Le Tour de Bourgogne à Vélo, 2-22 August, 2021)

The highlight of the Summer 2021 was 'Le Tour de Bourgogne à Vélo', a three-week bicycle tour in Bourgogne wine growing region. We started and ended the tour in Dijon. The tour itself took us 12 days, with two days off from riding in Decize and Auxerre, after which we stayed three more nights in Dijon and made day trips in the surrounding area. In those three weeks we rode 957.5 kilometers in 70 hours and 12 minutes, with 6180 meters of climbing. Like the Loire valley bicycle tour from the Summer 2020, this tour mostly followed dedicated bike paths along the canals and quiet country roads.

Unlike in the Loire valley bicycle tour, this time we did not rent a car even if that would have been more convenient, since it was a return trip; we just thought that having the car stand idle for three weeks would have been a major waste of resources. So we took our bikes on the train instead. First we had to ride to the Brignoud station, which is just five kilometers from our home. On our way to Dijon we had two connections, in Grenoble and in Lyon, and everything went smoothly. There was plenty of space for us and our bikes in the trains.

When in Dijon, there was no need to assemble the bikes this time, so we were ready to head out to explore the town. -- Le Compteur du temps by Gloria Friedmann (1950-), 2020.

Église Notre-Dame.

Cathédrale Saint-Bénigne.

After strolling around the city center for a couple of hours we faced the difficult task of choosing the dinner place. We chose the restaurant Version Latine, and could not have made a worse choice --- last time we ate out was probably a year ago on our Loire tour, and we had completely forgotten how bad the food in an average French restaurant could be (is!).

We had 'Pâte à l'Italienne' (pictured here) and 'Escalope de Veau version Latine' (in the previous photo). The dishes took care of our hunger, but we couldn't but feel sorry about the money wasted.

Next morning we were ready to hit the bikepaths in the Bourgogne vineyeards, and there were lot of those, as far as the eyes could see. The paths, some paved some not, were quite muddy, since there was a lot of agricultural activity going on. It also had rained in the morning.

Marsannay-la-Côte.

When leaving Marsannay-la-Côte, after more than five kilometers of riding, we saw the first sign for the Bourgogne bicycle tour. Even if we had the GPX trace of the tour on our tablet, until that point we could not be completely sure we were following the correct route.

Château de Brochon.

It's been too long since we returned from this tour, and our notes are not comprehensive, so it was hard to remember where exactly each picture was taken. Googleing the village or town names along our route did not always help, since image search returned pictures of wine bottles most of the time.

Another disclaimer: most of the diary of the tour is about finding a place to do laundry or finding a place to eat (or buy food). So it may be a bit repetitive.

No end of vines in sight.

Nuits-Saint-Georges.

Château Corton C.

We spent the first night at an Airbnb apartment in Beaune. It was supposed to be a non-smoking apartment but there was a very strong cigarette smell in the living room --- particularly the couch was really smelly, so we stayed away from it. In heavy rain we walked to the nearest supermarket to by frozen paella for dinner (our staple in this kind of trips), just to find out the stove did not work. When it started to get dark outside we noticed that the lights in the living room did not work, and so on.

Our first stop next day was in Mersault. This kind of roof decoration is characteristic in this area; it can be found equally in castles, churches, mansions (or whatever you call them here), and village houses.

Soon after Beaune we left the vineyards, and followed Canal du Centre all the way to our next destination Montceau-les-Mines. We rode the whole day in rain.

By the time we reached Montceau, the sun was out. The first thing was to find a place to do laundry (Laverie Revolution at the supermarket parking lot was our friend). There was another customer doing his laundry at the same time, and he let us use the (only) drier first, since "we were tourists, and just passing by." He kept repeating it so many times, we thought he even expected a tip for his kind offer.

We stayed at hotel Le Konine, and that's where we chose to have dinner too: salad for starters (crudité).

Fillet mignon in crust.

Fish with leek and cream sauce. Nothing special, but not bad either.

Next morning we woke up to heavy rain and strong wind. By the time we got moving the rain had stopped but the (head) wind had not. Besides we faced a steep uphill to start with.

It started raining again quite soon, but it did not last long. But then it started again, and stopped, and so on. It is a bit of a gamble whether one should put the rain gear on immediately when it starts sprinkling, but may soon stop, or wait until the rain grows heavy enough, when one is likely wet already.

Sandwich break, and also a break from the rain.

And then the sun came out.

Another break to stretch the legs and the back.

