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Day 15, Dole to Belfort by train - 12 kilometers

    We took our time getting up and packed since we knew that we would not be riding far this day. We rode to the station and bought the tickets to Belfort and found we had an hour and a half wait till the train pulled out of the station. We decided to look around one more time and buy the fixings for lunch so that we could have lunch on the train.

    We stocked up on pate, cheese, salami, baguettes of bread and a bottle of wine. Roxcie bought some sliced chicken and soft drinks for herself along with some Laughing Cow cheese, her favorite. We arrived back at the station twenty minutes early and looked at what platform we were to meet the train on. The tickets showed platform 4. To reach the platform one had either to use the subway and stairs or to walk to the end of the yard and cross on the paved over portion between the tracks. Since we had the fully loaded bikes, the subway and stairs were out. We walked the bikes to the paved area and started walking across the tracks towards the proper platform.

    Suddenly we heard someone yelling back at the station. We looked back to see three men waiving at us and yelling. We decided we'd walk back to find out what we were doing wrong. My wife grabbed the baguettes, one in each hand to keep them from falling, and, not pushing a bike, was able to walk ahead of us. Two of the three men standing on the platform ducked inside their office when they saw her coming.

    The remaining trainman spoke rapidly to her in French, way too fast for her to understand what he was talking about. She had the tickets and one baguette in one hand and pointed to the tickets, waving the other baguette around with the other hand, and asked how we were supposed to get to the platform without walking through the yard and over the tracks. After both of them jabbered for a while, him in French and Jeanette in broken French and flustered English, it became clear that if we wanted to cross the tracks, we should ask for an escort. Jeanette said, OK, we need an escort.

    The trainman stuck his head inside the office and another man came out wearing a fire suit. He walked us back to the paved crossing and then picked up a phone on a pole and apparently checked to see if any trains were coming (although we could see over a 1/4 mile in each direction). When he was satisfied that the tracks were clear, he walked us across to the platform.

    Twenty minutes later, the train arrived and we boarded and spread out our lunch. It was necessary that we transfer trains in Bensancon. When the train stopped we found ourselves on a center platform again. This time we knew what to do. A conductor was on the platform and we asked him to escort us across the tracks. No problem. We had time for coffee and rode to a small cafe across from the station just in time to ride in the rain. We returned and asked to be escorted to the proper island and boarded the train to Belfort.

    Roxcie, like most teenagers, falls asleep easily, but Jeanette and I peered out the windows as the train rolled along, wondering what we had missed by chickening out and going, "railroad." We almost cried! The train passed through a series of valleys with a whitewater stream right along side the small roads. Even better, a canal ran along side the tracks as well, and the canal's towpath surface seemed to be paved for much or all of the way. Even though we would have had to ride through these mountains, the ride would have been almost flat! It looked like some of the prettiest country we would have passed through. I thought, " I'm coming back to do this portion of the tour over again. I owe it to myself!"

    The train pulled into Belfort and Jeanette used the underground passage to find a conductor to walk us from the center platform over to the roadway. In the meantime, Roxcie and I walked the bikes down the platform to where the access road crossed the tracks. We stood there for some time. Finally two men in a yard engine stopped next to us and asked us what we were doing. I made signs that we needed to cross the tracks. One of the engineers dismounted, took out a handi-talkie and checked for train traffic and then walked the two, "tourists", I heard that word, across the tracks to the station.

    I found Jeanette at the station, waving to us. I asked what happened since she looked a little flustered. She said she found one of the conductors and told him that her husband and grand daughter were out on the center island with their bikes and needed an escort across the tracks. The conductor told her it was impossible. She pointed to us and asked what we were supposed to do. He just shrugged his shoulders. Obviously something was lost in translation.

    We were booked into the Bonsai Hotel but were clueless as to where it was. We decided to follow the signs to the old town but somehow got lost and ended up in an industrial area in heavy traffic. Just to finish things off, it started raining heavily. We pulled under a gas station cover and Jeanette went inside to buy a map. She came and reported that the clerk said that he didn't have any maps for sale. I said that I wanted something to drink anyway and walked in and found a map rack by the door. I took the Belfort map out and walked up to the counter with it along with some Coke Lights. The clerk looked embarrassed and said he had only been working at the station for two days.

    The train scenario, the rain,  traffic and the map incident had frazzled Jeanette's nerves. We plotted our way to what we believed to be the location of the Bonsai Hotel and set off. The route we found skirted the old town and we started calming back down. Then we came to the hill. It seemed that the Bonsai was on top of he hill that the fort known as the Citadel was located on. It was fairly steep and we had to walk the bikes alongside the heavily trafficked road with almost no shoulder. We were relieved when we came to the hotel.

    The Bonsai is based somewhat on the Formula one type of hotel. Our bathroom was a plastic module that fit into the room, full featured but compact. The TV was on a shelf and could be watched only when the door to the hall was closed. The beds consisted of a double bed on the bottom and a twin crosswise over the top of the double on stilts with a ladder to the floor. We immediately called the upper bed the fort. Roxcie loved it!

    We were done for the day. I looked across the street at what we had in the way of dining out. I saw two Turkish markets, a donar-kabob and a pizza-to-go. We picked the pizza-to-go. I walked across the street and ordered two pizzas. The two young Turkish guys and the one extremely attractive young girl operating the place looked excited that they had an order. They informed me that they were running a special, two for one. I told them to double the combination pizza but to only make a single of Roxcie's cheese. We just couldn't eat that much pizza. I spent the time waiting by walking through the two grocery stores, looking at all the Asian and oriental products. Wow, Jeanette would love cruising through these places. I made sure I'd tell her tomorrow when she felt better and her nerves had settled.

    When I returned to the pizza place, the girl at the register had a concerned look on her face. She said that one of the pizzas had stuck in the oven and that it was slightly damaged. I looked inside the box, about a quarter was missing, the edges black. I told her that was OK, we couldn't eat that much pizza anyway. Her face brightened and shown like the sun. I paid for the pizzas and took them back to the hotel. We dug in. On my second bite I hit something hard. It seems that the olives still had their pits inside! Jeanette and I chewed our pizzas gingerly and picked out the pits as we came across them. Roxcie said her cheese pizza was just fine. I had a sneaking suspicion that the pizza makers hadn't been in business for long.

    I smiled as I lay in bed that night. Sometimes touring can be so much fun, you never know what the road may bring you. And we had only ridden a total of 12 kilometers on the bikes!

Recommendations and Accommodations:

Bonsai Hotel
avenue de la Laurencie, Zac de la justice,
Belfort, Belfort, Territoire de, 90000
E-36 for three, breakfast E4.90 each

Day 16, Bastille Eve; Day 17, Bastille Day