It was supposed to be the reverse of the first day. Train to Nevers, transfer to Dijon, ride home from the gare in Dijon. Easy, yes? But no. I found out this morning that the train to Nevers had been cancelled. No signs in the gare in Tours, no explanation, just not going. So I went to the counter for help. There was one agent for about 20 people waiting in line. The rest of the agents were on break. They slowly drifted back in, and evetually I got to the head of the line. I asked for a ticket to Dijon. Fine the agent says, take the TGV (high speed train) to Paris, then transfer to another for Dijon. "But the TGVs don't take bikes", I say. I am sporting cycling chlothes with a helmet on my head, so I thought maybe she would notice, but apparently not. "Oh, all right, there's a train direct to Dijon leaving at 7 in the evening and getting to Dijon at 11", she informs me. " Not a chance", I say. "Have you ever ridden a bike at night through the countryside?" I ask, but I know the answer. Finally I tell her to check for trains to Paris Austerlitz with onward connections from Paris Bercy to Dijon."Oh look, there's one leaving in 20 minutes. With the connection in Paris you should get to Dijon by 4PM". Brilliant, I'll take it. And that is how it went. The train to Paris made a connection in Orleans, but the connection was on the same platform, and it was easy-off, easy-on. The ride from the Gare de Austerlitz to the Gare de Bercy took about 15 minutes. I had time to grab a sandwich in the gare, and ate my lunch waiting for the train to leave. I rode to Dijon chatting to a French tourer who was christening his brand new, custom built, Vagabond touring bike by riding EuroVelo 6 from Chalon-sur-Saone to Budapest. We had the usual conversation about previous tours we had done, gear, and of course, the vagaries of the SNCF, our beloved national railway. I got back to our house with plenty of time to get a shower before dinner, read the mail, and catch up on e-mails.

All in all the tour had been a nice escape. With more time, I could have ridden the whole route (and been spared the problems of getting on and off trains) but on the whole it worked well. Now to plan a longer tour for July and August. Cheers.