Day 15 Montceau- Chalons Sur Saône 67 km

The day began well when I went to pay for the previous night’s meal. The receptionist couldn’t find any record on the computer of our meal, so said we could have it for free!!😁

( Maybe they’ll catch up with us??)

Bikes were privileged to have a conference hall to rest in! They even had their own charging sockets, so no need to remove their batteries.

Things then went wrong, when within 50 metres of leaving the hotel.

Sue hit a piece of metal sticking out of the ground and fell off…again; breaking her mirror. She then blamed me for leading her over some rough ground, en route to the cycle path!!

Who would want mirrors, I hear you say. Well in France, there are lots of high speed “mamils” on the cylcle trails. ( middle aged men in lycra)

These very serious cyclists, trying to beat their PB’s or whatever, come screaming up behind you.

They are very frustrated when two oldies, on heavily laden bikes, are blocking their racetrack.

We’re usual riding side by side chatting about the countryside that we are passing through, as well as trying to avoid the frequent lizards who seem to enjoy dicing with death.

Sue always looks behind and warns me when a threat appears from behind, so she really missed her mirror immediately.

It was a stroke of good fortune that within a km of this incident, we came across the first bike shop we’d seen in 800 kms and they had another mirror!!

We then had a very pleasant shorter ride along the beautiful Canal de Centre.

As we’d started late we only pedalled along the canal for an hour before we found this delightful Pizza restaurant.

The pizza was great, which we enjoyed outside. My highlight was this hand washing station inside; the most impressive I’ve seen!! It even had a foot pedal for the tap.

I spoke to the Danish owners of the boat in the foreground. The boat is their mobile second home.

A DAY OF REFLECTIONS

Thousands of large tree trunks (centre of photo) being watered by an irrigation system. No idea why🤔

These 2 boats were about 40 metres long and were the most luxurious canal boats I’ve seen.

Obstacle to climb. Must have only just happened.

Chalons sur Saône. Monument was erected to commemorate the building of the canal between 1783-1792 connecting the Saône to the Loire

We’ve now done 958 kms of pedalling since the start.

In a straight line on Google earth the distance is 450 kms!

According to my Bike map app,we have about 800 kms to get to Freising and 340 kms still to go in France.

Main thing is we’re more than half way 😁👍🏼.

We both felt we needed a rest day, so have booked our stay in Chalons for 2 nights.

0 kms of pedalling today!

6 Comments

Manfred Schropp says:

September 16, 2023 at 9:52 am

Time for the predictable German mansplaining: Why do saw mills water logs? Answer: to prevent split ends. Kind of like with hair, although I would not have personal knowledge about split ends in hair. 🙂 If the logs dry out too fast the ends of the logs dry out faster and split. That is expensive for the saw mill.

Enjoy your well earned day of rest – Manfred

LikeLike

1. Robkeene says:
  
  September 16, 2023 at 11:55 am
  
  I new you’d have an answer. I now feel enlightened. Thanks.
  
  LikeLike
  
  1. Manfred Schropp says:
    
    September 16, 2023 at 1:12 pm
    
    Did I mention yet how much I love the photos? But you always had a gift for photography. It is like being on vacation with you, minus the sore butt and bad back. And kudos to Sue for putting up with you 😉 and showing that British can do spirit.
    
    LikeLike
  2. Robkeene says:
    
    September 16, 2023 at 4:40 pm
    
    Glad you like the photos. Can’t believe you think Sue is putting up with me! It’s Sue who keeps falling off, and me that rescues her!
    Sorry about the bad spelling in the last reply. It’s been a long time since I was educated!!
    
    LikeLike
  3. Manfred Schropp says:
    
    September 16, 2023 at 4:44 pm
    
    I „new“ what you meant, oh White Knight saving damsels in distress.
    
    LikeLike
2. Pat says:
  
  September 18, 2023 at 7:24 pm
  
  So pleased to have a mansplanation, Manfred! I was puzzled too! Best wishes
  
  LikeLike