The first 40 kilometers was quite a roller coaster ride, but rest of the ride to Digoin we followed (again) Canal du Centre comfortably downhill.

Pont Canal in Digoin, constructed 1834-38. The length of the bridge is 243m and its height above the river (La Loire) 12m. The depth of the canal is 2.3m and its width 6m.

Again we decided to stay at a hotel, Le Rondpoint. The reception was not open, so we checked in with a door code. We spent some time in the riverside bar (Le Dock Cafe) waiting for the hotel restaurant to open, but it never did.

So we headed out to the town looking for a dinner place. We chose another hotel restaurant Entre Mer et Montagne.

Tomi's escargot dinner. You can just try to imagine the amount of garlic in this dish. Tei had Charolais, a steak most likely.

Next morning we took a short stroll around downtown Digoin, and returned to Entre Mer et Montagne for breakfast: a large (and very good tasting) mug of coffee, orange juice, croissants, and baguette with butter cost 6€ per person --- quite reasonable for such a poor breakfast. We have paid almost 10€ for a similar set in other places.

We had a short day-ride to Bourbon-Lancy (all downhill), just 37 kilometers, and we were there before check-in at Ibis Styles opened. Once in we did laundry at the hotel (they let us use their washing machines for free), and watched the women's soccer final in the Olympics; Canada won against Sweden in the penalty shootout.

We had dinner at the neighboring casino's restaurant starting with 'Croustillant de crab à la coriandre',

and 'Tartare de saumon à l'aneth et baies rosés'.

Tei's main was 'Filet de bar rôti' (with something I can't figure out from my hand written notes), and Tomi's 'Pennes aux crevettes et courgettes, sauce curry'. This dinner was a positive surprise, but then again it wasn't an average restaurant.

We managed to squeeze only one run to the three-week trip (*), and that was to the old town of Bourbon-Lancy. It was quite a hilly run. (*) We did do a lot of walking, though.

On our way up to the town center we passed a curious art exhibit.

Hospital of Bourbon-Lancy.

Eglise du Sacré Coeur.

The town was quite idyllic, and especially in the early morning hours very quiet. The market was just opening.

The Charolais cattle.

This was another rain-on, rain-off day.

We made several stops on our way --- for example in Cronat, Charrin, and Devay --- trying to buy something for lunch, but nothing was available. Where do people living in those towns buy their food?! Église de Charrin.

At 2pm. we were in Decize and the hotel Le Bel Air, a bit remotely located but ok. We were going to stay in Decize for two nights.

The first thing after showering was to find a place to do laundry. There was a Carrefour supermarket two kilometers away, and on its parking lot a Revolution Laundry. There! However, both washing machines (8kg and 18kg) were busy with more than 30 minutes left. A friendly lady informed us that there were other washing machines just 100 meters away on another parking lot of a DIY store. There!

We had some luck since both machines there were free. While awaiting the load to finish we had beers in the small bar/restaurant La Chope nearby. That was a strange place: people kept coming in with empty containers (that were huge!) and leaving with them full of couscous and other dishes. We asked if we could have dinner there, but they were fully booked on that Saturday night.

We started to get a bit worried since other restaurants that were open that night were also fully booked. Just to be safe, on our way back to the hotel we ordered pizzas at a kiosk, which were delivered to our room 30 minutes later. The evening (and the next day) saved!

This Sunday was a day off from riding. However, we could have chose a better location: Decize was quite a small town and not too interesting. By lunchtime we had walked pretty much every street in the old town and seen whatever there was to be seen.

Église Saint-Aré. This church was dedicated to Saint Aré, the fourth bishop of Nevers between years 548 and 558. He had wished at his death to be carried in a fishing boat on the Loire, and where ever the boat stopped, to be buried there. The boat then went upstream to Decize, and that's where he was laid to rest. Originally the church dates back to the 11th century, but it has undergone several thorough restorations in the 17th and 19th centuries.

Detail in l'Église Saint-Aré.

Decize is located on a former island in the river Loire at the confluence of the river Aron. At some point the other branch of Loire was dammed to reclaim land, and now it is just an arm called 'La Vieille Loire' reaching to downtown Decize.

Les ramparts.

We were not too enthusiastic of having lunch at the bars downtown, so we just bought pizza baguettes (not pictured here) at the (only) bakery we found open, and ate them while walking back to the hotel to watch the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics.

Heading out for dinner. This is the bridge over La Vieille Loire.

