France: Road bike tours through the French Jura
Green! The Jura is green! Green meadows, green forests, green meadows. The waters of the Doubs and the Loue also shimmer green; in the middle of it all are fly fishermen in green rubber trousers, the water gurgling around their hips as they let their fishing lines buzz through the air. Does the "witch with the green teeth" also come from this area? The French call it "La sorcière aux dents vertes", which on this side of the Rhine is Prussian for "famine". You won't come across it in the river valleys of the Jura. But up to Mont d'Or, Mont Baulmes or one of the other numerous ten and more per centers, that's where it lurks.
The "Green Fairy", on the other hand, "la fée verte", comes from the provincial town of Pontarlier. It is said to have turned men into "wild beasts", and some even became murderers because of it. It was also part of the first Tour de France riders' first-aid kit, who were known to be afraid of nothing. "La fée verte" was the popular name for absinthe, which was distilled with wormwood and other herbs in distilleries in and around Pontarlier more than a hundred years ago and quickly became a fashionable drink in Paris, explains Patrick Vallet, a sinewy man in his mid-forties, who was a professional cyclist in his former life and now works as a tour operator guiding mountain bikers, hikers and cross-country skiers through the Jura - and us on our racing bikes.
You can download the entire article and the GPS data for these tours below:
- Tour 1: The home of Gustave Courbet
114 kilometres, 1,370 metres in altitude, maximum gradient of eleven percent
- Tour 2: Swiss watch movements
117 kilometres, 1,270 metres in altitude, max. 14 percent gradient
- Tour 3: Ain ride
97 kilometres, 1,830 metres in altitude, max. 13 percent gradient
- Tour 4: On the piste
112 kilometres 2,000 vertical metres, max. 13 percent gradient
