Day 52: Langres to Dijon

September 30, 2024

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Here is our hotel in Langres. It looks pretty good, not betraying the fact that we broke it. We did that just by plugging in our kettle, not even turning it on. Fortunately only our room shut down. But the desk lady was flummoxed. She did give me a clue about where to find the first floor breaker box, and I took it from there, using the tried and true electrician's tools - a rickety chair and a cell phone flash light. This really wouldn't bear mentioning except that we just took down the whole first floor of our next hotel, in Dijon. There must be a short in the cord - very rare, but the whole kettle has just hit the recycle pile. Tomorrow we get to search for a new one.

The tourist map of Langres is intriguing, by virtue of the town being up on a hill and surrounded by a formidable wall. Originally designed to keep out foreign invaders, it now seems successful in keeping out used car dealers and the like. Now, there are 34 red circled points of interest spread evenly through the place.

Our hotel was on Diderot street, which ends at Place Diderot, with this statue of the great man. Denis Diderot was born in Langres, which accounts for his getting the statue. He is best known for having co-created the first encyclopedia. That encyclopedia had some controversial anti-church bits. From a brief internet scan, I see he was denied burial in the Pantheon in Paris. His grave was also dug up by grave robbers, leaving the corpse on the floor. I think he now rests in a church here in Langres.

Diderot looks down the street named for him.

The Langres cathedral lacks any tall towers, making it look a bit small. It is however very deep. The lack of towers is also compensating for by two ladies perched on the bit between the tower stubs.

It's hard to nail down an architectural style for Langres. Despite this sturdy design beside the cathedral, I would have to call it the dusty white but picturesque French village style.

We went out to the edge (literally) of town, and had a look at the ramparts and guard towers, while taking in the views to the green fields and the villages below. From these tall walls it would seem easy to repel unwanted visitors. I don't know if any were actually repelled in history.

This is the tower that was raised to give a greater cannon range from the patio.

The info panel says that raising the wall here necessitated a second level of gargoyles. Does that double the scariness?

As we set off from town, the clouds opened, allowing light to pour down. It's less than two weeks since Joni left us, so things like that still affect us greatly.

From jackson Brown - For a Dancer:

"Keep a fire burning in your eye
Pay attention to the open sky
You never know what will be coming down
I don't remember losing track of you
You were always dancing in and out of view
I must've thought you'd always be around
Always keeping things real by playing the clown
Now you're nowhere to be found

I don't know what happens when people die
Can't seem to grasp it as hard as I try
It's like a song I can hear playing right in my ear
But I can't sing, I can't help listening
And I can't help feeling stupid standing 'round
Crying as they ease you down
'Cause I know that you'd rather we were dancing
Dancing our sorrow away (right on dancing)
No matter what fate chooses to play (there's nothing you can do about it anyway)

More than once, cycling along in France, we have come across an imperial eagle statue in a seemingly random place. These are memorabilia of Napoleon, The last one I remember was something like Napoleon's coffin changed boats here. Today we have one that says in 1814 French troops from Langres repelled a column of 800 Austrians and Hungarians. I assume they were all gearing up for the Battle of Waterloo (1815) when Napoleon was finally defeated. I don't think the French are particularly repentant for running around Europe causing havoc for 20 years after the Revolution.

About 20 km out of Langres we came to a lake (Lac de Villegusien) that had lots of beaches and camping. But it also had bird blinds, and posters describing what you should be able to spot on the lake. We saw a few birds, but nothing like the advertised gaggle:

In the blind, several signs covered birds that it is possible to find here.

Next along the way was a canal, claiming to go from Champagne to Bourgogne. This sounded promising, because that trip is just what we were trying to do today. And yes, while we did follow the canal for a bit, in the way of these things, the tow path varied between nicely paved, horrible, and gone. The track that the Geovelo algorithm had given us gave up on the canal anyway, and most of our trip was on the smooth and usually not at all busy D28.

The canal, seemed like it could be good.

We passed through many villages looking like this, None had any commerce.

More and more similar villages:

But this shows well the simple yet dramatic beauty of our ride today, and for the past several days:

We stopped for lunch, and I had occasion to pull out one of those little packets of Nutella spread. These are a great boost on the road, and its easy to pick up a few at breakfast. The only thing, there is a debate about how to eat them. To me it's obvious. You lick it out to the best of your ability. Then you use your finger to get the bits that are hiding in the corners, and then you lick your fingers. But in certain polite circles, such as the one I seem to cycle in, you can only eat these with a spoon! I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with a spoon. It's only that it's a bug to get one out when you are looking for a quick anti-bonk snack. Here in the two photos below, you may be able to judge the degree of satisfaction when not using vs using a spoon. It seems like a spoon is superior, if you can get your hands on one!

Once again, I took the type of photo below to remind myself of the vast amount of wind that came across the open fields directly in our faces, trying to force us backwards. We have been fighting the south wind for days, and it really is a bug. It's just annoying to have to fight, but also it eats up our batteries. And when we see the batteries failing, we reduce the assist and push harder, making the whole experience less fun. Eventually, we know, we could be trying to pedal 100 pound bikes unassisted into a stiff wind. That is really not fun!

As we neared Dijon, our beautiful road degenerated into a simulation of a Canadian highway - with a paved shoulder where the brave cyclist could try pedalling.

Sometimes there was separated cycling space on the opposite side of the road, but the area sure was not pretty.

We are still looking for the legendary Dijon.

We did come to this corner, which is just by our hotel. Things are starting to look interesting.

We reserved tomorrow for walking around Dijon. We know there is a market, a cathedral, and eight other sights in the GPSMyCity introduction walk, plus six other Food and Wine things. We should be able to amuse ourselves. Plus, we need to find a non hotel exploding kettle!

Today's ride: 77 km (48 miles)
Total: 2,678 km (1,663 miles)

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John FlecknerWe loved Dijon years ago. I remember a fountain in a lovely park.
Enjoy. Glad you are getting a rest day.

I confused the Meuse with the Meurthe which also might be an interesting ride?
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