September 18, 2015
A long but good day to Satenay
The hotel last night was absolutely superb. We decided to eat there and it was a really good decision. We had their cheapest menu which was 20E and it had no choice except for desert. First Melon surprise then the most amazing main course which was made of shredded beef in the most fantastic sauce. Served with a mound of the most delicious mashed potato. It was at this stage I made a classic faux pas. I thought the potato was actually the sorbet I had ordered for desert and Ken had one too, so I told the waiter that Ken had actually ordered chocolate mousse not sorbet. He looked at me in surprise and with ultimate politeness said "mais Madame c'est la pomme de terre" Ken said he felt like getting under the table.
The ride today was very mixed and probably a little long but we really enjoyed it. First was a spin along the cycle track by the canal which was really easy as for the first time since I can remember we didn't have a head wind. We came to the end of the Voir Vert and the Eurovelo 6 signs put us off to the left. All designers of cycle routes think you are just longing for more and more hills. We were rewarded by lovely panoramic views over gorgeous countryside scattered with old villages. At one of these we thought we must be at the top of the hills so we had a coffee. We weren't there were more to come. Eventually we were back down to the canal but EV6 didn't want us to take the quiet road beside the canal it wanted us to go straight over it and go up the hills on the other side. We refused and had a lovely ride on the quiet D974 all the way to Montceau-les-Mines all the time right next to the canal.
We knew that as we went through this fairly large town that navigation would be fairly difficult. We were congratulating ourselves as to how well we had done when we saw we were well away from the canal in a mixture of railway lines and motorways. Unfortunately we never go back(stupid really) so after a while I fired up the GPS and put in a town I knew to be on the canal. Well it got us there but the route was long, on pretty busy roads and hilly. Never mind we got back on a Voir Vert, at last had lunch as Ken had been too stressed about being lost until then, and we were soon whizzing along with ease. At one stage we saw the most beautiful enormous Dutch barge flying a NZ flag, talking to the woman aboard it turned out that they knew our fiends Rosemary and John who we had visited a few days ago. This was really their first year on the canals. They had bought the boat and left it last year on the Thames and this year before their trip had to sail it across the channel which had its moments, Sorry R and J I cant remember their names.
It was pretty and easy all the way to Satenay. Satenay is a small grape town. We had intended spending two nights here and riding up and back to Beaune tomorrow but being the weekend the place is booked out so we will have to move on. Ken has walked up to the grapes and says that they are all picked. Just before we got here we saw some machine picking underway
Today's ride: 105 km (65 miles)
Total: 2,534 km (1,574 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 0 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |