October 4, 2024
Day 56: Tournus to Macon
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The plan for today was made long ago, back home and obviously it did not anticipate anyone being sick or hurting. But it worked out well, being one of the easiest and most straightforward days we'll get. All we needed to do was to cruise straight along the Saone River on the Voie Bleu cycle path, from Tournus down to Macon, 35 km. We did that, and it worked out perfectly. Yes, Dodie had to move to the yellow cold tablets and yes, I was limping heavily when walking with the bruised leg and struggling a bit not to dump the bike to my right if pushing it with the separated shoulder, but so what, we're calling the day perfect.
We started in Tournus with the Saint Philibert Abbey and its surroundings. The abbey has two pointed towers, very visible and striking when approaching from the river along the Voie Bleu. From the angle of the shot below, only one tower is really visible, but there are the two interesting turrets:
To one side and the other. the surrounding buildings are interesting, in a jumbled sort of way.
On the inside Saint Philibert featured large round columns and roman arches. That's because its lots older than newfangled Gothic stuff. Started in 875 a.d. it is one of the oldest monasteries in France.
We moved to a different sort of antiquity, with an attempted visit to the bicycle museum in Tournus. Unfortunately it was closed for the season, but we did manage a peek through the window. It did not seem equivalent to one we had visited in Nijmegen some years ago, but it did seem to have a flying bike!
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The river Saone was very high, with many trees surrounded by water. However the bike way in all cases was high enough that there was no problem for us.
Scott had warned of the path itself being rough, but this did not turn out to be the case. Perhaps a lot of work has been done on it of late.
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We passed this strange very burned out little truck. We have no information about how it came to be, so the photo carries no inferences about sabotage, EVs, lightening?, or anything else. It's just a weird photo.
Something that did have some implications was this warning sign about possible flooding on this route (not that we saw any).
I did enjoy the representation of the flooded out cyclist. The artists behind signs like this often have a slightly humorous take on a cyclist's possible problems.
We rolled into Macon with no issues, and landed up in St. Pierre square, in front of the St Pierre church.
Despite the info panel, we found this one not so interesting. But hey, it did have wide round columns, roman arches, and frescoes. Maybe it's just that we knew it lacked the antiquity of Saint Philibert.
With Dodie still feeling ill and with the outside temperature still a chilly 12 or so, we thought going in to eat would be a good idea, despite lots of food in our pack. We went down the street to check out restaurants, and immediately stumbled on the "Wooden House". That certainly rang the "we've been here before" bell. It's a unique structure built around 1500, with an all wood, carved facade. The guide books talk about the saucy statuettes in the carvings, but somehow we just notice the brown woodiness of it all.
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We ended up going back to St Pierre square, where there was a bistro where I had noticed people with some fairly good looking hamburger plates. We took a table and ordered two of the burgers, with me going through my tiring (tiresome) in France routine of trying to ensure the burger would be well done. I used the term Michel had given me, "carbonisé" - burnt to charcoal - with which you have a chance of the thing being somewhat cooked. So all was well.
That is, until the lady returned to say they were all out of burger. This now opened a number of lines of thinking for me. First, of course, was what then to order. They had tartare - naaw!, and oh, Bavette. Bavette is flank steak. Order that at all, and especially "carbonisé" and you could usually do just as well eating your shoe. But we were installed now, so we went for it. It came with a pretty strong and sharp steak knife, which was good. French health care must endow people with full sets of very sharp teeth, for eating this kind of thing. Actually it was ok, and the wine sauce was good, plus you can seldom go wrong with fries and salad!
I was thinking, though, and here I call on our small group of France expert readers for comment, how does a restaurant with basically five menu items run out of the hamburger? In Canada/US, have we ever experienced a restaurant running out of hamburger? No. But why? I would guess that the hamburger here was made or bought fresh today, and not from frozen. So if they guessed wrong and didn't make or buy enough, voila, it's gone. What's the big deal? No big deal, but why here and not at home? I think at home they will prepare lots more than likely needed, and then discard the surplus, or what the hell, use it tomorrow.
Next the bavette. It was not only not a luxury cut, but also super lean (grass fed?), making it very firm. With all the big fat Charolais cattle running around, did this come from one of them? I asked the waitress. And here, in another French thing, she had the answer right at hand. French restaurants just do. Here it is:
The tartare and the burger likely were Charolais, but the bavette was from - Ireland. We will have to go cycle there to see who we ate.
One final thing, and who would guess so many thoughts could come from one burger order. Our thinking outside the box specialist, Dodie, suggested to the waitress that with the burger out they could grill up some of the tartare. This probably would not even fly in America, the land of opportunity, but here, the trial balloon was 100% lead. Maybe there is some French cooking secret that makes this impossible? It was impossible!
Well ok, we ate up our bavette, and sailed off down the streets of Macon, which it must be said are pretty ordinary looking:
We passed by the train station and bought tickets for Tain l'Hermitage. Our main objective was to leap past Lyon, which we had found terrible in the past for cycling. We then cruised on over to our hotel, the Concorde, arriving at 15:30. A big sign in the door said "Closed, open only at 16:00". Another French thing. Actually 16:00 is not half bad, we've seen 18:00.
But hey, they let us in at 15:45, so good. Also the room has tons of electrical outlets, by the bed and everywhere! We will be very happy here, until a further spin around Macon tomorrow, and our train ride south.
Finally, two words of thanks. To everyone who commented on our health problems of last days - Scott, Patrick, John, Tricia, Kathleen, Suzanne, Susan, Karen, Cam, Harold, Bill - it means a lot to feel we are not our here alone. Thanks to you all!
And Harold (my brother, who knows Macon well), thanks for the track to the market at Charnay Les Macon. Yes, we were only 2 1/2 km from it, but this time we fell for the allure of a warm restaurant, and that Irish (?) steak (?).
Today's ride: 41 km (25 miles)
Total: 2,857 km (1,774 miles)
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Great to see you Thursday last. And we sorry to hear about Steve’s contretemps. It will get better as you go….
About bistros: your speculation about the ordering of food before a service is probably correct. The chef guesses what will be needed, and if it runs out, too bad. As for cooking tartare? Never! For one thing the meat is diced differently than hamburger grind, and secondly it’s seasoned, and would not taste good if cooked. Steve will never know this since tartare is as far from carbonized as one can get.
Another thing: it is a requirement of French law that meat’s origins be posted. Also, homemade items need to be labeled as well. Any one caught cheating would be in legal trouble, and probably lose business as a result. Food is serious business in France!
Cheers,
Keith
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