Well I guess its my turn to contribute to this blog. You know when you take 140 pictures you probably had a a pretty good day. I may have gotten carried away bit but my theory is there has to be a few good shots in that group. After arriving in Beaune by train yesterday the initial plan was to cycle east hooking up to the Eurovelo 6 route and bike to Besancon where we left off before we went to Provence by train. But I had been thinking of a conversation with Ian and Shirley's friend Peter from Toronto at Ian's birthday party in Parkville this summer highly recommending this area. So why not spend a few days here exploring this area? When I suggested that to the GTW this morning she thought I was kidding. But she came around. We headed south from Beaune this morning on the Voie des Vignes (Beaune - Santenay - Nolay). Our kind of cycling - paved bike paths ... no cars. Actually I lie ...there were maybe a dozen cars in our 80 km ride today. So no real drama today ...just a thoroughly enjoyable day. We soon met women hiking from Canada on a women only trip. They said they were having a great time without their other halves. Kathleen believed them but I think they were just putting on a brave front trying to appear strong. Anyway we had a great chat and tried out each other's cameras. We stopped for coffee about 20 km in and met a group of biker guys from the San Diego. Now you could tell these guys were having a good time without their other halves...no putting on a brave face here.
Back to our ride today. What a great place to ride ...perfect as a destination for a supported or unsupported ride for a week or so. Or for anyone doing the Eurovelo 6 route across France a detour through this area would be recommended if you have the time. And of course the wine! The first portion of our route today from Beaune to Santenay was moderately rolling terrain through several villages. The last 14 km portion from Santenay ended 4 kilometers past Nolay. This section was a steady very moderate incline on a recently paved old railway line. Our total ascent today according to our Garmin device was 1064 meters.
Now I will forward this to Kathleen to post. She is working on the pictures. I think its time for dinner too!
Our latest plan now is to head tomorrow to Dijon where we will take the train to Freiburg... then cycle to the Bodensee area. Of course that could change! We will see what tomorrow brings.
We met Margaret, Irma and Betty hiking the path. These are three fit women. They travelled to the Cotswolds with a group of fourteen, leaving the men at home, and eight of them continued on to Burgundy. They were quite a few kms down the path and had plans to do more before they turned around. There is shopping in Paris to be done before they head back to Canada. You go girls!
Our Chien of the Day. This appealing fellow had no spokesperson. His people were busy doing very important work, and he was happily playing with any cyclist who came by. A great life.
Here is where our Chien of the Day's people were. We didn't want to bother them for details. As I said, they were doing very important work. The harvest is complete and this machine was tilling between the rows. Future vintages depend on them.
Team jerseys. These guys were having a great time. Note the baguettes and wine bottles printed on the back. I wanted to trade but I don't think my Canuck jersey was big enough.
The whole crew. Look them up on Facebook: Les Sages a Velo. Note the bunny ears three from the left. When I saw the photo I cracked up. It reminded me of many a classroom photo session.
This crowd was walking up the bike path, all yakking away. We have no idea what it was about and watched bemused as they went by, smiling at us and calling out bonjour.
Our route today. We went out and back on the Voie des Vignes. After some discussion about making a loop via the D roads we decided it would look completely different in the other direction, and guess what? It did! The little side jaunt was an exploration of Nolay looking for a beverage to supplement our picnic lunch.
