Day 57: Tournus to Belleville en Beaujolais

November 2, 2022

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Even level headed Dodie was a bit taken aback as we descended the stairs into our atmospheric hotel. But Boris Karloff was not around - only his rather sweet daughter - so we were fine.

It was fairly simple to pass through town a little, and to get back on the Voie Bleue.

The Voie Bleue was advertising itself with a signboard, and there was also a warning that the path could flood. I rather liked the graphic they used for this.

The path by the river was super, and we floated along as happy as could be, making good time too.

Five mother Charoleais appeared by the trail side, with five babies. This seems a strange time of year for them.

I was trying to have a word with baby, but mother does not look pleased!

Along the way we came to another not very serious Route Barrée. Two other cyclists were already sneaking around the barrier, but in the photo Dodie is saying we will just move the whole thing, which we did. After, one of the cyclists suggested to me to put the barrier back, which I did. But I pointed out to her that that whole obstruction was stupid, because the path was clearly passable anyway. She said maybe it's a question of liability. On the other hand, on the other side someone had already moved the barrier far open, so re-sealing my end would have no effect.

We came rolling down the Voie Bleue and easily arrived at the Port de Plaisance of Macon, with its many moored boats. A little farther on, we selected a bench and ate our sandwiches by the pleasant river. It featured swans and rowers, and was an ideal spot for lunch.

We continued toward Macon, noting some riverside apartments, but eager to see the main town. First on the list, though, was to check out the Pont Saint-Laurent. My brother had written to be on the look out for this, but really you can not miss it, as it is the major landmark along the river.

"Even before Mâcon existed, the Saône could be crossed via a ford. The Roman legions built a wooden bridge during the Gaul conquest, and it was only in the 11th century that a stone bridge was constructed; it only consisted of six arches and was fortified as early as 1223. Significant work was also carried out until 1550. The extension of the bridge seems to date back to this time although the exact number of arches in the 16th century is not known.During the wars of religion, it went through tragic times with Guillaume de Saint-Point, the governor of Mâcon, throwing the HuguenotsThe Saint-Laurent Bridge was among the few bridges of the region that were not destroyed during the Second World War. Since this time its appearance has not changed and it has twelve arches."

This figure was built into the side of the bridge

When we were last here, in 2018, I wrote that Macon seemed rather a plain and workaday town. But this time it struck me as a lot more picturesque. Is the row of houses below workaday or picturesque? (Could be both, I guess).

At our lunch stop, Dodie had fired up "15 Things to See in Macon". Of these, two caught our fancy - the St. Pierre church, and the Maison de Bois. The latter was described as having stories made only of wood and adorned with unique carved characters. We cycled through downtown looking for the thing and failed. So I asked a lady and got directions - it was just around the last corner. In fact we had cycled directly beneath it!

The Maison de Bois - now houses a restaurant.

The plaque says the building is from the 15th century.

"Built between 1490 and 1510, the Wooden House is without doubt the oldest house in Mâcon, and certainly the most famous. Its façade, entirely built in wood, is decorated with a multitude of saucy statuettes. These are characters with grimacing men and monkey’s masks, some standing, some sitting, winged, naked or dressed but sometimes only with a scarf or a bonnet. Some of their stretched arms alternatively hold the head or the tail of a fantasy or real animal."

Some of the carved figures are below:

We continued our exploration of Macon, and found it pleasant, with pedestrian areas like the one below:

Finally we came to the church, our second sightseeing goal. A white truck was parked in front, causing me to whine about it. But Dodie pointed out that the truck could be part of the story. As you see, it is helping to access an upper story of the adjoining building.

Inside the church, I did not see too much of great interest. I did focus on a stained glass portrayal of Saint George. "George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldier in the Roman army. Saint George was a soldier of Cappadocian Greek origin and member of the Praetorian Guard for Roman emperor Diocletian, who was sentenced to death for refusing to recant his Christian faith."

Dodie could not believe that this was all I saw in the church. So she went in, and came back with fact sheets covering the altar, the glorious cross, the ambo (pulpit) and the tabernacle, not to mention the information that the church is of neo-romanesque style, erected in 1859-1865, and is the largest in Macon. All I really gleaned from these additional papers is that tabernacle is a word of Latin origin which means tent. Originally it was Moses' tent but in this church its a golden ball on a pole, for keeping the "Body of Christ" bread. I only gleaned this because back in Quebec, "Tabernac!" is a bit of a swear word.

