May 20: Day 23, Crêches-sur-Saône-Nuits-Saint-Georges

The hotel was meh, the breakfast was meh, the location was meh, but I slept well. It was in a light industrial area, with gyms, hardware stores, bike shops and a gigantic Carrefour supermarket, so large it probably has its own postcode.

It seemed like a good opportunity to pick up some isotonic drinks ("boisson isotonique") and surely in a supermarket this big, there should be some?

Sadly, no. They did have meters and meters of shelf space for water, at section for each of the different flavours of coke, and a full spectrum of juice flavours. They did have a small shelf for energy drinks, and hidden amongst the Monster cans was a small space marked "Powerade"! But it was empty. A kind employee even went out to the storeroom to check if there was more (nope) and then led me to the dietary supplement section where they had some isotonic powders. These looked promising, but it was a challenge trying to make sense of small print on a shiny wrapper under bad lighting in about five different languages, none of which was English. I ended up Googling the products in desperation, for some reason the only webpages were in Dutch but at least I had a fighting chance!

I ended up getting two things; a tiny 60ml bottle of mysterious liquid and a larger tin of powder - both to be diluted in water.

By then it was 930, I was running quite late, and so I couldn't in good conscience go to the boulangerie and have a second breakfast. So I retraced my path through the parking lots and access roads back to the main road, which I was on for the first few kilometers. Happily after a few more zigzags it got on a cyclepath that looked a lot like a rail trail!

From left to right: the best isotonic options I could find. Good weather today. A rail trail passes through here…

These are still the best way to get around on a cycle trip. This one even had a tunnel. Unlike the tunnels in Spain this one had lighting; they were downward facing to illuminate the floor (naturally). They were all at my eye height, and there were none pointing up so I couldn't see anything above me, it was all blackness ... presumably the roof was high enough to not be a problem, but if it got low I'd find out by hitting it. This did make the tunnel much more exciting.

There were also a lot of other cyclists on the rail trail, and several passed by in the tunnel. Most people didn't bother with lights, so you'd see a dark silhouette in the distance. I'd slide to the right side, which was the darker side of the road, further away from the lights, and after a while they'd slip past. The ambience was a little sinster, so I'd say "bonjour"; this was not the time to try an evil titter. But like the boulangerie, I was tempted.

From left to right: inside the tunnel. Tunnel exit. More repurposed stations.

Unfortunately that was the highlight, the day peaked early. There was quite a long gap between towns; so I stopped at Cluny for a slightly early lunch. The town was filled with tourists and cyclists; probably good that I got in early and beat the rush.

From left to right: heading over the bridge into Cluny. The central square. More rail trail! Selfie when reapplying sunscreen.

More rail trail in the afternoon! Today was a long day with a late start so I pushed a bit.

I even saw some people going north - this is really unusual, almost everyone is heading south, with the wind. I saw a pair of cyclists in the distance, bikes had panniers, relaxed rather than sporty gear. But for some reason I the gap was only gradually closing. I thought I was pushing! What's going on? Breakfast was meh but adequate. I felt OK. Troubling ... I pushed a bit more, drew closer: two older cyclists. That didn't make it better. Eventually I got close and passed: they were on electric bikes.

I tried the small isotonic bottle in my water bottle. It tasted OK, and seemed to help, but got used up pretty quickly. I’ll try the powder tomorrow, hopefully it works - it’ll last longer.

Sadly the railtrail didn't take me all the way to my destination. Midafternoon I turned off onto a gravel road that ran in a perfectly straight line, parallel to a line of power pylons. It felt very isolated, but one turn later I was back on an asphalt road, and when that connected with a bigger road there was a gate for cyclists - so I guess that was a known cycle route after all.

The route went beside a canal for a few hours - this isn't quite as good as a rail trail, but it's still good. Flat, surrounded by trees, good surface. Except for the flat part. There were regularly locks, and there was a small but not insubstantial climb for each one. Just a run-up wasn't enough to get up, it needed a change down and a bit of hard legwork.

From left to right: canalside path. Lock = climb. Closer look at one of the locks.

After that the route entered wine country properly, and for the most part followed a cycleroute. I know this because there was a continuous stream of cyclists going the other way, family groups, older couples, and once even a young couple with a child-sized bike trailer with an indulged dog in it. Later on I saw a custom trailer for carrying rental bikes - I guess they can drop off/pick them up different places based on the winds. Which would explain why everyone was going with the wind except me!

This must have been a wealthy region; there were Land Rovers on the roads, B&Bs had gates, and the signs with street names were custom printed, not the commonplace ones.

One other feature was that there were often stone walls on either side of the road. Old and crumbling, but it meant there wasn't much space. Also the roads were unusually narrow: a regular sized car didn't fit within a lane, it would cross the centerline. There was almost no traffic fortunately.

From left to right: dubious walled roads. Shiny roadsigns. Heading into the countryside for the final section…

After wine country the route ran vaguely parallel to the main road going to Nuits-Saint-Georges. But while the main road ran on flat ground, my route was on the hills. Initially they were just low rolling hills so the incline was shallow, but after a while it got steeper and there were some unpleasantly serious climbs. I didn't have to get off and walk - but I did have to change down to the lowest gear, and I'm quite glad the front derailleur cooperated.

It flattened out as it approached Nuits-Saint-Georges; I rejoined the road, rolled through the center of town, passed through the outskirts, into the light industrial area, over the railway tracks, right to the edge of town where today's hotel is. I'm in a room on the ground floor, close to the entrance - no problems getting the bike in.

But there's no restaurant nearby. Hopefully the hotel shortage was because of Ascension Day and I can find affordable places closer to town again. Because it's nearly two kilometers back into town to find dinner...

What I’m listening to: In The Waiting Line, by Zero Seven: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tZlu4wP4pw
Zero Seven are a British duo, who started out as studio audio engineers.