My Sunday run out the 🍾 Champagne Tourist Route 🍾

[JQL]

My Sunday run out the Champagne Tourist Route in France on my FJR. Enjoy 30 minutes of beautiful scenery and quaint old French villages during the grape picking season (vendange) south of Épernay in France.

 

[Fredo]

Nice
Thanks for sharing.

 

[mikesim]

Nice ride! I was amazed however by the lack of traffic. Is that normal? It's a tourist area! Was it due to Covid?

 

[JQL]

I was amazed at the lack of traffic also. Don't know why. Maybe it's because most of France has gone to the seaside for their holidays.

 

[Warren]

Not just traffic but some one of the villages looked deserted. I did really like how the buildings are right up by the road and the history they showed.

 

[JQL]

July and August are the two summer holiday months in France. Most people go away for 3 weeks, some a lot longer. Wives will go away for about 2 months with the children. Especially if they have a house in the countryside, by the sea, or relatives in the countryside... It was a Sunday, so even the husbands will have joined their families in the holiday homes.

The peak holiday time is 1st three weeks of August when it's, usually, the hottest and driest. So that's why the villages look empty.

What surprised me was the lack of tourists. I went for lunch at a popular restaurant and the restaurant was only half full. I noticed that the cafes and restaurants were also only about half full.

 

[Rand soper]

Very nice!
I used to make ride videos for a friend in SoCal (where I grew up - he now lives in Riverside, we both grew up in Huntington Beach). I stopped when he started getting upset that I live/ride in a place that he considers to be much nicer than where he lives/rides. I keep inviting him up to Oregon, but so far he hasn't taken me up on it.

 

[Det78580]

Love to work in August when most of France has gone to the seaside.
30 miles from home to the office in southern part of Paris without a single traffic jam.
Unfortunately this will change next week.

 

[mikesim]

With everyone on vacation at the same time, how does anything get done?

Mike

 

[JQL]

It doesn't. As everyone is on holiday it doesn't matter because all non-essential businesses are closed.

Only the hospitality trade and a caretaker staff of "essential services" work.

 

[Phil Tarman]

John, thanks for sharing your ride! Beautiful country!