What have I done?

Starting point - Bligny sur Ouche

Set of early on Monday morning and caught the 7:20 bus to Bligny-sur-Ouche. So far so good, the bus mostly in and out of the canal towns that I would be riding through later. The bus took about an hour to cover the 48 kilometres from Dijon. Most of the last 20 minutes of the trip on the bus was through some quite steep hill country, not at all what I had planned for my ride back to Dijon. Fortunately when we arrived at Bligny, I discovered I had a very pleasant 7 km down hill ride back to the canal.

Breakfast, coffee and chocolate biscuits - baker closed on Mondays

Reminded me of Buchan

I hadn't ridden this section of the canal before, not sealed as the earlier sections and quite rough in places. Very picturesque though and the riding was great in the cool morning air. Des would have approved, riding down hill (as much as you can on a canal) with a 20 km tail wind. I didn't really appreciate the tail wind until I realised I had left my back pack a couple of kilometres behind me. I had stopped to watch a large barge go through a lock, put the pack down and rode of without it!

The tail wind wasn't to last though, the wind shifted and the canal changed direction and I was then riding into a 20k plus head wind. A couple of strong gust's just about stopped me in my track. With the temperature rising, it was a hard slog for the last 20 kilometres back into Dijon. I was back at the apartment by 1PM, very hot and dehydrated.

About 60 kilometres all up, what with back tracking and sight seeing in some of the villages - a very satisfying ride.

Riding between the river and the canal

Tuesday was going to be an easy ride around the suburbs of Dijon. Dijon has many well made and sign posted bike routes, some on bike only paths and others where you share the road but have good separation from the traffic. Must tell the City of Greater bendigo about the traffic separation. The ride got longer as I went along, a church here a park there, it all just kept adding up. Eventually I turned and headed back to Dijon and just happened to find myself riding along side the main runway for the Dijon airport.
This airport is shared with the military and I had a very entertaining half hour watching some jet trainers and some mirage fighters taking off. A warm ride back along the canal into Dijon. About 40 k's in 3.5 hours.

Post ride reward

Today (Wednesday) the same only a different direction. Today is my last day on the bike, going to Paris tomorrow to see the Paris Air show, really looking forward to that.

Abby

I had decided for todays ride,that I wanted to go and see the Abby at Fontaine-les-Dijon an outer suburb. There were no hills marked on my map! After a slow ride up and down a couple of very long hills I made it to the Abby. Very annoyed, the coffee shop didn't open for another hour, had to put up with water and a "pain au Raison" sitting in front of the abby.

It was worth the ride, the church had been there since the 14th century and the abby is still being used as such, they even had their own sporting field. With a nice ride down hill it was only 2.5 hours on the bike today.

No punctures, no problems with the bike and I only fell off once -a front wheel slide on some loose gravel that dropped me on the bitumen, not much damage done.
I have had a great time on the bike, a bit sad to hand it back tonight.
Never mind another adventure awaits tomorrow.

Posted with Blogsy by Ozbendigo