To Pouilly-en-Auxois - Three Seasons Around France: Spring - CycleBlaze

May 22, 2022

To Pouilly-en-Auxois

It’s eleven and we’re in the lobby with Suzanne and János, checked out of our rooms and waiting to leave.  There’s a slight anxious hold-up though as we wait for Susan to return from the tea shop she stopped in a on the way back from her photo crawl to see if (hopefully!) her camera is still there.

In the meantime, Suzanne and I have a brief competition to see whose camera zoom is the most powerful.  We focus and shoot the hubcap on the car parked across the street, and there’s the inevitable tension while we wait for the judges to turn in their slips to announce a winner.  I win!!  It’s not even close, really.  With Suzanne’s result (which we won’t embarrass her camera by including here), you can’t even tell that it’s a Ford.  Pitiful.

As a consolation prize we compare wide angle lens features, and mine loses - narrowly.

The LUMIX wins again!
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Lyle McLeodOK, you’ve aroused the competitive camera nerd in me! A couple of questions: 1) approximately how far away were you rom the car (I’m assuming about 60 ft) 2) is the photo the full frame (i.e not cropped). If so, that’s a pretty impressive zoom!

Nice shot by the way …. And that guy needs to clean his wheels 😎.
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2 years ago
Scott AndersonTo Lyle McLeodIt’s the original uncropped shot. I didn’t think to pace it off, but it must be something over a hundred feet. We’re sitting at the back end of a side room looking across it, the lobby, and to the far side of the street outside.
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2 years ago
Lyle McLeodTo Scott AndersonImpressive!
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2 years ago

Susan returns a few minutes later, a broad smile on her face and flashing a thumb up.  She’s had a few tense incidents lately so I chide her that she should start posting adversity-free day updates to remind herself to be more careful.  She agrees that she needs to up her game, and does succeed in making it through perhaps the next two hours without further mishap.  Pretty good, Susan!

So with the camera accounted for we’re finally off.  And hey, I’m supposed to be on a blog break!  See you tomorrow.

Leaving Dijon. Behind János is the bridge that attacked Rachael’s hand yesterday, but everyone comes through today unscathed.
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Some ducks, some graffiti along the Burgundy Canal.
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We’re barely out of town when I see János just ahead, flagging me down and directing my attention to the pavement. Snake! I stop to take a photo, but first wave off a pair of oncoming bikers about to crush the poor thing. I find a long stick to encourage him to move off the path and then János and I are on the roll again.
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Bill ShaneyfeltMight be an Aesculapian snake.

https://wildlifeinfrance.com/snakes-france/aesculapian-snake-in-france
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2 years ago
Scott AndersonTo Bill ShaneyfeltAwesome. I’ve been hoping to start seeing some reptiles and amphibians once it started warming up. We’re lucky to see this one alive, since it sounds like they’re mostly up in the canopy. I saw another one on a bike path a few days ago but it didn’t present as well with the tire tracks across its back.
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2 years ago
On the Burgundy Canal.
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Water irises, on the Burgundy Canal.
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On the Burgundy Canal.
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On the Burgundy Canal.
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Crash test ducky, on the Burgundy Canal.
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For a mile or two all of the trees along the canal are dead or dying, beset by mistletoe.
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On the Burgundy Canal.
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On the Burgundy Canal.
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On the Burgundy Canal.
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We must have passed forty locks today. It makes for an odd cycling experience - flat for a quarter mile, then rise up to the top of the next lock. Repeat, x40.
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Beside every lock is a lock keeper’s house (at least I assume that’s what they are). Nearly all have the same simple architectural design, and about half are still occupied.
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Steve Miller/GrampiesWe found that with most locks now automated, or self serve, many of the houses are privately owned. What a neat way to live.
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2 years ago
They’re all just a bit different though, reflecting the current residents’ tastes. Each is uniquely named, and numbered sequentially to correspond to the lock they’re beside.
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The bridge across the Ouche at Gissey. Attractive, but undocumented as far as I can determine.
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Chateau de Chateauneuf.
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Chateau de Chateauneuf.
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Angela NaefWow! Stunning photo
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2 years ago
Excited to be on the home stretch.
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Along the canal.
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A few miles from the end of the canal we leave it and climb over a low ridge before dropping to Puilly-en-Auxois. We’ll learn later that the canal has gone underground here, emerging again two miles later.
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Video sound track: De l’Argent, by Barbara Carlotti 

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Steve Miller/GrampiesDemonstrates how effective the locks are in moving boats up and down the elevation changes.
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2 years ago
Scott AndersonTo Steve Miller/GrampiesReally. Practically a plumb line.
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2 years ago

Ride stats today: 38 miles, 1,400’; for the tour: 1,991 miles, 101,600’

Today's ride: 38 miles (61 km)
Total: 2,019 miles (3,249 km)

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