Riding hard to catch a train: From home to Bourges

August 9, 2016

Now that summer is in full swing and I finally have time, I'm off on another tour. This year has not been an easy one so far. Spring weather was terrible, as I wrote in another journal, and by the time July rolled around there were so many things on the agenda that I didn't have time for touring. Between doctors appointments, tearing up and rebuilding the kitchen, and volunteering for the Semaine Fédérale, the annual cycling get together, I barely got in 700 km of cycling. So now is the time. August in France is when nothing gets done, because half the country is on vacation. French workers get a mandatory five weeks, and they use it to the full. Only the tourism industry has to work, and they are busy getting the maximum number of euros out of the hordes who visit every year. This year, I am joining those hordes by heading west to see the isles and other parts of my adopted home I have yet to visit.

The day started well enough. I planned to take the train from Beaune to Tours, with a change in Nevers and/or Bourges. I rode the 35 km to Beaune in the rain and bought my ticket. The schedule promised a train to Bourges arriving about 1:30 in the afternoon, plenty of time to catch the next train for Tours. Alas, the SNCF continues to find ways to screw up my plans substituting a bus between Nevers and Bourges, and busses don't take bicycles. Damn. So I thought I would go to Saincaize, which is only ten km from Nevers and see what might be stopping there. Nothing was the answer, so back to Nevers I went getting the train to Bourges at 3:30. I could have stayed on the train all the way to Tours, but given the late hour it arrived there, I elected to take a room in Bourges.

Bourges is a lovely city, anyway, so I was not at all put out. The. center of the city is full of lovely old half timbered buildings and cobbled streets. I spent a couple of hours wandering about, before getting supper at a nice little restaurant in the old quarter. Herring and potato salad, salmon in teriyaki sauce, and a light lemon sorbet for dessert. All things considered, a great way to end the day.

Medieval building with typical Berrichon half-timbering in old Bourges

The courses of stone and brick are a giveaway to a Roman structure. The uniform stones indicate that the bishop's palace in Bourges has Roman roots.

Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 66 km (41 miles)

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