Toutry - Montbard: Finish along the Canal de Bourgogne - France Again - Cycling in Burgundy 2008 - CycleBlaze

August 6, 2008

Toutry - Montbard: Finish along the Canal de Bourgogne

In the morning we stopped for a coffee at the Restaurant du Centre and also to pay for the campground and last night's salads and beer. For the two of us it all came to 15€!

Leaving Toutry - the Restaurant du Centre with lovely hanging geraniums serves coffee in the morning, lunch at noon, but in the evening just drinks
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Fortified walls around Epoisses
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The last day of our tour. Our route, still hilly, took us to Semur-en-Auxois, the last pretty town of our tour, and then back to easy riding on the Canal de Bourgogne. We got a lovely view of Semur from the adjacent hill before we descended into the valley of the Cousin, only to regain lost altitutde by pushing our bikes up the cobblestone street into town.

Semur-en-Auxois
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Road leading up to Semur
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Approaching Semur
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City gate entering Semur
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This was a hot day, very hot, and my energy was spent - I needed a rest day. The canal path was good, we had a slight decline all the way and a light tailwind and were able to make good time. But I'd had it.

On our way to the Canal de Bourgogne
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The last stretch, again along the Canal de Bourgogne
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We were glad to reach Montbard. We already knew our way around town and shopped on the way to the campground so we could eat at our tent - the usual: bread, cheese, apples, tomatoes, wine. We felt at home, the evening was cool and pleasant and we set up the table and chairs, which were waiting in our car. We enjoyed our simple meal on our spacious and shady site.

In spite of the lovely evening I slept miserably and looked like a real bag of wrinkles in the morning. This is not a good note to end on, but not sleeping well for so many nights in a row was definitely a negative side to a tour that was otherwise great cycling. Maybe a bigger tent would help. When buying the tent, we thought least possible weight was the primary factor, now we realize a couple of pounds heavier and more space would be better.

Burgundy is lovely and we are looking forward to going back to see the many places that we didn't get to this time - but then there are so many places we want to visit by bike, who knows when we will return to Burgundy.

Today's ride: 52 km (32 miles)
Total: 311 km (193 miles)

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Charmaine RuppoltI find that biking and then camping really gives me a good night's sleep usually. All that fresh air and exercise. :) Maybe you could take a light sleep aid to help?
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2 years ago