Day Forty Two:Chateauneuf to Venarey-Les-Laumes: (Year 42: 2009)

November 1, 2017

Flash Back to 2009:

We visited Joni in Belize. Her island has almost no cars, though lots of golf carts for the sand streets. Bicycle is a main mode of transportation, but they are hard to maintain in the salt air and water.

Steve's parents Freda and Joe both died in 2009. Although losing parents is a tragedy, these deaths revealed the most touching of love stories. When Mom died, Dad declared that he really could not live without her. This was not just idle talk. Within 3 weeks he joined her. The exact medical causes are secondary here, because we are looking at the power of love. They had been married 70 years.

Early in 2009 Steve's mother died in Montreal. Within three weeks, Steve's father followed her. He told us he really could not live without her.

Dance Me to the End of Love, with the images in this video version, is evocative of Freda and Joe.

Life, of course, always carries on. The twins were growing, and Jeremy graduated from university.

The twins begin to learn about the world.

Jeremy graduated university. He would become a skilled social worker.

-----

Fast Forward to 2017, France:

The young couple that were running the B&B and nearby restaurant were very sweet and friendly. I asked the young woman (Maude) if she thought that with today being Halloween (Toussaints) we would run into problems with things being closed. "Well no", she said, "look, I am open!". Maude must need less rest than most people, because as far as we later saw, the rest of France was closed. The one that really hurt was Super U in Pouilly en Auxois. We were counting on Pouilly to stock up on food - but found nothing.

Of course we had been able to zoom down the 2 km hill from Chateauneuf in no time, and quickly we were back on the canal. We almost immediately ran in to Brigitte, a lady of about our age, who had also stayed at Chateauneuf - at the Logis - though we did not spot her in the tiny town. Brigitte lives in Paris and had taken the train to Montbard. From there she is cycling to Dijon. We were impressed by her well worn map case and panniers. But when we commented that the panniers were not waterproof, she shrugged it off saying she had her stuff wrapped in garbage bags inside. Tough lady, and maybe another contact for us in Paris!

Back on the canal - it can be incredibly beautiful

The canal was very lovely, and the surrounding fields - either green with winter plantings or green with white cattle - were also. It was really idyllic, and we flew along quite gaily.

We soon began to play our favourite game of scrutinizing our bike map and speculating both on how far a marked town might really be from the route, and what the little icons might mean. For example, a little croissant clearly denotes a bakery, but then there is "flying saucer" or "red square in red box", etc. I guess we should have also photocopied the legend!

We understand all the symbols shown here, except the red box.

More than the little symbols was the question of whether any of the things would be open. We bypassed some villages where there clearly was no hope, but just after 12 we came to Pont Royal, which had an open restaurant.

This is called the Allée des Platanes - part of the canal path

The restaurant at Pont Royal looked good, anyway

Inside there were a few other couples and the situation looked pretty good. Madame was chatting with two of the clients and we politely waited to be recognized and seated. It took longer than it should, and maybe that should have been our clue. After a while - long, but not quite too long, we were brought menus. The prices were 15-30 euros - high, but we felt we had no other choices. After that - nothing. For 30 minutes the lady fluffed around but did not ask for our order. Finally Dodie caught her attention and said we would like to order. The lady replied yes, but I am just dealing with other table. Ok, fine. We let her do that. But when she cleared another table and brought some other people extra bread, we stood up and walked out.

This has happened before, even in North America. After a while we begin to realize it has been too long, and then we tell ourselves "Another two minutes, and we are out of here".

So there we were back out on the canal and again playing the "where is this town, what are they supposed to have, what will they really have" game. Marigny had a nice croissant symbol. Closed. So we might as well keep going to Venarey, where we had booked a B&B. Venarey has a Super U - closed. And a kebap shop - closed (darn, sometimes the Turkish people can be counted on to work longer hours), and a bakery - closed.

Next bakery - closed. They are all closed!

With that we rolled up to the B&B. It was opposite the train station, looked pretty dilapidated, and said "Bar" on the outside wall. With flashbacks to Mulhouse we phoned the number posted. No answer, but at least the message box was not full. I left a message, and we considered our options. Looking at the place, now starving, and with no answer on the phone we considered cutting and running for Montbard - the next, larger, centre.

We arrived at our B&B. Closed, and not so welcoming.

But then my phone vibrated, and briefly displayed an incoming message. Younger readers will be surprised to learn that text is pretty much beyond us. So this text message was lucky to get our attention. It said the people were coming and would be there in a while. I tried a reply - very frustrating on the little keyboard, but more so because the helpful programmers who made our system kept changing the French words into the wrong ones in English, when they felt there was a reasonable chance of doing so.

I pulled out our one device that has internet access, and found that in the fine print Booking noted a check in time of 6 p.m. At 6 p.m. right now, it is pitch dark!

Fortunately, Stephane and Sophie arrived quite quickly and ushered our bikes around back and us inside. They have owned the place two years, having bought it in dilapidated condition. They focussed their efforts on the inside so far, and it is very nice. Sophie racked her brains but could not think of a food place that might be open today. However she opened her cupboard an was able to pull out enough stuff to ward off any possibility of collapse for us.

There is a possibility that the kebap place might break its heart and open up this evening. Even so, I walked over to the train station and pumped 6 euros into a machine, coming back with a selection of chocolate bars and chips. When Stephane saw this, he promised that we would not have to eat that, or starve, tonight.

We also had a nice general chat with Sophie and Stephane. At one point Stephane expressed a strong preference for buying things from local shops, vs. Amazon, and he fervently defended French artisanal and local production. We of course have seen this preference in the proud declarations on store fronts of local bakers, farmers, and other food producers, but this is the first time someone has put it into words for us.

While we often enthusiastically buy things like electronics on Amazon, we strongly support Stephane when it comes to food. In fact we perhaps go one step further, with the feeling that French food is very much better for health than the dreck we get at home.

That is, of course, when the French deem it advisable to actually serve up anything!

Appearances can be deceiving. The B&B is beautiful inside, as are the people. Here is Sophie with something to keep Dodie going.

Steve shows Stephane and Sophie where we have been on the trip so far.

Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles)
Total: 1,670 km (1,037 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	1
Comment on this entry	Comment	0