20 years ago today – Day 89

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Friday, May 31st – Muides-sur-Loire to Amboise, 4437 km

Things are unfolding slower than planned today. We make it to Chambord by 9:45 and tour the place until 11. We paid 30F to get in and we made the most of it. It is quite empty inside, having been plundered repeatedly from the French Revolution onwards, but just the immense size of it and the artistry of the building itself holds one’s attention. It was built for Francois I of France who commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to design many of its elements, including its amazing double helix staircases. The views of the canal from the chateau are as impressive as the reflection of the building in the water.

It is lunchtime by the time we make the 15 km to Cours-Cheverny to see the Serigny Chateau, so it is closed until 2:30. We detour to see the exteriors of two other smaller palaces, the modest Toussay Palace and the Beauregard Chateau. The Serigny Chateau is still owned by the same family that built it almost 600 years ago. A duke, I believe, still lives on the second floor, and because of this it is the best furnished of the chateaus of the Loire. The decoration and design are inferior to Chambord but the display of antique furniture is worth the 25F.


When we finish at Serigny it is almost four. We race to Chernonceau, the elegant chateau that sits on arches over the river Cher. On the way we pass through Fougeres-sur-Bievres which has a more medieval-looking chateau. There is only time for a couple photos of the exterior again. It is difficult to cycle fast, which we must as Chernonceau is 35 km from Serigny. We have a tailwind again but my legs are exhausted from yesterday’s record-setting effort.

We reach Chernonceau on time. It isn’t visible from the gates, where we would need to leave our bikes and bags unattended while we do the tour well out of sight. Admission is 30F, which would be worth it is we could see the sound and light show so highly recommended in the Let’s Go Guide, but the first one of the season is on June 15, half a month from now. We decide to move on to Amboise where, after a fair deal of searching, we find a youth hostel on an island in the Loire. It is cheap compared to all the high-priced and over-booked accommodation geared to the tour bus tourist crowd.

Amboise has its own chateau too. It looks more like a fortress with a dense row of commercial buildings packed in below it. It looks nothing like the pastoral palaces or heavy, medieval chateaus we have seen before it.

Mike and I splurge on a 79F dinner tonight, but we have worked hard for it – another 108 km today. It is a wonderful meal for the price too, crepes and “salades chaudes” – delicious!


PHOTO 1: Chambord, the largest chateau
PHOTO 2: Chambord, stairwell from exterior
PHOTO 3: view of the canal from Chambord
PHOTO 4: double helix stairwell by Leonardo da Vinci
PHOTO 5: Chateau Toussay
PHOTO 6: Chateau Beauregard
PHOTO 7: Serigny Chateau in Cours-Cheverny
PHOTO 8: back of Serigny Chateau
PHOTO 9: Fougeres-sur-Bievre with moat
PHOTO 10: Fougeres, front entrance
PHOTO 11: Fougeres at rear with stables
PHOTO 12: on the grounds of Fougeres

20 years ago today - Day 88

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Thursday, May 30 - Auxerre to Muides-sur-Loire, 4329 km

We leave at 7:30 this morning, when Christian leaves for work. There are hurried hugs all around. He says he'll keep in touch but I can't imagine that he is the type of man who writes letters. Today is the day we head for the Loire Valley with all its amazing chateaus. It is a part of France neither Mike or I could miss. It is still going to be over a hundred km to first big ones, like Chambord, so it is good that we have an early start.

There is a strong tailwind from the north-east that makes our cycling west a breeze, as they say. We pick up where we left off two days ago, following the Yonne River downstream for the first nine kilometres. Then we head south-west over gently rolling landscapes through Sepeaux, Chatillon-Coligny and Les Choux averaging 20 km/hr. The type of cycling is a lot of fun. We reach the Loire Valley by noon, 90 km from Migennes. This is by far the greatest distance we have ever cycled by this point of the day.

We stop for lunch in Sully-sur-Loire, where we visit our first chateau. We want to limit the time we spend touring the insides of chateaus to the largest ones, so we opt to just take pictures of the exterior of this one and move on to the next. Before we leave, Mike calls his boyfriend John in Washington DC. John chastises him for calling too early (it’s 7 am Washington time) and asks him if he has been too hard on me. I’d say yes, but I’m afraid I have been just as hard on Mike at times.

After our lunch break, we follow the Loire Valley west from Sully. We are on the smallest roads on a few kilometres south of the Loire to avoid Orleans and most of the traffic. The guide book says the Joan of Arc gave her life to preserve the French claim to the city, but it is doubtful whether or not she would do the same today. Orleans, it says, has nothing much to offer other than perhaps a place to do your laundry.

