Day 318 – EU – France [Bourg-en-Bresse to Nantua]

16/02/21

41km

  From Bourg-en-Bresse (France) to Nantua (France)

Europe

The weather is finally turning for the better, beautiful roads today and a chilly incident

Temperatures have gone up 10 degrees in a day! I no longer left with minus 5 but + 5 and it warmed up throughout the run to slightly above 10 degrees. Running under today’s bright blue sky felt like a treat. Weather forecasts show the next ten days at least to be equally as good, is this an early Spring? I certainly hope so. Today’s run had 900m positive elevation, it was challenging at times.

About halfway through the run, as I was on a very quiet country road with loads of turns and ups and downs, I spotted something by the side of the road. About 10 to 15m below the road level was a car, on its side, wedged between two trees. It looked like it had flown about 20m or so from where it had left the road (skid marks). It was impossible to tell when the accident had occurred but the vehicle was closed and it did not look like anyone had gotten close to it. I stopped a car to get some help and the people reached the same conclusion, it was impossible to tell when it had happened but it looked recent. We called emergency services. We were too scared to go check the vehicle, it was eerily silent. Emergency services confirmed they had not been informed of any accident on that spot and they started looking at the vehicle. It did not seem there was anyone left in the vehicle. The police came, took our identities and with that, we all left the scene. I was a bit shaken and it took me quite a few kilometers to get rid of the shivering. I will probably never know what happened. I run by the roadsides 4h to 6h every day. This is a danger I am very aware of…

I am starting to get very close to Upper Savoy and the Alps will soon be in clear sight. Tomorrow will be my last French stage, on what had been a mini Tour-de-France of 2 months and 2,250kms! Not bad for something totally unplanned. I am looking forward to keeping running in warmer temperatures – as Southern Europe is hit by a cold wave. For once I seem to be in a lucky spot!

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: