Well it rained yesterday evening and the temperature dropped refreshingly. Our hotel for the night is shown on its website covered in snow, so we are very excited about that 😂. Thinking Husky rides, snow shoeing 🤔.

We started the day cycling under the Besançon hill through a tunnel then we had a looong steeeep climb up the big ridge overlooking Besançon. It was so steep we ended up “walking with our bikes” ie pushing them - which is jolly hard work.🥵😮‍💨.

Still there was a lovely view from the top.

We have now started our crossing of the Jura mountains. There are hills and the cows have bells round their neck.

We went on a big downhill and picked up a (flat) former railway and cycled along a viaduct along and over the River Loue.

Now, for those of you familiar with Michelin maps, our route through the Loue valley is shaded green - meaning it is a particularly scenic route. They certainly got it right. The route winds its way along a trout river in a gorge with pretty villages every few kilometres.

One of which, Lods, has been “certified” as one of “The most beautiful villages in France”. And it was pretty. And as we had done our big climb for the day and as it was getting hot and as it was neeearly lunch, we stopped and had a nice lunch.

Then we paddled in the stream. We saw lots of other cyclists - going the other way downhill 🤔🤔🤔.

Finally, we rounded a corner and spotted our hotel looking scenic. It has a nice restaurant. 👍🏻 But no snow ⛄️ 😂.

Another short day, but lovely place to spend the time. Biggest climb yet tomorrow 😬.