The valley is very broad and flat, rendering the scenery boring. In some places the road is perfectly straight for long distances. "Perfectly straight" is never exciting. I would prefer a route with rolling hills for the variety and the views. It amazes me that there is so much international hype for this region, which is uninteresting except for a few extraordinary buildings, especially since every region in France has exceptional buildings.

Our next chateau is the largest in the Loire Valley - Chambord. It lies beside the Cosson River, seven kilometres south of the Loire about 50 km south-east of Orleans. We pass through a nature preserve just before we reach it, which is a nice change. The great chateau is magnificent but we first need to find a place to sleep tonight. We need to cycle to Muide-sur-Loire 8 km away to find a cheap room, but I have managed to convince Mike that returning to tour the chateau tomorrow will be worth the price.

We have cycled 189 km today, the longest day of loaded cycling in my life, and only 20 km short of my longest unloaded day of cycling I have done before. I have impressed myself.

I eat dinner in a very inhospitable restaurant, my first experience like this in France. It seems strange to them that I want to eat there if I am not staying there, even though several people who are not staying there are drinking at the bar in the same room. After such a long day I am in no mood to make any trouble over this petty issue. The waiter asks permission of the cook to take my order, as if the restaurant might not want my money.


PHOTO 1: shot taken of Mike while cycling
PHOTO 2: art shot at lunch stop

20 years ago today - Day 87

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Wednesday, May 29th - social visits in Migennes

Yesterday in Auxerre, we stopped at the tourist information office and picked up a brochure on the attractions in this region of France. Almost every town shown has multiple attractions or events, every town, that is, except Migennes. In a country where every small village has historic buildings and fine restaurants, Migennes has none. To take pictures here is a waste of film. The buildings are modern and drab, lower class industrial housing and the type of formless one-level retail strips one can find in most small Canadian towns. The only memorable feature, other than a canal that passes by the town (without paying it any mind, it seems) is that there are speakers on the telephone poles piping out disco music which I find bizarre and amusing.

I sneak into the bathroom before Mike or Christian stir. By the time I emerge Christian is doing last night's dishes in the kitchen. We rouse Mike, share a continental breakfast of rolls and jam and then hit the road by car to Auxerre. Christian shows us many of the attractions we have already seen yesterday, as well as a few more, before returning to Migennes to have lunch at his father's house. His father lets us sample several of his fine wines, aperitifs and liqueurs which he has made himself, while Christian buys groceries for dinner.

Christian returns and takes us to Annie's 5-room snail packing plant where we get to

see how they are cleaned, stuffed and packed. We tour every room but the freezer. It's interesting, and definitely different from looking at yet another cathedral.

Next, we visit the home of his mother and her lover, who drinking with his two brothers and a sister-in-law, each of whom offer us beer. People here don't seem to work much, but then I neither do I at the moment. In the early evening, we stop in to meet his other brother Sylvan and his family where we are offered more food and drinks. I spend most of the visit trying to catch what is being said while stroking the family's pet rat.

Back at Christian's, he makes us another bedtime dinner, consisting mostly of escargots. Enough already with the escargots, my insides are telling me. It's our third dinner of them in four days. After dinner, Mike wants to watch a video from Christian's collection of movies, a stupid French sit-com called "Rabbi Jacob Goes to Paris", which he remembers from his childhood. It is mildly funny at points, but it keeps us up past midnight when we need to be out the door by 7:30am tomorrow.


PHOTO 1: Auxerre riverscape
PHOTO 2: an art installation in Auxerre that spins around
PHOTO 3: Mike and Christian with Auxerre behind

20 years ago today - Day 86

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Tuesday, March 28th - Vezelay to Auxerre to Migennes, 4140 km

I did sleep well last night, in spite of my fears that I wouldn't. This morning we prepare coffee with Rose-Marie in the kitchen of the Vezelay youth hostel, after a trip to the local bakery to buy fresh bread. The manager of the hostel chats with us about our trip for a few minutes in his soft, pensive voice. He's grey-bearded, overweight fellow who walks with a limp looking something like Orson Welles, his long hair pulled into a ponytail. We wash the dishes, pack, say our goodbyes and are on the road by 10, a satisfactory start time.

Yesterday was the longest day we have done yet in France, but it was not too difficult because of the tailwind. In fact, it may have been the first perfect cycling day yet. But with cycling, yesterday and tomorrow are relatively unimportant compared to what is happening in the present. Today we are heading north, first following the shallow valley of the Cure River.

