Daphne's Drivel

The Doubs River We have a new river friend now - the Doubs. We left the Saone, joined up with the Canal Rhin au Rhone for a while, and now the gentle, slow-moving, scenic Doubs is by our side as we have made our way into "the Jura". This is an area of smaller mountains to the northwest of the Alps in France. We've certainly seen the landscape change from completely flat to a beautiful, gradually narrowing valley with steep, limestone cliffs that are completely covered by dense, lush woods. The architecture has changed a bit too. I've noticed the village churches have different kinds of roofs, and the houses look a little more Tirolian to me. Along the Doubs this afternoon It's now just over three weeks since the start of the ride, and Frank and I are still enjoying every moment. We had every opportunity to put ourselves  and the bikes on a train and fast forward to our destination, but we made a decision to ride the whole way to the Swiss border and ...

Celebrating 1000 km We hit the 1000km mark a few days ago! It happened in a rural area east of Digoin, in the heart of Charolais cattle country. We wanted to celebrate, but being a Sunday, nothing was open in any of the little villages we rode through. Eventually we came upon a little Snack bar by a campground and we had a beer each to celebrate.  We also continued the celebration by staying in a rather nice hotel for the night. Mind you, that was partly because having already clocked up 70km with some hills, we didn't particularly feel like riding another 20km to the next campground. And besides, we deserved it! Yesterday we were in the famous wine area Cote d'Or, camping in a pretty village named Santenay. We wanted to visit the historical town of Beaune, so after a failed attempt to get there by train, we ended up splurging on a taxi. Spent the evening there and had a great dinner with some local wine. Back to Santenay to our tent at bedtime! A delicious lam...

Leaving the town of Decide in the rain The rain was lashing down when we set off from Decize yesterday morning. Thank goodness we have good rain gear. EV6 took us on a ziggy-zaggy route through farmland on quiet rural roads. It kind of reminded me of of Ireland at times. We saw loads of good looking Charolais cattle, a few sheep, fields of peas (or some kind of legumes) and wheat, with some good ol' farm smells and pleasant gently rolling hills. Nothing too, too challenging for the bikes. The terrain was like that all the way to the town of Bourbon-Lancy. The rain stopped and things brightened up mid-morning making for perfect riding conditions.  We found a supermarche in BL and had a fine picnic in the pretty park there, watching the Saturday joggers and families enjoying the sunshine. Add caption Not the best shot, but a fine herd of Charolais cattle Our after-lunch ride took us back to the Canal Lateral and easy cycling into the town of Digoin, with its canal...

Today we finished the 800km of official "Loire a velo" section of EuroVelo 6. However, we haven't left the Loire yet, although we soon will. There is a route you can do follow it to its source further south from here, but we will stay on EV 6 which continues east towards Switzerland. The section we're on now is known as the Loire en Bourgogne. Tonight we're camping in a town called Decize after an 80 km flat ride with very little wind and pleasant temperatures. The new signage for the Burgundy section of EV6 has now replaced the Loire a Velo logo as seen below This also means we have left behind the valley of the kings and their chateaux and are heading into more canal country. Today's trail followed the Canal Lateral a La Loire. I was fascinated watching a huge luxury barge today as it made it's way through a two-stage lock on an aquaduct over a Loire tributary, near Duffy.  Pont Canal du Guetin Today's tranquil path along the cana...

The last few days have been full of varied sights, better weather, less wind  and lovely cycle paths. Here are some of the highlights. Sunday was our biggest mileage so far at 80km, plus a great visit to Chambord, a magnificent and rather overwhelming chateau. Frank and I agreed we wouldn't want to live there - way too big and massive rooms that I don't know how they ever heated. I was frozen during our little tour there and it was far warmer outside! And that's not saying a lot. But it truly was like a castle from a fairytale, with all it towers, turrets, outside galleries and walkways, three floors and a maze of hallways, stairways, rooms with ante rooms off them, and even a large theatre room with a stage. Chambord The city of Orleans was exquisite! We were impressed by the cobbled streets and timbered house-fronts, the pedestrian-friendly "centre ville" and the Cathedral of Sainte Croix that dominates the town. It's magnificent, about the same...

I have to tell you about an interesting episode that happened yesterday just after we checked into our campground in the historic town of Amboise. We sat down to have a beer in the bar by the office and were sitting outside with a few other folk. One was a 40-something dapper-looking french guy who had a friend come to join him, and the dapper guy was showing his friend his very new-looking carbon e-bike. Mr Dapper had a nice dog with him, some kind of cocker spaniel. The dog wanted to play and there was a nice lawn in front of us. He had a big pine-cone in his mouth and he obviously wanted someone to throw it for him. When he placed the pine-cone at Frank's feet, of course Frank started to play with him. I threw his cone a couple of times too when he came to me with pleading eyes. Then, Mr Dapper spoke very sternly to Frank in strongly-accented english and said: "Do not play with my dog. I do not play with your lady, so you do not play with my dog. Go play with your lady...

Continuing our tour of the Loire valley, yesterday we headed for one of the chateau that many say is the prettiest. Chateau de Chenonceau is build quite literally on the river Cher, a tributary of the Loire. We headed there late in the day, intending to strategically place ourselves in a nearby campground, and to visit the chateau the following morning. However, due to a bridge closure, the campground on our side of the river was closed when we reached it. To get to another one, we would have had to travel further to the next bridge and double back on the other side. In the meantime, we travelled through a lovely wooded area along the river, very quiet and picturesque. So since it was around 8pm by then, we decided to wild camp. We had enough food and water so there was no problem. It turned out great, and we enjoyed the sounds of nature - frogs and birds, and in the morning, the splashing of some very large fish. Preparing breakfast Eggs with mushrooms, bread and smoked sa...