Practically the only choice for dinner was a Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant serving salads with Swiss cheese. A bad sign! The restaurant was practically empty, but both the kitchen and the server were busy with carry out orders. We didn't get the wine until we were almost finished with the main dishes.

And the mains were 'Boeuf au Basilic', and

'Canard laqué'.

The bill. Very overpriced.

At this time of the year (writing this in mid January) I can't but love these light Summer evenings, or the memory of them.

The next day was Monday, and we did not sleep well because of the noisy early morning traffic, and people smoking underneath our window.

The morning started grey, but eventually the Sun came out and it got quite warm.

Cercy-la-Tour. There were storage lockers for bicyclists to leave their valuables while visiting the town. Genial!

The Charolais again.

There were several rest areas for bicyclists on today's route, but this was the best; it had picnic tables, barbecue pits, toilets, and showers, and drinking water.

The setting was quite idyllic, too.

After 52 kilometers of following the Canal de Nivernais and the very curvy river Aron we were in Châtillon-en-Bazois for lunch at the restaurant called Le Petit Senat. The day's set lunch consisted of ham for a starter, ...

.. and ham for another starter, ...

... and a steak with fries for the main for 11€.

Then we had only 15 kilometers to ride to our destination by The Grand Étang de Veaux. It was a small village next to a marina. Our accommodation was 'Châmbre d'hôtes' (kind of B&B) hosted by a somewhat eccentric lady, who had moved there from Paris 15 years earlier. We had a large room that was beyond dirty.

Before the dinner we went for a quick walk by the lake. The dinner consisted of crudités (carrot and cabbage slaw, cucumber, chorizo(!), tomato, and mozzarella(!)) for the starter, and a steak with fries for mains. Another red meat meal of the day, burp!

The breakfast, like the dinner, was enjoyed on the balcony facing the neighbor's garden, and was a classical French one with coffee, juice, croissants, and bread with butter, marmalade, and jam.

And a fellow host attentively monitoring our each move. We did not leave him a crumble. Sorry Bob!

The day was sunny and very warm.

Soon after starting today's ride we met a French bicyclist who passed us several times and whom we passed several times during the next few hours. Every time he greeted us cheerily "Hello!" That's why, and because of his accent, we first thought he was either German or Dutch.

In Dirol we stopped at a food truck for coffee. We also bought lunch sandwiches which we later enjoyed at a picnic area in Brèves. There we also met the happy French cyclist again, and heard that his plan for the day was to ride 100 kilometers.

We had a nice downhill ride following the idyllic Canal du Nivernais, which in turned followed the river Yonne, all the way to Coulanges-sur-Yonne, where we stayed at the hotel Lion d'Or.

For dinner we headed to the restaurant Guinguette (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinguette)

We were seated in the (non-smoking) tent that was not crowded at all, unlike the outdoor space.

We ordered burgers --- Le Veggie (lentil) and Chef's (pulled pork) --- with local rosé (Coteau de Tanney Pinot Rosé 2019).

The evening was warm and the sky still clear when we walked back to the hotel.

And the sky was still clear the next morning when we started riding earlier than usual.

We kept following the scenic Canal du Nivernais and the river Yonne.

Les Rochers du Saussois, a group of limestone cliffs situated in Merry-sur-Yonne.

We did a quick detour to the campground on the opposite bank of the river Yonne. Instead of, or in addition to, the toilet break, we should have bought something to eat, as it turned out later, it was hard to find a place for lunch. I don't remember why we did not buy anything, since there was a snack bar.

We were almost in Auxerre, our destination for the next two nights, when we spotted an ad of a Moroccan restaurant. Following a number of more signs we easily found the restaurant 'Saveurs et Douceurs Orientales' in the outskirts of the town Cravant. And it was open!

Tei ordered sea bream, but they were out of it, so she got a salmon dish instead.

Tomi ordered a vegetarian couscous dish. The food was of good quality and tasty (very rare indeed in this kind of places that are usually very stingy with spices, at least in Grenoble area), and the service excellent, even if there was a single person taking care of several tables.

From Cravant we only had about 20 kilometers to Auxerre.

One of the several locks on the river Yonne.

Cathedral Saint-Étienne of Auxerre.

This was a day off from riding. This day also marked the halfway of our Tour de Bourgogne à Vélo.

We had a sunny and warm day to explore Auxerre, which was a dozen times more interesting than Decize.

Marie Noël was the pen name of the French poet Marie Rouget (1883-1967). She was born and died in Auxerre.

St. Peter's Church.

Abbey of Saint-Germain.

