To Macon: A day of trains, dogs and horses

September 20, 2015

Today was another day on the wonderful rail trail that links Chalon and Macon, except actually it doesn't go all the way to Macon and isn't a rail trail for most of the time after Cluny. The weather forecast was for no rain today for the first time for ages but it was heavily overcast and cold, that didn't matter we just wore jerseys under our coats and thick gloves. Our hopes were high and it really lived up to them. As we didn't have a huge distance to go we decided to get off at the little towns along the way ( naturally they are up hill from the railway station). Along we steamed and the first station of interest that we came to was Saint-Gengoux and what a gem it was. We found a PMU for a coffee and then on a hunt for a boulangerie sudenly burst into the gem of the old town. It is perched in a gully with cobbled streets and ancient stone buildings and a most unusual church built initially in 1120 then after it had been partially destroyed restored in the 16th century. One particular feature of it was that it had two towers, one a clock tower with a wooden walkway going between them. Our next stop was Cormatin, not nearly as exciting with just a long main street and at the side a fine Chateau but we did get a coffee

We had been really looking forward to getting to Cluny and having a look at the abbey and the town. It is amazing how ignorant you can be. We had both been completely unaware that Cluny has a prestigious horse stud that was established by Napolean 1. Events of course are regularly held there and today there was a massive event on and the town was full of people, traffic and of course in the arena beautiful looking horses. We felt rather overwhelmed by the shear numbers so had a quick walk around and took a photo of the abbey and were back on the track. Cluny had not finished with its surprises because we came across a man with three of the biggest dogs I have ever seen. He was very proud of them and got them to sit beautifully for us to be photographed. He told us they were Leonbergers which are a cross between St Bernards, Pyrenean Mountain dogs and something else, maybe lions - after WW2 there were apparently only 8 left and all those that exist today are breed from these. Cycling a bit further along we came to an area where there was camping and a dog arena and of course what was happening was that it was the annual Leonberger Dog Show with animals from all over Europe.

After Cluny the rail trail more or less disappears as much of the route has been taken over by a TVG line with trains going through at high speed every few minutes. The greenway continues though and is leading you up to the Tunnel du Bois Clair. For that 8km it gets very steep at times with gradients up to 14%. The Tunnel du Bois Clair is a fantastic ride. It has a perfectly surface is well lit and is 1.6 km long. It is only open until October then it is closed because bats breed there and during their hibernation period the lighting would disturb them. After this the English couple we met told us it was all downhill to Macon. This was not quite right but I guess there was more downhill that uphill. It was interesting undulating country where the grapes are grown to make Macon Wines. The greenway actually ends about 6km from Macon but we were lucky to find another cyclist who told us how to get there and then the GPS gave us one of its crazy routes to the hotel

We have just watched the ABs beat the Argies were a bit worried at one point!