Day 67: Seurre to Chalon sur la Saone

September 26, 2015

The no parking rule for the market started at 6 a.m., but of course at this season it is dark then (until well after 7). It was 8 oçlock by the time we bestirred ourselves sufficiently to hit the street, and the vendors were just setting up then. No matter, we just strolled first to one bakery and then the next. At the most distant one we bought a pastry and a coffee, to have the energy to walk back to the first one. The pastry I got was called an "Esse", and I asked about the meaning of the name. It was just that it was shaped like an "S". Ok, fine.

By the time we were strolling back to bakery 1, the cheese stall and the fruit stall were in operation. The cheese man told us that all his selections were local production, and we bought one called Compte Doux, which turned out to be very yummy. We need to develop a system to describe cheese, so that we can in future be more specific than "very yummy".

At the fruit stall we got two bananas and a tomato, for 60 cents - about one third to one half what we had paid in Switzerland.

Bananas and tomatoes - reasonable prices

A Rap on Banette

Of the three bakeries in town, one was a "Banette". This is now the norm in French towns - at least one, maybe more, of the bakeries sports the Banette trademark. So what is Banette, what does it mean?

Although we do not know what its corporate organization actually is, Banette is nominally a thirty five year old cooperative effort of independent bakers to standardize baguette production at a high level of quality, by central flour specification and purchasing, and the use of standardized recipes and procedures. Procedures would include the method of mixing, hand shaping, and rising the loaves, plus the requirement that each be baked at the site where it is sold.

I find the Banette concept interesting, because it could be used powerfully for good or evil. (Not absolute good or evil, but bread good or evil). And in the case of Banette, I think it is probably good.

On the evil side, think about McDonald's, if it would be the Banette of hamburgers. McDonald's could (and probably does) say that to ensure the quality and survival of the American burger, they are specifying the makeup of the meat, the cheese, the relish, etc. and sourcing it centrally. Then they are setting out the procedures to be used by their member restaurants, such that you get a quality McDonald's burger everywhere. To top it off, the restaurants pool their money for collective advertising, and to pay Ronald McDonald's pension contributions (no doubt). But in fact, the result is a poor burger and the suppression of truly independent artisanal burgers.

But now Banette - I think actually their baguette is good. On the other hand I have not really tested that claim. We certainly have run into much worse baguettes. But are there struggling artisanal non Baguette bakers with a much better product, trying to make their sales in Banette dominated towns?

French readers and cycle tourists - what do you think?

Banette gives their view of a good bread. They cover appearance, crumb, mouth feel, crust, aroma, and taste - each with a quite poetic description of what it should be. I find them believable. They claim they achieve uniformly good bread by specifying the ingredients, mixing, kneading, proofing, portioning, shaping, marking the top, and baking.

So anyway, I think we bought our lunchtime sandwiches at the non-Banette bakery. They were good, baguette wise, and had real chicken slices (as always in France) but lacked lettuce, cheese, or tomato. On the other hand, one at €3.50 was enough for us both.

In the morning light Seurre looked a lot less crumbly than the previous evening, but we did not hang around to appreciate it. We had the target of quite distant Chagny and wanted to get on with it. So we returned to the veloroute by the Saone. Again we were blown away by the beauty and serenity of the place. We cycled by farm fields, quaint farm houses, swans, cows, and horses.

The river, swans, and a church form the scenery

Our first major stop was Verdun sur le Doubs. Here I need to correct a misstatement from yesterday. I had said that the Saone was wide yesterday, having received both the Doubs and the Rhone-Rhine Canal. In fact, the Doubs runs parallel to the Saone for a bit, and only joins it at Verdun. The confluence is a big feature of Verdun. The other big feature, as far as we are concerned, is the museum of grain and bread. Unfortunately in two times through the town now, we have not found it open. Hey, maybe if we had I could have learned something more on the history of Banette!

Beyond Verdun we ran into another of those cases where the path is barricaded and some kind of detour is in effect. Our usual approach is to ignore this if possible. But if the barricade is really strong and effective we tend to believe that they mean it. In the case beyond Verdun the barricade was indeed strong, so we dutifully headed up a hill and off into the unknown, only to later be let back down, arriving about 100 meters from where we were detoured. From there we could see that the trail closure was just to avoid a rough bit by the bank - probably the work of lawyers. Grrr.