Abbey of Saint-Germain and Cathedral Saint-Étienne.

The students of the School of Fine Arts had done some interesting projects, like re-enacting scenes from famous old paintings.

We had lunch at the restaurant Linguini: Salad with mussels and Pasta Carbonara,

with Domain Jacquet's 2018 Bourgogne Chitry Rosé.

Nicolas Rétif de la Bretonne (1734-1806) was a French novelist. The term retifism for shoe fetishism was named after him, tells Wikipedia.

Parc Paul Bert. Paul Bert (1833-86) was a French physiologist and zoologist, and also a politician. He was born in Auxerre and died in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Next morning we were on the road again following the river Yonne. A newly paved pedestrian and bicycle path was still missing proper markings.

Lunch break.

View from the lunch spot.

After 24 kilometers of riding we were getting lost in Migennes, since we decided not to follow the signposts, but to take a shortcut, at the cost of riding five extra kilometers. From Migennes we followed the Canal de Bourgogne upstream.

Otters in the canal.

Around 5pm. we were in Tonnerre. We had dinner at Le Saint Père. Food was of good quality, not super tasty though, but there was an attempt to be creative and original, and a bit more contemporary than French restaurants in general.

Overall, the dinner at Le Saint Père was a success, even if the place was noisy, and the service not quite professional, albeit attentive and friendly.

Next morning we visited the farmers' market and a small supermarket to buy some basic breakfast items. It wasn't any cheaper than a hotel breakfast would have been, but maybe a a bit more versatile. Just after a short ride we saw this fellow by the bicycle path.

And this cosy little coffee shop that was run by a Dutch lady who spent her Summers taking care of one of the many locks of the Canal de Bourgogne. She did not charge but 1€ for a cup of coffee, which was very good.

This section of the canal was very scenic so it deserves at least two pictures.

The locks on the canals are taken care (opened and closed) by seasonal workers, who seemed to be predominantly either young students or older retirees.

At 3pm. we were in Montbard. As usual, after showering we made short tour in the town, scouting if there possibly was a coin laundry, but did not find one.

We had dinner at a pizza restaurant where we were served by a middle-aged man dressed in a singlet.

The pizza we shared was not very appetizing either.

The next morning started sunny, but there were some clouds gathering.

We stopped in Venarey-les-Laumes for the sole purpose of doing laundry (ok, we bought lunch salads at the supermarket as well). Google maps showed the washing machines in a wrong location, so it took us some time to find them. The load also took exceptionally long to finish: 50 minutes for wash and 30 minutes for drying, so it was quite late when we could continue.

On the other hand the long pause turned out to be strategically beneficial, because the thunderstorm passed in front of us and we missed the rain.

It was a hot day (+35°C) and after the rain the bikepath was steaming.

We rode by the canal upstream, and passed a record number of locks; that meant that at each lock we had a short and steep uphill to climb.

We were early (before 4pm.) at Ibis Budget in the outskirts of Pouilly-en-Axois, but could not check in since the automatic check-in machine wanted us to pay again for the night we had already paid online. So, while waiting for the human check-in to open, we explored the nearby dinner options: the restaurant Les Portes de Bourgogne next door was closed for the holidays, and cool looking Richie's Diner was closed for sanitary reasons.

That left us with Mc Donalds and Courtepaille, a French restaurant chain specializing in grilled meat, created in 1961, marked by a special form of roof and a large fireplace inside (where the meat is prepared). (these yellow vehicles were on the parking lot of the diner)

We chose Courtepaille.

We started with their appetizer board.

Tomi had a burger and Tei a marinated steak with baked potato. We were not disappointed.

Distinctive roof of Courtepaille.

It was warm evening when we walked back to the hotel.

The next day was the last day on the Tour of Bourgogne, and our destination was Dijon where we had booked an Airbnb apartment for our last night. The day started sunny but soon the sky got covered in clouds, and it even drizzled a bit when we approached Dijon.

We had a comfortable downhill ride with tail wind to Dijon.

In Veuvey-sur-Ouche we stopped at a small grocery shop 'Shopicerie' for coffees, and bought sandwiches for lunch. The place also served meals and offered accommodation.

It was owned and run by a friendly lady originally from the UK (so she spoke English). Here she is pictured preparing our sandwiches.

This seasonal place, open from April to October, was for sale, and now when writing this, I found out it has permanently closed at the end of October 2021 as the owner planned to retire by the end of the year.

It wasn't clear to us what this structure was; there didn't seem to be a road or railroad on top of it.

