Day 46: Nevers to Bourbon-Lancy: A Little Like Saskachewan

July 4, 2012

Camping at Camping Nevers was much like wild camping, in terms of available services. OK, there were showers and toilets, but you had to go for a small hike to get there. And it was not lonely like wild camping, since there were dozens of Camper Vans all around. It did not seem like a good deal for 12 Euros.

Although for some reason we are eager to get on down the road, we knew we had to go in to Nevers to look for some supplies. We did find an open bakery, but not a grocery.

Nevers had an open bakery with good baguettes

Ortlieb needs to make a baguette rack pack for the French market.

Despite ample evidence that there is no sense in trying, I an still tempted to try and get my thermos filled with "normal" coffee. Today's first bakery advertised "take out" coffee, and this triggered an insane reflex about the thermos. I asked the man if he could fill it, and his first reflex was to try to get it under his espresso machine. No way. So I said just fill your take out cup and I will take it from there. He did that - 6 oz of espresso, of course. Hmpph.

Also in the "ugly American" category is our (well, Dodie's) inability to cope with the French way of arranging the toilets. At Nevers there is a single door, with man and woman symbols on it. Inside, on the left is a row of urinals. On the right are eight identical toilet stalls, four with man symbol and four with woman symbol. Go figure. But Dodie will not mix in with men peeing into open urinals. Fortunately there was a unisex "handicapped" toilet in a separate area.

The Ugly (North) American is still trying to get his thermos filled.

Our quick spin around Nevers revealed some of the elements we like a lot: narrow streets, pedestrian mall, cathedral, bakeries. But our tour was rushed, as we really wanted to get going.

And a cathedral with more modern stained glass

Gargoyles are confusing. Don't Christians avoid idolatry?

Pedestrian shopping streets in Nevers, but all closed at 7:30 a.m.

Since we had decided to strike out on our own in the direction of Bourbon - Lancy, rather than follow the EV6 route and signs, we fired up the GPS to help find the right way out of town. Unfortunately, while the GPS knows what it is doing, I do not completely, when faced with roundabouts with 6 or more exits. I took us down a wrong exit and got slightly lost.

We got slightly lost leaving Nevers, but did find this. How brave they are to try to sell this junk in this place!

No harm, obviously we did find our way out. The route we chose was thanks to Barry Duff (One in Seventy). We did invest scarce internet time to read how he did it, and followed in his tire tracks, so to speak.

We decided to avoid EuroVelo 6, which meanders somewhere in these hills.

The "D" roads we chose are no doubt rejected by EuroVelo because they are two lane. However traffic was light enough that we were not bothered.

Our way wound around and near the Loire Lateral Canal. The EuroVelo alternate route beside the canal was basically impassable, being usually just an earthen track.

There are a few towns marked along the way, but they either have no stores or everything is closed. In Fleury Sur Loire, for example, there was nothing. In Chevenon, a sign for a boulangerie lead us up two steep hills to a place that was shut tight. In Avril, there were no stores, whether shut or otherwise. We travelled about 60 km to Decize, with no services in evidence at all.

At Avril sur Loire we hoped for some supplies but found a de facto ghost town. No idea where the people are. We did find this shelter beside the Mairie.

In Decize there were a couple of open cafes but most everything else was either closed for the mid day siesta or just plain closed. We had of course read about this in other blogs. But this is Wednesday, and we should be more or less free of the dreaded Sunday through Tuesday propensity of stuff to close. Hmmmpph.

Decize had a good selection of shops, but most were closed from 12:00 to 15:00 (except for those that were just plain closed).

We ran in to the two women we had shared some water with yestrday, on the road to Decize. On our maps, Decize has the only Camping before Bourbon-Lacy, and the women declared they would stop there because of an impending storm. Pshaw, we said, the sky is clear:

Actually, the storm did pass and it knocked the temperature temporarily down from 38 to 20, so off we charged for Bourbon-Lacy. The road was OK - flat, a big plus, and with not too many cars. It was lined with corn and mustard fields - pleasant, but a little boring.

At Bourbon Lancy we had to run around to find the poorly signed campground, but we quickly saw that this was campground heaven. It had a room with tables and chairs and power and free wifi. The lady said we could cook in there too and it remains open all night! The sanitary block had a rational layout of facilities, and scads of dish washing, clothes washing, hand washing sinks. Best of all it had free front load washer/dryer. Since we like sleeping in our sleeping bags anyway, this place had all the attributes of a hotel that count for us. At 11 Euros, the price was right too.

Part of paradise - a room with table, chair, power, and wifi!

Today's ride: 88 km (55 miles)
Total: 1,763 km (1,095 miles)

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