We have a bit of a headwind, sometimes a crosswind, but it fades as the day rolls along. Otherwise, it is almost as fine as yesterday. I lose Mike at a fork in the road somewhere along the Cure, where is no clear indication which way to turn. I wait 15 minutes and he returns. Fortunately he had not gone too far. The roads on the first half of the day are very quiet. For one 17 km stretch we did not see a single car.

We reach the valley of the l'Yonne River by mid-day, which continues a path north through Auxerre and Migennes. The traffic increases, especially around Auxerre, which is a small city and the largest centre we pass through today. Auxerre has an impressive position on the west bank of the l'Yonne, capped with the St Etienne Cathedral. St Etienne brought Christianity to this region and the local St Germain Abbey still holds his bones since his death in 448. At least they haven't cemented them into some wall, as the Catholics did in Evora, Portugal.

The riverscapes are beautiful but the layout of the city is quite confusing. We cycle up through the heart of the old city, which isn't easy to access with all the one-way streets, but it is worth it. Like Dijon and Beaune, there are many half-timbered buildings from the last medieval period but the most fascinating attraction is an incredible 15th century “clock” which is impossible to read without a guide book. I suspect it needs special training as it tells all sorts of astrological information like the phases of the moon and position of the stars over the years. It is built into a wall above a city gate in the old town, an extension of a turreted chateau of sorts. It remains a mystery, which in part is why I like it. We spend a couple hours here as an early afternoon break as the weather is beautiful and we have time to spare, this being a shorter day.

Our final destination is Migennes, the town where Christian, Gerard and Thierry's friend, lives. From the old town of Auxerre, we cross the river on a truck route and then switch, as soon as we can, to a smaller route that weaves from village to village. Now that we are beyond the Morvan, there is more traffic on the smaller roads, but they are still preferable to the larger highways. We course through the villages of Moneteau, Seignelay, Hauterive and Cheny to reach Migennes.

We call Christian as soon as we arrive at 5:30. He comes to meet us and lead us to his apartment building. Just as I am finishing showering and changing, Christian's mother drops by with two of her friends to greet us. As soon as they leave, Annie, Christian's friend who manages an escargot shipping plant, drops by with two large bags of escargots for our dinner.

Christian takes us out grocery shopping for dinner and on our way home we stop at the home of another of his friends, an energetic, out-going woman named Jackie. She looks younger than her 39 years, and acts much younger. Christian describes her as "liking men a lot". That is rather obvious. She's definitely barking up the wrong tree with Mike and I but she is entertaining. She asks if we have any Canadian pins and I promise to leave one for her with Christian.

Supper is very late - after 10pm. Annie shows up as well as Rudy, one of Christian's mother's friends who we were introduced to earlier. Everyone seems to like us, or at least is curious about us as Christian's Canadian friends. The fact that we are cyclists apparently adds to our appeal. The escargot dinner is delicious. I have a glass of wine but the others are in more of a party mood and drink much more. Their local French gets faster and more slurred to the point I can no follow it. I am tired and once again feeling excluded, but as a guest of honour, albeit an ignored guest, I feel obliged to sit tight on the sidelines and wait for the party to die down.


PHOTO 1: Auxerre river view with St Etienne Cathedral
PHOTO 2: Auxerre, square in old town
PHOTO 3: main street in old town Auxerre with gate and chateau
PHOTO 4: the amazing unfathomable "clock"

20 years ago today – Day 85

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Monday, May 27th – Dijon to Vezelay, 4060 km

It is once again time to hit the road and cover new ground, though it would be tempting to rest here longer. But Patrick and Jean-Marie will be busy with the store all week and our time in Dijon has been satisfying. Today we will head west and north-west into a region called the Morvan.

There is a bustle of activity in the house this morning. Patrick has to leave for Besancon in Alsace. He has been helping friends with their hotel there from Monday to Friday each week this month, while Jean-Marie manages the confisserie. Both Mike and I are packed and ready to leave by 9:15. Reluctant goodbyes all around, but life rolls along without us if we let it.

We first stop at the post office where I need to let a future host in Paris where we are and when we will be arriving. Then we leave the city. We are rested and make good time. For the next two hours we follow the roads that Patrick and Jean-Marie taken us on yesterday. We continue west to Saulieu. The route we use consists of small roads where cars pass us less than once per kilometre. The terrain is green, hilly and half-wooded. It is not hilly enough to be exhausting and but hilly enough to be scenic, my favourite type of cycling.

