Mike again... I'm trying to go back and remember all that's happened since the last post... it's been an amazing and unique week. Sooo great!
We left you last time in the fairytale land of the Doubs river, in the magical kingdom of Besançon. The following day we headed out early and immediately found ourselves back on the Doubs river path amidst breathtaking scenery. After 15k we came to a tunnel for the canal (mostly the river and some locks around the occasional weir). The tunnel also had an ancient cycle/walking path next to it. Not keen to ride through (it was crazy and we would have had to carry or bikes and panniers separately over the slippery muddy stairs), we went over the hill. It's amazing the engineering they used to build these waterways.
Later after finding a boulangerie and grabbing some bread for lunch we booked ourselves a cute little house about 20k down the path, and headed via a "petit casino" (mini supermarket) to our stop... and wow, it was sooo cute, and right on the edge of the cycle route!
The next morning we headed off, revived from our beautiful overnight stay and casually rode the 8k to Dole, and OMG it blew us away. I'd read that it was the birth place of Louis Pasteur (he went to uni in Besancon), but seriously we stopped and walked, mouths open, into the town, just incredible!
Leaving Dole, it was time to say goodbye to the Doubs river for a bit, and cut across on a canal to meet up with the Saone river. Again we had no fixed plan, and after a very pretty ride we met up with the Saone, very excitedly for me, as from here we will roughly follow the Saone to Lyon. Shortly after we stopped in Losne to grab some afternoon tea and lookup our stop for the night. As we ate incredible pastries, we were really struggling to find the right night stop.. then as we walked out to get on the bikes, Serena noticed a hotel sign right next door... and boom... we were stopped for the night. A really interesting place right on the Saone, that the next morning was celebrating 80 years since liberation in WW2.
Leaving Losne, we again headed along our route without a fixed plan, but making great time we kept moving through small villages along the Saone, until it became clear that we were going to complete the 70k run into Chalon sur Saone. Quickly we picked a cheap hotel for the night and headed into town. As we should have expected, having picked the Kyriad (a hotel chain of infamy from the pervious Amsterdam to Reims ride), it started raining as we rode into town! But the hotel was great, and we found a beautiful city in Chalon. Is there no end to this French beauty!
The next morning after a walk and breakfast, we got to work on our secret plan. We are going so well on our ride schedule that we have a week up our sleeve, and have been planning to take a break. So we checked the Gites (short term holiday rentals) in the area, and found one about 15k out of town. We quickly booked it in for 6 nights (woohoo), and headed west out of town along an old rail trail. 6k from our Gite we stopped for lunch, and had the best Croque Monsieur ever!! Turned out it was a guy who'd been head chef at a top Sydney restaurant, The Treasury, for 6 years (weird how small the world is sometimes). We then climbed up over what felt like a mountain into our valley and our cute home for the next week!!!
Serena's Turn
"We then climbed up over what felt like a mountain into our valley..." - WHAT FELT LIKE A MOUNTAIN???? It almost killed me! Just when I thought I was the fittest I'd ever been in my life, my ego took a huge battering as i had to get off the bike and walk over a lot of "what felt like a mountain" - DESTROYED ME. But we then did cycle down to our little village, and to our gorgeous cottage. Ah bliss. We are holed up in the wonderful 2 bedroom cottage with our own little courtyard complete with outdoor tables, chairs, and loungers, looking out onto the apple orchard and burgundy vines across the road - tough gig hey! It's been so magnificent to have a little house to ourselves, we've been cycling every morning to one of the local villages for breakfast and fresh bread for lunch, and a stop at the supermarket for supplies to add to our simple lunch buffet of bread, comte cheese (a local cheese and Mike's fave), ham, salad and cornichons, and for dinner supplies - it's been so great to cook simple dinners and take a break from cafes and restaurants. I'm as happy as a French pig in French mud. We've been reading in the sun, going for walks in the evening, and this morning, instead of riding we walked over to Saint Jean de Vaux for our boulangerie visit. Sooooo great. It's quiet, stunningly beautiful, and the people very friendly (as opposed to the local dogs who are not so friendly). We are making the most of it before we head off on Sunday towards Lyon to visit friends and meet up with our nephew, and begin our next bike phase to the Mediterranean. Woohooo!!
Leaving Besançon
It’s certainly a beautiful part of the world.I’m up for a dozen of the vin rouge from the supermarket for 96 euros you could get a discount for bulk buying.Serena has some room on her bike I’m sure.
ReplyDeleteLol... made me laugh just trying to imagine it! When we went back the next day 2 of the barrels were gone, so they are a popular item :)
Delete