Speaking of Quebec, back on the street we noticed this shop, purporting to make Montreal bagels. It was closed, else I could have gone in to poo poo them. Also, Montreal bagel makers are far too practical to be concerned with organic or ethical concepts. They just make the best there is, and do not over think it.

We were really having a lot of fun in Macon, after our great cycle ride of the morning. We felt we had a lot of time for the rest of the day's ride, and so installed ourselves in front of a pastry shop for a bit. The tartelettes were really good, though not at all cheap.

The continuation of our route took us over a bridge to the far side of the Saone, giving some last looks back at the town.

Directly on the other side of the river, we were put onto a regular road, but we were lulled by the great morning ride and assumed we would shortly be installed back in cycling heaven.

We were further lulled by this sign, indicating that the Voie Bleue continued in development. We missed noting that completion would not be until 2023.

At this turn, onto the little dirt track, we crowed "Now they will take us down to cycle heaven".

Things started to look not so great when we came to signs like the one below.

What followed was an incredible array of redirections and routes barrees, all of which had in common that they took us through mud and potholes.

Near what we thought was the end of our troubles, another sign bragging about all the work that was being done or that would be done.

But no, the sign was followed up by more nonesense:

We did have some lighter moments, such as encountering this cow on the trail. Dodie is being cautious, that things has horns!

I was not sure if the cow wanted to make an issue over whose path this was.

We also ran into a quite ecumenical group of cows:

As we continued to bump or push along the rutted and muddy riverside track, it became very clear that we had no hope of reaching our hotel goal at Belleville before dark. What had been a glorious romp into Macon and fun in the town was now turning desperate. We looked at the GPS, and determined that the only hope was to take the big road - the D933. The rub is that if we had only read our 2018 blog, or if we had memories that were not sieves, we would have known clearly that the choice here is the rutted track or the dangerous road. The Grampies had described this with clarity and in detail. To boot, so had the Classens. So it was that the naive Grampies of 2022 left the track and took to the road. They looked with fresh eyes at the very small shoulder beside the dotted line, at the spots where the road narrows and it is necessary to take the lane, at the bridges were there is no room for a bike at all, at the unmanageable rond points. And through this all, it did not twig - we relived it all over from scratch! What dopes. With any brains at all, we would have been on a train from Macon hours ago.

A sidewalk can be a welcome and necessary refuge.

The cyclist on the far side was doing a lot of gesticulating at honking cars.

Aha, the blue sign signals the start of a bike lane.

This is the space that the bike lane gave Dodie

I was proud of Dodie for keeping her cool under the pressure of the D933. We also cycled fast (for us) to not only stay stable and agile in the traffic, but also because daylight was coming to an end. We entered the town of Belleville, and were glad to see that our hotel, on the main street, was also near the start of town. At the hotel, the Ange Couronee, the arrangements were very easily made - with the bikes going into a very nearby garage, and me able to carry our stuff to our first floor room without ado. It's clearly a family operation, with the little kids having the ground floor as a play area. While this could perturb some, it just makes us feel more comfortable.

Our reading of our own blog came too late to save us from the ride south of Macon, but we have wised up now. Our blog describes the ride to and through Lyon with equally lurid visions. So tomorrow we will look for a train, and hopefully hop off to continue cycling south of the big city. It will be too bad, because the one time we did go into Lyon we found it great. But there is lots more to see down the Rhone, and we would like to get there in one piece!

Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 2,494 km (1,549 miles)

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Michael HutchingRead your comments on the D933 with interest Steve, we cycled it recently and found it mostly fine, but possibly because it was a Sunday. We’d read the Classen’s blog where they’d gone to the office of tourism and had a route mapped out. Ann told them that they’d appeared in a blog and they were gratified to know they’d been of use to someone!
Bonne route, Michael
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2 years ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Michael HutchingNo trucks are permitted on the roads on Sunday. Also the drivers seem to be much calmer and drive slower.
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2 years ago