After WWII many buildings were plastered over to give them a modern look. Most of the plaster has now been removed and the place has a wonderful feel.

The French locals make the best of their beautiful town centre.

Thankfully, the few buildings we got into had the plumbing upgraded to 20th century if not 21st.

Troyes is the capital of the Aube département of the Champagne region and has been an important town since Medieval times. Since1505, it has been the capital of the French hosiery industry. It is home to Lacoste knitwear. Perhaps because of this, it is now Europe’s biggest factory outlet centre. Noting our distinct lack of luggage space we didn’t check the validity of the claim.

Troyes also produces 25% of France’s sauerkraut! This apparently random piece of information came to me just before we sat down to one of those long French lunches with the result that I ordered the local delicacy as part of the usual four course midday meal. This was undoubtedly our greatest culinary blunder yet!

Mike goes for the “pichett de vin rouge” having been stopped dead by French cabbage.

After a little investigation of the town, we decided it was well located to explore the wineries of the Champagne region which are located to the north east and south east. Considering that such important work needed time, we found a small farm house that we could rent for a week at a village located about 16 km east of town in a village called Bouy-Luxembourg. Notwithstanding that our landlady and her husband, nor probably anyone else in the village, didn’t speak any English, we managed to find the place, do the deal and move in without much difficulty.

“Our village”, for a week anyway.

Bouy-Luxemborge sits on the vast rolling plains of Champagne. The soil is clay-chalk and wasn’t much use for agriculture until the use of artificial fertilizers became widespread.

These days, the locals grow huge tracts of sugar beets, subsidized by the EU. No one here would even consider why they are growing sugar in such an inefficient way when it could come out of South America or Australia at 1/10th of the price, but France is like that.

Not much to look at!!!!

Growing sugar beets is not the glamorous part of farming in Champagne!

Sugar beet loading.

The coal fired sugar mill located 4km from our village.

The village looks much like hundreds of others in this area. The locals have a good quality of life, thanks to the EU Common Agricultural Policy. It looks like a reasonable place to live……if you like small towns.

Barns along the village street.

Geese in a neighbour’s yard.

Another neighbour has some pheasants under netting

Fallow fields are full of wild flowers. Also note the down jacket. It is getting bloody cold here!

Like every French village, B-L has an old church and old graves that are always fascinating to look over.

One of our neighbours is in the pest business. The business was called “Hygiene 5D”. The five “Ds” are listed on the door of the car. Even without any knowledge of French it is a great list.

Using the village as a base, our plan was to strike out to the wineries and to other places of interest. Being static for a week was a great chance to be domestic for a while.

Our farm house was very comfortable, with excellent heating and all the basics in place.

Making a choice between all of the different types of goat’s cheese is still confusing, but through persistence we are narrowing down the one we really like to a dozen or so.

With space on the bike limited, we don’t buy too much.

Over the next week we were able to explore far and wide over the Champagne region. We went to wineries in both the northern Marne and southern Aube départements, and spent some time in Troyes exploring some of its less well-know attractions. We also visited the lakes situated about 15 km further east and walked the man-made path through the forest. These lakes supply Paris water, or so we were told.

Jo steps out through the French wilderness.

The French are very tolerant of where bikes are able to park. In Troyes, we could park almost right in the central square and saunter over to a café for a café.

Less glamorous but essential, a few days static allows us to carry out some running repairs (in this case some stitching on Jo’s suit). Everything on bikes wears out and when you are using it all day every day it wears out v/quickly.

For our week in Bouy-Luxembourg, we have kept away from the usual tourist France (the wineries excepted) and have thoroughly enjoyed watching the world go by from our little village. If you have to be a beet farmer, then this is the place to do it!