A few km west of Saulieu, we angle north-west through Quarre-les-Tombes. It sounded gruesome and spectacular but it isn’t. We continue for another hour to Vezelay, where we decide to rest the night.

Our climb into Vezelay is our hardest part of the day. The old town, which is most of the town, is perched on a rocky ridge above the valley of the Cure River. It is a very steep climb, about all I can manage. The main streets winds through medieval buildings to the top of the hill where there is a public square in front of the famous Basilica of Mary Magdalene, which received UN Heritage status 12 years ago.

There is a tourist information office opposite the basilica, where we learn of a youth hostel only one kilometre away. So, back down the hill and outside the gates we head. The youth hostel is empty, except for us. It has a panoramic view of the Cure River Valley and feels a bit like we have found Nirvana. No train routes come anywhere close to here, so the train-hopping North American youths who do the 12-countries-in-18-days type of travel never find this youth hostel. I’m in love with it. It’s so quiet and beautiful that it excites me more than relaxes me.

One more guest, a German artist about 50, named Rose-Marie moves into a room beside ours. She is big hearted and seemingly unstructured in her approach to life. She speaks some English but prefers French, and that’s fine by me. Mike buys a couple of quiches in town and we heat them in the kitchen of the youth hostel. Rose-Marie entertains us with her travel stories, most of her travels being on her own.

After she retires I am still wound up by this wonderful day. I take a short walk under the stars and full moon, but they excite me too. Still, I go to bed and manage to fall asleep soon enough. It has been a long day. We covered 132 km, our third longest ride to date, and we crossed our 4000 km landmark.


PHOTO 1: Basilica de Saulieu
PHOTO 2: Roche de Chien, south of Vezelay
PHOTO 3: approaching Vezelay
PHOTO 4: gate into Vezelay
PHOTO 5: Basilica of Mary Magdelene
PHOTO 6: Vezelay village
PHOTO 7: inside the Basilica of Mary Magdelene

20 years ago today – Day 84

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Sunday, May 26th – walking and car tours of Dijon and environs

We found out last night that Jean-Marie and Patrick have the day off so we have agreed to stay an extra day to spend it with them. Jean-Marie walks us around the old town and fills us in on local history and other details. I am seeing many of the same things but with a new perspective. I learn that the roofs made of glazed terracotta tiles, mainly green, yellow and black and arranged in eye-catching
geometric patterns are prohibitively expensive to make, several times the cost of a regular roof, which is why there are mainly seen on public buildings. I did not have time to visit the Musee des Beaux Arts yesterday and today, disappoint- ingly, it is closed for lunch when we arrive.

Patrick has prepared a delicious meal of escargots for our lunch while we were out. It is a wonderful surprise. If the afternoon they drive us around the local attractions west of Dijon. Our first stop is the beautiful Chateau le Clayette with its sharp, steel blue capped turrets and murky moat. We stop in a couple other places too, medieval in character, but I don’t remember their names.

They make us another fine dinner at their home that evening, and afterwards they question us about what to see when they visit Canada. Of course, we suggest the big cities, Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa and Toronto, but we discourage them from trying to see the whole country. They say they may come next year. I give them both Canadian maple leaf pins and they give us silver wine-tasting cups, as though they have not already given us enough.


PHOTO 1: roofs with glazed terra cotta tiles
PHOTO 2: Jean-Marie Brugnoni
PHOTO 3: Patrick Knecht
PHOTO 4: stained glass window at Chateau le Clayette
PHOTO 5: Chateau le Clayette
PHOTO 6: Chateau le Clayette
PHOTO 7: Jean-Marie, Patrick & Mike during our tour

20 years ago today – Day 83

Saturday, May 25th – resting in Dijon

Jean-Marie takes me to the hospital in Dijon first thing after breakfast. The wait is not long and the x-ray of my side shows nothing. “The pain is too low on your side to be a rib,” the technician explains. “But I can feel something broken,” I insist. “Of course, it is your cartilage,” she explains. She carefully traces my ribs with her finger to show me where they are above the injured spot. There is nothing I can do but let it heal, she says. She uses my health card to invoice the Ontario government instead of charging me. She prescribes a pain killer and an anti-inflammatory to make it easier on me, but she sees no reason why I cannot continue my cycling.

I walk out of the hospital as though I am in a dream, as I have not been expecting this good news. I feel a bit foolish. Peace of mind is worth the price, Mike tells me when we return to the house, as though he ever shown any concern. Patrick drops me off at the confisserie from where we begin our separate tours of the city. I visit the cathedral, Saint Mary of Dijon, with its façade of gargoyles, and the small carving
of an owl on an exterior wall that is supposed bring good luck if you touch it with your left hand. So many have touch it that its face has been rubbed off. Of course, I don’t read my guide carefully and touch it with my right hand, which probably bring bad luck. Not surprising with all those germs….

