Good day, less good day

After the day of sightseeing, I started the next day full of energy. Despite the changeable weather, including sleet, I was fit and cycled quite a long way. The route along the canal is totally idyllic. You cycle almost entirely through greenery and hear nothing all day except birdsong and the occasional heron on the bank. The little towns, such as Dole, are also really pretty. You can park your boat right outside the city gates. For the night, I rented a caravan in Losne right by the water and spent the evening with Marco, who is on his way to Porto by bike and sleeps in a tent every night!

The next day I didn't feel as energetic and decided to take the alternative route on Komoot, which is a 25km shortcut but has a few more metres of elevation. As is the case with shortcuts, they usually bring surprises. The first part was a lovely ride through small villages with typical French houses made of natural stone, then the path got narrower and narrower, then a meadow path, then a trail and at the end I was in the forest, where there was only mud and fallen trees. So I took a walk through the forest on my bike until after a while I came to a gravel path again. At some point I did reach Beaune, a wine town in Burgundy surrounded by vines. The cycle path through the wine hills zigzagged and always up and down so that you could get through all the beautiful places and sights. Somehow cycling suddenly seemed very easy until I realised that I had a tailwind. Yippee! The day ended happily with home-cooked food and an upcoming night in a tent due to a lack of affordable warm accommodation.