May 21: Day 24, Nuits-Saint-Georges-Bourbonne-les-Bains
A fine day's cycling today! Could be because I've been drinking isotonics continuously. Or because I had three croissants for breakfast. We could probably narrow it down... but why would we want to? I'm going to try to stick with both.
Also made a few route choices that I'm not sure about. I don't actually regret them, but there's definitely a bit of doubt. But let's come back to that.
I got on the road a bit before 9, for a change. There was a nearby supermarket where I looked for isotonic drinks - nope. After that the route went into the countryside on a backroad - more grapevines, gradual slopes, those weird custom tractors that straddle the grapevines (I need to get a better picture of those). It ran through a series of small towns: Chambolle-Musigny, Morey-Saint-Denis, Gevrey-Chambertin, Brochon, Fixin, all the way to Dijon.
From left to right: Approaching the center of Dijon. Fountain in the central square. France likes to name streets after important people - I’ve passed several Louis Pasteur, and Marie Curie streets; but this is the first Saint-Exupéry.
Dijon is the biggest town in the area, and it was alive even at 10am on a Sunday. It has reasonably good cyclepaths, I passed the fountain in the center of town, had to recheck the map at roundabouts because they were so similar, and got out of town. Which passed a huge Intermarche. Dilemma: should I take the time to park, lock the bike, and go in searching for isotonic drinks again, given how it's usually fruitless? I did, and found some! Red 500ml bottles whose name I've already forgotten. I got 4; probably should have got more, given how scarce they are here.
I'd had a water bottle full of the powdered stuff this morning and it was OK; the powder is smaller and lighter so I'll keep it in reserve and use the bottles first.
The new stuff also tastes like sugar water, but like the Lucozade, it does work. I'd go up a hill, get to the top, and instead of coasting and taking a breather I'd vaguely think "I guess I can change up now", do so, and keep going with the same energy. It's an odd feeling, and not entirely pleasant; it makes me think that there's some downside I'll discover shortly. Possibly tooth decay…?
Today was a Sunday, and I was in rural France, so I was expecting that finding lunch would be a problem. Through the morning I passed the occasional cafe, or boulangerie, and wondered: is this the last chance? It was not close to lunchtime, so I kept going.
I had my eye on the town Mirebeau-sur-Beze which was a decent size, and I would arrive there just after 12. Google Maps suggested there were some cafes and restaurants and things there.
On the outskirts there was a small cluster of shops around a service station, including a boulangerie: I figured if it was open, or if there was a cafe, or anything at all, I should take it; I didn't like my chances. The boulangerie was still open but the shelves were looking bare and they were cleaning up ... not a good sign!
Google Maps showed a cluster of cafes/restaurants in the center of town by the river so I went there. And none of them was open... boulangeries? There was one just around the corner! And it was open. There was a lady behind the counter who was clearly looking forward to the end of the shift so I picked up the only savoury thing they had left, which was quiches, and got out of there. It was barely 1230. I thought I had more time than that...
Incidentally, this was only the second shop that didn't take contact payment. Apple Pay has been working almost everywhere, which makes things very easy.
From left to right: more countryside. This stately home had several kilometers of road lead straight to the front gate. It also had this turret. Lunch break time.
Shortly after leaving Mirebeau-sur-Beze, the route got on a canalside path. It was very pleasant; there was a bit of shade from the trees, and the surface was good.
From left to right: first canalboat on the canal I’ve seen. The canal path. One of many bridges. Downed tree blocking the path. Each lock had a house nearby. Another bridge.
But after an hour the route turned away and headed directly for the destination. This is where the day would get hilly; there was even a 300m climb later on.
So I took a quick look to see what happened if I stayed on the canalpath. It led fairly close to the destination too, but quite indirectly so it would take an hour longer. Next time I think I'll take it - but this time, I stuck with the original route, and started climbing hills.
This part of the route was on the road D460, and it went in nearly a straight line to the destination of Bourbonne-les-Bains. On either side of the road was tall grass, and it came right up to the asphalt. It was like the road had been cut through a cornfield.
It was pretty hilly. I did have a few regrets about not taking the canal path! But it wasn't too steep, and there wasn't much traffic so it wasn't bad. And thanks to that isotonic drink they didn’t really seem like a challenge.
The final 300m climb ended up being a bit of an anticlimax; I found a low gear and cruised up without stopping. Not a patch on those Spanish mountains...
From left to right: idle wind turbines - I don’t see these often enough. The road; see the tall grass on the left. View from my room.
The route did go in a fairly straight line to the destination, but about 5km away, D460 turned away. The route continued on a hilly but very straight back road. I regret not staying with D460, I'm sure it was flatter! Because this backroad may have been straight but it was a series of climbs, on rough gravel with potholes. And then it ended with a trip down a steep stony farm track.
But I got there in one piece, at about 1815, so I was pretty close to the Komoot estimate - at least for the afternoon.
A good day's ride! Hopefully there's enough croissants tomorrow morning, so it's equally successful.
What I’m listening to: Posterity, from the Tenet soundtrack by Ludwig Göransson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE5zXLOyEOQ
To go with the time inversion seen in the movie, the soundtrack features sections which were recorded, played backwards, the musicians attempted to emulate the backwards version - then that version was recorded and inverted for the soundtrack. If that sounds unnecessarily complicated, I believe quite a few scenes were planned and filmed that same way too…