The old town is very compact. Its narrow streets are lined with half-timbered houses from the 12th to 15th centuries, mostly still in good shape. I had a café in the square in the old town that has the bronze statue of the naked youth Bareuzai enthusiastically mashing grapes with his feet. I am not sure of the legend, perhaps a Renaissance version of Dionysus. He looks down at me with a smirk on his face, as though he’d be both fun and trouble.


I walk to the huge Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy, which looks like it could belong in Versailles, and stop at the entrance of the Musee des Beaux Arts, which is adjacent. I walk along the river before returning to the confisserie. It is a lovely city, but I imagine it is swamped by tourists all summer, as there are enough here already.

The proprietors of stores in the mall where the confisserie is are gathered after hours to celebrate the birthday of a woman named Claudine, who owns a shoe store. I am impressed. I have never seen this done in a Canadian mall before. Mike hits it off well with Claudine and everyone is making a joke about it, as though he might settle down with her or they might run away together. But besides being a woman, she is much too outgoing for him. We drink and snack at the mall until 10, then leave to have dinner in a pizzeria.


PHOTO 1: facade of the ST Mary of Dijon Cathedral
PHOTO 2: the lucky owl (almost worn away)
PHOTO 3: details of the cathedral facade
PHOTO 4: statue of Bareuzai, the Dionysus of Dijon
PHOTO 5: street in old town with half-timbered buildings
PHOTO 6: half-timbered building
PHOTO 7: Notre Dame de Dijon
PHOTO 8: Le Marie (Town Hall)
PHOTO 9: Palais des Ducs de Bourgoyne
PHOTO 10: in old quarter of Dijon
PHOTO 11: statue outside entrance of le Musee des Beaux Arts
PHOTO 12: downtown square with carousel
PHOTO 13: can't remember what this is, but it looks cool

20 years ago today - Day 82

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Friday, May 24th - Beaune to Dijon, 3929 km

Today is my turn to wander the town while Mike stays in the room. I know he hates waiting for me but he knows I was under house arrest waiting for him last night. Still, I get up early while he's still in bed and head out to do some photography of the roofs in town. I also visit a bank to change money before returning.

The weather has been sunny and warm the past couple days but today, as we head north to Dijon, the wind is strongly against us. It is difficult to make 20 km/hr and at times we are crawling at less than 15. Still, we only have to cover 43 km to Dijon, over flat ground, so we are there by mid-afternoon.

Dijon is a city of about 150,000, the historic capital of the Burgundy Region. It is a very distinctive city, one I have been anticipating for a while, not knowing exactly what I will see. It certainly isn't disappointing me so far.

Another reason both Mike and I have been eager to be here is because our next hosts from our Gai Pied ad live here. They are a couple - Patrick Knecht and Jean-Marie Brugnoni. They own and manage a confisserie here in Dijon, specializing in Belgian chocolates. They have given us directions to their shop where they are working when until 5. We arrive there at 4:30.

Patrick is 43, with dark brown hair and a warm, handsome face. He is a bit heavier set. Jean-Marie is tall, slender, greying and balding, though only 33. They are both caring and attentive. They have a charming, cozy shop, as nice as any chocolaterie I have been in. Unlike our previous hosts, they both speak slowly and clearly and make an effort to include me in their conversations. For the first time, I understand most of what is being said and don't need to depend on Mike's undependable translations. I have abandoned my fear of trying to speak French. Mike has told them I don't speak any, so they are surprised that I do. Not as surprised as Mike, however. True to our natures, I am now speaking more than him, and our hosts are happy to help me.

Jean-Marie is especially concerned about the sharp pain in my side. He offers to take me to the hospital tomorrow morning, which is a huge weight off my mind. It is such a relief to know someone cares about my well-being.

They have a lovely home near the centre of Dijon. I feel very much at home here, for the temporary period of our stay. They keep bowls of Belgian chocolates around their home, which are addictively delicious. One reason they offered to host us is that they are interested in moving to Canada to open a chocolaterie in the future. It is a small and wonderful world.


PHOTO 1: river scene entering Dijon
PHOTO 2: stained glass window in Dijon Cathedral
PHOTO 3: church in Dijon
PHOTO 4: square in old quarter of Dijon
PHOTO 5: statue in Dijon
PHOTO 6: coloured roof tiles in Dijon