To Saint Florentine

June 7, 2024

An very easy day in beautiful weather

Ken walked miles yesterday afternoon to find a supermarket to buy us one of the take away salads we so enjoy and a bottle of wine. We disagreed about the wine a Juroncan Ken thought it great but It was too sweet for me. A look at the prices on the dinner menu at this hotel made us think this was a very good idea. We both slept well on our very comfortable bed and took our time eating our breakfast in these elegant surroundings.

We didn’t leave till our check out time of 11am as once more we have a very short distance to ride and a late check in time

The cycle way beside the canal between Joigny and Migennes is described as technically quite challenging with some single track - for me this translates to ‘I will in all probability fall off’. Therefore we decided to take to the road. Although coloured red on the map it was fine and the traffic not too heavy at all. It was completely flat and we covered the 10k in no time. We had timed things well as we didn’t want to miss out on lunch again and after didling about for a while we came to a restaurant right on 12. It was filling up with workers and we joined them for Le Menu de Jour. What a really delicious lunch we had. Firstly butternut soup with a poached egg in the middle (sounds strange but it was delicious. Le plat was a fillet of fish in a perfect hollandaise sauce accompanied by a mushroom risotto. All this for only 13E each

Then to find the Canal de Bourgogne. I had been wanting to ride this for years as it is about the only one in the region we haven’t riden. We found it easily and it was wide and perfectly sealed making for incredibly easy riding. Yes riding long distances along canals can get a bit boring at times but I enjoy watching the life along the canal. One thing that has suprised us is that along the rivers we have been riding we haven’t seen any fishermen. Surely the French Fisherman is not going extinct. However now we were seeing lots dedicated to their pursuit and what is more we saw 2 fisher ladies and one group even showed us some fish they had caught

Fisherman across the river and yes the canal at this point has an awful lot of weed

This lot had fish swimming around in that black net

Coming to the little town of Brienon with its port de pleasance

A beautiful little lock house. We sat in the shade here for over an hour watch the cyclists go by and a boat passing through the lock

It’s not automatic and looks like hard work

A boat goes through the next lock we came to. It had Kiwis aboard

It wasn't far to Saint Florentine from here. Rosemary had suggested we didn’t stay here because it is so steeply up hill but it was the choice of this or a 65km day which we felt a bit too long for us at this stage. Actually it wasnt that bad for me with power assistance and Ken walked a bit. We are delighted by the Hotel-Restaurant les Tilleuls it is only 2 stars but has everything we want. We arrived over a hour early for check in, were imediately shown to our room (looking at me walking the delightful lady changed our room to a downstairs one), the bikes were whisked off to a garage. The room may not have orchids or a balcony with a beautiful view but it does have wifi that works

Today's ride: 30 km (19 miles)
Total: 167 km (104 miles)

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