When I woke up, I was feeling like my head cold was returning, and as the day wore on, I was sure it had. By the end of the day, I had deposited mucus over most of Burgundy 😁
Luckily it was a flat day with lots of easy bike paths. The first part was by a canal and while initially pleasant it just ground on and on and by the time we turned off, we were completely bored with it. We immediately found a Boulangerie minutes before everything shut for Sunday afternoon and we sat by the river and ate quiche and pain aux raisin.
We were looking forward to the Eurovelo that we were about to join. There were a few more cyclists, but we immediately joined another canal … aaaagggghhhh
This one was a little nicer with forests, a couple of turns and more boats.
Next we rode on quiet (it’s Sunday afternoon) roads and joined up with another bike path. The cycling infrastructure in France is the best I’ve seen.
We had more food to eat and it started sprinkling rain when we stopped and sat on the ledge in an old railway shed with an awning – perfect. (That’s the picture at the top.
It was soooo quiet as we went through villages and small towns and now we could see the hills that we’d need to traverse over the next couple of days.
The sky looked threatening and a thunderstorm crossed out path. There wasn’t much cover and Dennis enquired about sheltering under the awning of the only house around. The lady in the house was very pregnant, made us coffee and let us ride out the storm under the awning. How nice is that.
That meant it would be a late finish but the last part was a fairly easy with a final downhill into town. 99.9kms done. I’m not one to ride another 100 metres to make the hundred for the day. Who’s keeping score ?
Empty villages. They take their Sundays seriously here
Lons-le-saunier was a surprise. It’s a lovely old town. We had another centrally located Airbnb which was newly renovated and the host was certainly trying hard. Unfortunately, we had to lug the bikes up the stairs to the 3rd floor. After the 100km ride today, we just didn’t feel like it.
There was a pizza place in the next street which was lucky because there was very little open on Sunday night. It was worth it though, the pizza was superb, as was the ice cream but the Coté du Jura wasn’t great.
Sleep was very easy tonight