Instead, the bridge on the background of this photo is a railroad bridge.

In the early afternoon we found our accommodation --- small but clean --- actually quite close to the place where we had started our tour two weeks earlier. Since we still had a lot to explore in the region and several days left of our vacation, we booked this apartment for three more nights. The neighbor was doing some garden and patio construction work on their yard, so they kindly offered covers for our bicycles.

The next day was another city day for us.

We wondered around the city center until we got hungry. And visited the market hall.

At the market we were lucky to find a spice shop that sold (whole) allspice. It --- both ground and whole --- is very difficult to find in France. Unlike in Finland or the US, it is not a standard item found in a regular supermarket.

After lunch at a Japanese restaurant Sakura we didn't have much else to do, or see, so we hopped on the tram No. 1, and rode to its last stop in Quetigny through the university campus, and then returned to our small apartment to do laundry.

The neighbor hadn't made much progress with their garden work.

The next day it was another rainy morning so instead of going bicycling we decided to stay in the town. We took a tram No. 2 to the Japanese garden.

The garden was really small so we didn't spend much time there.

Besides we had seen so many more interesting Japanese gardens on our travels, and not only in Japan. The one in Toulouse is actually quite nice.

We walked back to the town center.

We had lunch at Aloha The Poké Bar. For once there were plenty of toppings in the bowls, and not just rice and a couple of things to cover it.

After lunch we visited Jardin Darcy, the first public park in Dijon, dedicated to the hydrology engineer Henry Darcy (1803-1858). This white bear statue at the entrance of the park is a replica of the sculpture Ours blanc by François Pompon (1855-1933) at Musée d'Orsay. It was made in 1937 by Henry Martinet.

After the park we visited the Botanic Gardens.

To document the neighbor's garden work: they had made some progress.

Next morning we were on the road again. We started the same route we left for Tour de Bourgogne, and then climbed over a hill to the Canal de Bourgogne.

Not the most interesting route, but the easiest. Generally, if we are doing hikes or bicycle rides in several consecutive days, we tend to start with an easy one and then move on to more challenging ones. Of course, this does not apply to bicycle touring.

Beware of gremlins, and deer jumping over them.

We took a brief break on the top of the hill in Chamboeuf. There we found a shelter built for hikers, with a toilet and drinking water, but that was pretty much all there was on our climb over the hill.

We returned to Dijon the same route we returned from the bicycle tour. It was only August but we could already see some Fall colors.

The neighbor had made some more progress.

The next day the weather was much nicer and the route we chose also more scenic. This church is in Brognon.

The start of the day's route was stressful since it followed highways with heavy truck traffic, but later moved to quiet country roads.

We made a couple of stops at idylllic villages of which the first one was Bèze.

Then we had some rolling hills (not evident in this picture, though) to the next village,

Lux.

Again we were lucky to find drinking water in Lux.

After Is-sur-Tille we found this picnic table.

With a view. We have certainly had more scenic lunch spots before.

We took the last break in the small village of Vernon before the final climb over a hill to Dijon.

Taking a short break before reaching the summit. We have not done much climbing recently, but it was certainly a lot easier without the luggage.

Our last day of riding. A sunny and hot day again, which was nice.

Again we started the same way as we did to the Tour de Bourgogne. Only we made some shortcuts to avoid excessive up and down hills.

The last glimpses of the vineyards, the first time in the sunshine.

We had a lunch break at Abbaye de Citeaux. We took advantage of their clean toilets but did not tour the monastery.

We had seen vending machines of beverages and even pizza before, but not for fresh eggs.

Rain in the direction of Dijon again.

More progress!

Then it was time to take our bikes on the train and go home.

The plan was to take the train from Dijon to Lyon to Chambéry to Brignoud, and then ride five kilometers home from there. The first train (from Paris) was 20 minutes late so we missed our connection in Lyon (we should have had 17 minutes to change trains).

The next train to Chambéry was supposed to leave in an hour but it too was 30 minutes late, so we hopped on a Grenoble train, which meant that we had to ride home from Grenoble (17 extra kilometers).

Unlike on our outbound trip to Dijon, this time the trains were packed, both with passengers and bicycles. Epilogue: This was our third long bicycle tour in France after ViaRhôna and La Loire à Vélo. However, I found it less interesting than the other two: ViaRhôna was simply exciting because it was the first one, and the river Loire valley was just so beautiful. Originally, we had planned to go to Alsace, but just a couple of weeks before our planned trip there were some serious flooding in the region. Maybe this year!