I realise that my blog photos are getting a bit similar: rivers, bikes, canals, and some pretty buildings. I apologise, but that is what we’re seeing every day!
We’ve been very fortunate with the weather, and continue to be so. My feet haven’t seen socks for three weeks, and the sandals I bought in August, are looking like they’ve seen five summers.
We started today in the middle of old town Besançon. A 2 minute walk to find a nice patisserie and a tasty french breakfast .
I then extracted the bikes from their fancy accommodation, behind these wonderful doors.
The bikes were loaded up on the street and off we went into a the old town, full of one way streets. However; bikes are permitted to go either way up them! Very scary.
We extricated our ourselves from this medieval town, only to find we were now on the wrong side of the impressive citadel, 500 ft above us. This required another passage through the 500 metre canal tunnel in order to put us back on track and heading towards the North East.
Another day following up another beautiful river called the Doubs, which runs through the Doubs department, no 25.
The river is now navigable, so locks and weirs are regular features. Every weir seems to have a heron who’s claimed his fishing rights to it.
The water in the Doubs is crystal clear. You could see the bottom much of the way. Many fish were visible and some were quite large (approx 50cm)
A dazzling kingfisher flew in front of us for a few moments.
As we had a long day, we wanted to do at least 50 km before lunch. For those in the know of traditions in France, lunch is served strictly between 12 noon and 13:30 and is generally the main meal of the day.
We arrived at a small town called Clerval and spotted some umbrellas with 3 other couples already finishing their meal. It was 13:40, so I thought we’d be turned away. I rushed in and asked the rather buxom maître d if she could accommodate us for lunch. She looked a bit cheesed off, but went back to consult with the chef.
We were in 😁😁 but needed to order right away. We enjoyed a simple, 3 course meal with a fruity local wine, and had unusually prompt service thrown in; because they were all anxious to close up and go home to sleep!!
We were only 10 km from our destination when our bums needed a break. This little bar enabled us to do this, whilst we had a drink.
It would be fine to park end on, in small roadside parking gap.
Another old town, with a castle inside. It took 30 mins to work out how to get into our apartment, as the owner had installed a remotely operated digital key lock, which involved a very long tortuous conversation with him on the phone, in order to break in!
It was a huge place so we pushed the bikes up the wide stairs and were settled for another night.
Euro Vélo Route 6 