DAY 4 on the bike - June 17th, Saulieu to Chalon-sur-Saône

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This entry by Tom.

Pretty sure the whole group skipped the hotel breakfast here. It wasn’t cheap at €13 and this time I got a look--just okay. So I went around the corner and up the street to a bakery and brought back some pastries and an Orangina to the room.

The gang had gathered at the rear of the hotel to get ready and load the van. It was another cool morning but it felt like it would get warm sooner rather than later. Caroline and I were the last to come down, but not by much. We decided to check out the Saturday morning market next to hotel with Donna, Luce and Steve. We picked up some large apricots and a local variety of peaches, flat peaches. I’d seen these before but had never tried them. Along with some trail mix in Caroline’s pack, we were good to go.

In a departure from our usual and expected procedure, Caroline and I started together with a plan for a pick-up later on instead of meeting on the route and riding to the finish. We made a plan to meet at Nolay, about 60 km into today’s ride, in early afternoon.

Thirty kilometres of pleasant country roads through rolling farmland later, we were in Arnay-le-Duc where we stopped at a supermarket for a cold drink to go with our fruit. The flat peaches were wonderful, sweet and juicy but not too sweet and not too juicy. I should have been eating these all along.

More of the same riding was in store between Arrnay-le-Duc and Nolay, except now Caroline was starting to get tired and the temperature was rising. The final 2+ km into Nolay was an 8% descent. But we got ‘er done.

We easily found Luce and Donna at a café along the route through Nolay. We stopped for cold drinks and I had a sandwich before continuing.

It was a pleasant descent from Nolay through vineyards and past the Château de Santenay with its distinctive colourful roof tiles. Turning south the riding was very easy and very fast with a substantial tailwind the rest of the way to Chalon-sur-Saône.

Chalon-sur-Saône is a bit larger town than we normally choose but that has its upside--there was a lot of life in the streets, and a lot of street. Immediately next to our hotel, a Kyriad near the centre of the city, were a string of four bars and restaurants and just south of the hotel was a pedestrian shopping area that stretched several blocks all the way to the river.

After cleaning up I went out to check out the neighbourhood. I picked up a large pretzel with cheese and tomato--I guess dinner will be a large salad later on--and ran into Michael and Luce at one of the bars. There were many dogs out too--some on leash but a few strays, too. Animals sure are treated differently here.

By about 8pm Caroline was up and we went literally next door to the hotel for dinner. There was a substantial selection of salads on the menu at Le Neptune and we each chose one. Sitting by the window, we saw many of the others strolling back to the hotel after their dinners.

After a walk down to the river and back, we were back at the hotel at about 9:30pm so that was it for our day.

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