From the down route side of the barricade it is ewasy to see the uproute part and the fact that it was all humbug.

The grief really started when we got to Crissey, which is very close to Chalon. There the signage pretty much disappeared, and we found ourselves following only our gpx track. The outskirts of chalon are industrial and busy, and we found ourselves on roads we did not want to be on. We even ran into a Mcdonald's, which really means it is not our proper section of town.

We persisted with the track until we found some kind of signage that did put us back on the river bank. With all the towns that are coming up, especially those on the Loire, if you are on the bank you can see the town - either on your side or over a bridge, and keeping your bearings is easy. Only when you have to wiggle around in the inland industrial suburbs is there trouble.

The signs by Dodie, near Chalon, are totally misleading

We did want to go in to see Chalon, and by the time we made it in we were beat enough that we wanted to stay, and forget about Chagny, about 25 km further. We cycled along river bank to the Tourist Information, which is just by the museum for Nicephone Niepce, the locally born inventor of photography. That's when we remembered that Chalon was where we had met our friend Joe Aumont, at a traffic light, as we all were puzzling about how to get in to darn Chalon. After that. we had gone to the museum together.

The tourist information supplied the names of some hotels, and we pedalled along to the first one. The place and the street looked pretty dubious, an impression supported by the sign on the door that said for the hotel, go to the bar. The bar, however, was closed. So off we headed for the second hotel, our attitude toward Chalon having turned quite sour.

This all changed instantly when we entered the Hotel Le St -Jean, which is on the street facing the river. The owner, Stanislaus, was delightful, and boosted Dodie's spirits with his humourous banter in good English, though Dodie professed to being too tired to appreciate humour. The bikes were lead into their own space inside, and Stanislaus brought us to what to us is a most delightful room in this former 18th century mansion. The room is large, has flowered wallpaper, and six foot high windows opening on a view of the river. There is a full sized bath tub, too.

We dropped our stuff and set off for a look at the town. As is always the case, no matter what the new town is like, as soon as you enter the old town all is forgotten and you are in a wonderland of unique buildings and shops and no cars. Chalon is no exception. It is a 39 places to see town, according to the tourist map. What we did was just to walk a more or less straight line from the Eglise St Pierre to the Cathedrale St Vincent. This took us through the main part of the old town, and it was so great! We had arrived early in the day and had lots of time, and being a Saturday, the people were out walking in good numbers. We strolled slowly, taking in the buildings and the ambiance.

One of the first things we came upon after the first church was a grocery store. This was especially fun for me, since normally I am left outside to watch the bikes. Dodie likes this, because if let inside I not only slowly look at everything but usually want to buy it all. We did come out with a lot of stuff, notably the wonderful puddings, yogurts, flans, and such that are available here. They are all quite heavy - usually in glass jars - and went into Dodie's backpack!

Next up was artisanal ice cream. In France, everything is "artisanal", and usually it is actually true. That was the case here. One of the flavours we got was "Triple Chocolat". I launched a linguistic question with the artisan, suggesting that in French this should really be Chocolat Triple. But he not only insisted the French was right but gave a detailed account of the ingredients, including the three aspect of chocolate in the ice cream.

Not to draw this out too much, we also sampled some unique looking bretzels, and a crepe with salted butter caramel. To say we ruined our supper would be very accurate. Too bad, because there were dozens of restaurants boasting home made dishes from local ingredients by master chefs.

Here is a photographic review of the Chalon walk:

Though a pppor photo taken through a window, I included this because the vegetable pie looked so good.

In the grocery, this showed that raspberry tiramisu is actually a generally accepted concept here

The Place St Vincent and Cathedral of the same name

A closer look at the action by the cathedral

At a theatre in Chalon, a dramatic frescoe

German friends - what do you think of these?

Making our crepe outside a crepe restaurant

This is Isle St Laurent - across the river from Chalon. The tower has a strange story, It is the Doyonee Tower and originally housed a staircase by the Cathedral. In 1907 it was taken down and sold in Paris. But an American bought it and in 1927 gave it back to the city, which erected it in its current location.

We are now back in our elegant room, getting ready to plot our travel for tomorrow. The guide book (and Keith) warn of either busy roads or steep hills ahead, and we need to think about that. Meanwhile, we hear that Chagny has a market tomorrow morning!

Today's ride: 53 km (33 miles)
Total: 3,141 km (1,951 miles)

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