April 19, 2018
Day 24: Macon to Massieux
I may be developing a series in this blog of experiences or observations that come while standing outside Casino mini marts. This time I observed a man sitting by the road with a begging bowl in front of him. It made me think, as I often have, of what a tough job begging is. The road looked cold to sit on, and the wall behind was in the very cool shade. But what surprised me was the operator of a street cleaning machine that came by. This is a thing that sprays water, and whips up the dirt with rotating brushes. The man steered to within four inches of the beggar's bowl, spraying the seated man with water and throwing dust toward him. When the machine had passed, I went over to the beggar and gave him a coin, saying "That was not very nice what that man did". But the beggar just shrugged. I guess if he had had a more aggressive personality he might have got a job with the city, and be the one driving the machine - but no.
The iconic scenes of Macon are found in the houses that stand along the quai by the Saone, and the twin spires of the St Pierre church that stands one street back. We figured this out for ourselves (not really a big feat) and got the right photos even before seeing all the tourist materials that feature these.
The third big Macon thing is Alphonse de Lamartine, a poet and politician who was born in Macon in 1790, and who died in Paris in 1869. As a politician, we have learned that Lamartine was instrumental in the abolition of slavery and was a pacifist and supporter of democracy. As a poet, he has a number of books. One quote we like: "To love for the sake of being loved is human, but to love for the sake of loving is angelic."
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It is a sad fact that the wonderful bicycle Voie Verte that enters Macon from Chalon dies totally right there. It's not just a simple non continuation, but rather the social climate becomes totally bicycle unfriendly, and there is no route and no on road guidance for those wanting to continue along the Saone river to Lyon.
What does exist is a devilish choice between a rough tow path road by the river and a "900" level D road that runs parallel.
Like those that have come before us (notably, the Classens) we tried both, and then shifted back and forth, trying to see if first one and then the other had magically become more comfortable.
The D933 road actually started out with the edge, boasting a dotted line that we could ride, while the tow path was rutted and very slow going. After a while, the D road lost its appeal - now with no dots and faster traffic, while the tow path smoothed out a little. That changed again, and once again.
While Kathleen Classen had written about the thrill of pedaling like mad in front of a semi trailer in narrowed portions of the road, we were less than enamored of the same experience. But while Kathleen was not so willing to put up with French gravel on the tow path, we ended up settling for it a fair bit. Probably the main difference in our journeys was that the ever optimistic Kathleen and Keith found a way to enjoy it, while we just got tired, and crabby about the lack of cycle infrastructure in this critical area. I hope we are older than them, which might give us some claim on being tireder and crabbier! (In reading this, Dodie points out that it was her that got tired and me that got crabby. But since we are a team, I am laying claim to being both tired and crabby.)
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This is not to say that there was no joy in this day. We did get another installment for the "stripey photo" series, this time using an unknown purple crop (or weed). And yes, the town of Trevoux is picturesque.
We had made a booking in Massieux, at the Hotel Premiere Classe. This had the possibility to cancel, and we rather thought we might do that and continue the additional 20 km into Lyon. But there was no way. The gravel and something new - the sun! had taken it out of us. We know from experience that Hotel premiere Classe is anything but, and this one lived up to its reputation. Our room has only one outlet, and the "duvet" was too heavy to sleep under. The wifi is glacial. The hotel had no place for our bikes, but since it was dry today they let us put them in the room. We had to shift the bed to make way for them to enter. Actually we love those bikes, so we don't mind sleeping with them!
Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 1,476 km (917 miles)
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Macon. Once we had found the track by the river impossible we actually found pretty quiet roads by crossing the river and had an overnight in a lovely little place
6 years ago
6 years ago