I had to ride 1,000km in France to find a vegetarian restaurant

Margie Joyce, June 20, 2023, France

It’s a big day for we cycling tourists in France. After two-and-a-half weeks of riding, we are going to hit 1,000km today. It’s something we’ve done before on our Eastern Europe and Canadian trips, but this time we aren’t even half way! Budapest is still more than 1,500km away!

After a fond farewell to beautiful Dole, we hit the road, cycling out of town on a nice, paved and flat cycle path, both keeping an eye on distance so we don’t miss the chance to mark our mille.

After around 10km we come across a “Route Barée” sign. We’ve seen a few of these in our travels and have always ignored them. There’s always been a way to get our bikes around road works.

Not today.

We’re riding along a lovely river-side road (our new favourite river Le Doubs) discussing how pretty it is and how this could be a holiday house area for French people when the driver of a bit of large, slow machinery stops and says something, in which I catch “route barée”. We decide to ignore him and after he is out of sight we continue on our way until we reach the point where it is obvious we aren’t getting through.

The route is indeed barée.

There’s nothing for it but to make a U-turn, go back and try work out how to get where we are going.

We’ve underestimated the French though. There is a clearly signed bicycle route déviation which takes us around the road works and back to our rightful place beside Le Doubs.

And just as we are crossing the bridge over the river, our 1,000th kilometre ticks over.

With celebrations and high-fiving over we get on with the business of getting to Bresançon.

Today is our hottest day yet. As we weave our way along a route that is sometimes alongside the river, sometimes away from the river, and once even high up above the river, a thirst starts that can’t be satisfied with lukewarm water from a bidon. It’s Orangina time.

The Orangina gods are not with us today. We ride along the very much human engineered river checking every village for a likely shop and coming away thirsty, having to make do with yet another swig of unsatisfying water.

The countryside has changed so much over the course of just one day’s ride. The ground rises steeply from the river’s bank. We’re not in rolling French countryside any more. We’re getting close to Switzerland things are starting to look very much pointier.

When riding, we only cover relatively short distances (if you compare it to travelling by car). It’s amazing how you can wake up and start riding in one world, and end your day 60km later in another. Riding into Besançon is like riding into a completely different France. Everything is more alive. There’s more traffic, more people, and there’s a great bit looming citadel greeting us on our way in. (Sadly, focused on riding rather than photographing.)

The streets of town are busy, there are people crowing cafés and restaurants, shops are open! What is this place?

Besançon is a modern city built into an ancient structure. It’s built on a loop of Le Doubs and has a high citadel, so would have been a very protected place back in the day when you needed to be constantly protecting yourself from marauding invaders. It has some ancient buildings and structures, some dating back to Roman times. There’s just a lot of old shit here.

It also feels very modern and progressive. I am astounded and delighted to stumble across a vegetarian restaurant. Neil has eaten like a king for 1,000km while I’ve skirted around many menus with salads and pizzas (though admittedly there have been some stand out meals). It’s time for me to eat at a restaurant where I have choice.

L’Unalome restaurant is a gem. Not only is the menu 100% vegetarian, they also source locally, donate profits and have a genuinely lovely owner who spots us a house-made digestif (orange and cinnamon fire water). It is highly recommended for all but the most stubborn meat eaters (you know who you are and I challenge you anyway).

Stats for today:

• Distance: 64.04km
• Climb: 126m
• Average speed: 17.4km/h
• Average temperature: 32C
• Moving time: 3:41:28
• See our ride on Strava

The beer picture.

At the end of a day’s ride, our tradition is to enjoy a beer, and to photograph it for posterity. Today’s beer picture was taken at a very crowded cafe in Besançon that is next to a park. It seems like the entire town is out drinking, eating ice-cream or playing in the park.

Along the way today: