Today's ride was all along small country roads .. very quiet, some really nice small towns and wonderful views. It was really nice to be on real roads today!
Our route took us South East into the Western edge of the Jura and then the Doubs regions. Finally we headed straight South through the Forest de Chaux on rolling hills.
This forest supplied the wood for the salt factory of Saline-Royale .. a purpose built community by architect Ledoux where water from the many salt springs of the area supplied the process of manufacturing salt through evaporators.
Saline Royale is now a UNESCO world heritage site and we are staying in the hotel on site.
We are quite enjoying walking around this place visiting the many gardens they have developed around the theme of the characters of the famous French cartoonists Herge! (think Tintin and his arch enemy Le general Alcazar!)
The architecture is fascinating but we were not in the mood to get much out of the museum on salt history.
The restaurants are closed today in this town so we slipped over to the grocery store and bought some food and had a picnic in the gardens .. very nice!
