Cluny

86 miles 1857 ft climbed

Speeding along the voie verte former railway track I saw this large Charolais bull and hit the brakes skidding to a rapid halt leaving a burning rubber odour in the air. Dom suggested that the bull shouldn’t burn any rubber with the lady cows to service. Nigel later compounded this by comparing ladies to the difference between old Goodyears and newer Michelins! What a fine set of no doubt award winning kahunas.

So moving swiftly on – how did we get on with the cycling?

Leaving our campsite we headed directly through a boatyard where a lorry was delivering a new vessel so we had to squeeze past the crane hired to lift it into the water.

As has been the case for many days we the started the ride by running along a canal towpath. The difference this time being that we only stayed on this path for 5 miles or so before turning off and heading across the valley to the Côte-d’Or and the Burgundian vineyards.

Unusually most of this section was on road rather than cycle path so we had to get used to cars and lorries for a bit. We had a brief detour through the grounds of Citeaux Abbey but were too early as it had yet to open.

The first wine town we hit was Nuits St George and we were able to get our passports stamped up and had a good chat with the lady, obviously discussing the weather. Today was cool although initially just over cast with a chance of rain later so we hoped to get through the day unscathed.

However we could see rain approaching and donned our rain jackets before it started in earnest. With the rain coming down heavily and still over 75 miles to go we took shelter under a churchyard entry and saw it was due to rain for two hours. So we called up Nigel who was happy to come and find us. Interestingly we saw a commercial bike holiday company van ( labelled Bike, Eat, Drink, Sleep) that had obviously been asked to do the same as it past empty and came back full with two bikes on its rack. Apparently they charge approximately USD1000 a day for their trips.

We had stopped in the small town of Comblanchien which was the site of a German revenge killing attack after D-Day when men and women were separated, 8 townspeople murdered, many imprisoned and over 50 houses torched. Something similar also happened in Cluny,our destination town, when the Germans took vengeance. An evil part of war not necessarily covered in our text books.

Once Nigel arrived we had our coffee and croissants and decided that we would drive to Volnay as the weather was still poor. We had hoped to visit a Boulay vineyard but the fellow was less than keen to see us, so we left immediately and decided to give it a go back on our bikes.

Arranging to meet Broomey in about 30 miles on the other side of Chalon-sur-Saône we then set off going through the famous Meursault and Pommery vineyards before dropping across the plain and back down to the Saône.

The route was a mix of voie verte and road but we could see and hear a storm coming in, as one moment it looked as if it would miss us.

We had to don our jackets again and as the rain was so hard, take cover in a copse of trees as the thunder crackled above us.

This time we told Nigel to stay put. We’d wait for the rain to pass run through Chalon and join him later. The heaviest rain only lasted 15-20 minutes and we were then able to get going again on very damp roads, then dropping down onto a cycle track by the Saône which was initially very unhelpfully covered with a thick layer of gravel.

Although it remained cold ( only 12 C) the sun did make an appearance but the roads stayed wet. We enjoyed a brief tour of Chalon which is an attractive place with a proper medieval square in front of the cathedral. We also were able to top up our passport with another stamp.

Leaving Chalon we knew we had not got a long distance to get to Broomey and again a very late lunch As the meeting point was on a cycle path Nigel came out around three miles to meet us on his bike. Unfortunately it started to rain once again so he got wet.

Luckily as we finished lunch it now stopped raining and the sky became increasingly blue. The route was then almost exclusively on the voie verte 1 as this was the first one created in France. as usual I had included a couple of detours. The first in the pretty town of Buxy after getting another passport stamp in the tourist office located in the old station.

Whilst admiring their church’s separate tower a local man approached and asked if we had got wet in the storms. After a bit he explained switching to English that he had worked for the Met Office working in Bracknell for many years.

With the sky increasingly blue we enjoyed the final few miles of the cycle getting to the campsite at 6.45. We all carried out a quick oil and degreasing of our very dirty bikes. Then a salmon supper followed by Strawberries and a walk round the very famous abbey town of Cluny to conclude a successful and long day. .

We had two long interruptions for the weather but in the end only lost around 12 miles of the route. Thankfully the weather for the final two days looks dry and warming up.