September 16, 2015
We get to Decise at the end of the Nivenais Canal: Rain,rain,rain,rain
Tonight we are staying in Corbigny, it was really only a short ride but we were glad of that. Arriving around midday the dinning room had a 'menu' for 12E each so seeing this had become an eating tour we couldn't resist it! A lovely tart to start with followed by a veal dish then creme caramel for me and cheese for Ken together with a pichet of red. Very nice indeed. The only problem was that it was a knock out for me and I went up to the room and slept soundly. In the meantime Ken did some exploring and found a bike shop to get a new tyre. We have just picked up the bikes, unfortunately there was some misunderstanding and he replaced both of my tyres - at least I shouldn't have another puncture.
Corbigny is 2 or 3 km away from the canal so we speed down with our red flashing lights warning everyone it would not be a good idea to hit us. This is a very interesting part of the canal and goes over a watershed. Everything had so far been draining into the Sienne system but we had to cross into the Loire system. It is a wonderful remote landscape with now little settlement at all. The ecluses are now coming closer and closer together. We then reached what is the star attraction of the system,Sardy Staircase, in the space of 4km there are 16 ecluses acting as a kind of stairway as the canal climbs higher and higher. Apparently a number of these little ecluses houses are occupied by artists as was instanced by some statues outside some of them. In this foul weather there was no sign of habitation, the only living things we saw apart from ducks were two pathetic looking dogs trying to take shelter in a doorway. They were doing better than us. You always imagine that riding along a canal is easy flat riding but this was anything but that. After the staircase the canal goes into a deep cutting and then through 3 tunnels. This was not of course for us we went over.
Baye is at the top of the watershed and has a big lake probably to supply water to both sides of the system. It was still raining hard. I spotted a little green sign on the side of a house, it said it was an epicere, Chambre d'hôte and something else. May be it had coffee. The notice said ouvert so we tried the door and dripped into a perfectly polished house where two stunned looking guests were having a leisurely breakfast. We got to great coffees and tried not to make too much of a mess. I had expected that there would be a similar steep decent as the canal made its way to the Loire but everything was just mildly undulating and peaceful looking. By the time we got to the bustling market town of Chatillon-en-Bazois the rain had almost stopped and Ken bought some yummy things for lunch and we admired the castle that dominates the town. From now on it was a matter of heads down to beat the ever present wind and a journey through lovely agricultural land with herds of Charolais enjoying their lush grass. By now the ecluses were 2 or so km apart and at one stage it was almost 10km between them.
Like most journeys there was of course a sting in the tail. Getting into Decise all signage disappeared, the traffic became frenetic and it started teaming with rain and the wind seemed to double in strength. We however found our hotel, had a shower and then had a marvellous treat a visit to the laundry, that we knew was there, so once more we are clean and it has for the moment stopped raining.
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Today's ride: 95 km (59 miles)
Total: 2,345 km (1,456 miles)
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