Week 8 of our cycle touring adventure from Ireland to Istanbul finishes our trip across France. For more detail see our blog posts here https://tallmoores.wordpress.com/european-cycle-tour-2025/
[Music] We’re on to our next section today. So, we’re going from NES to Bourbon Lansancy, which is about 86 km, and we’re heading towards Switzerland. So, that’s a bit exciting, too. We heard some swans flying over and honking away earlier, and here they all gathered. So, we’re doing one breakfast this time after 24 km this morning. And we’ve arrived at Flurry Sulua. Just a lovely little camping spot or rest spot for people going on barges. And they got a nice banger that was filled to the brim with locals. This is a machine for chewing up all the pond weed. The sheep are naked. They’ve lost their clothes cuz it’s too hot to wear any clothes. Summer has officially arrived. We’re on the beautiful back roads of Buong. I think this is where beef boy comes from. Though I don’t want to think that as the cows of this area are all beautiful. We’re having an early morning walk through Borbin Lansancy where we stayed last night. It’s just got the most charming touches all through this town. It’s really old and it’s a thermal spring area. So, we got a bit excited there for a moment, but we’re going to keep on going. So, we have two pastries this morning. We have the pandis, which looks all chocolatey and almost um what’s the other one? Panda chocolate look like And then we’ve got the Cornette, which we’re not sure about, but we know it will be delicious. A little corner of mid April, France. This is the liveaction adventure of Ethel testing out the water in the thermal spa town of Borb and Lansancy. It’s warm. It’s warm, he says. That’s why it’s got steam coming off it. Is it warm enough for me? Yes. Oh my word. I must try it. So, we’ve discovered that the mist on the lake is because it’s slightly warmer than the surrounding air, but it’s not warm enough for a swim, unfortunately. Day 25. We’re riding out of Bourbon Lansancy on what appears to be an old railway line. There’s always really good riding, nice gentle slopes and going past the old railway towns. Burgundy in the spring. Today is a short day and it’s going to be very short because we’re going to be mostly going along this canal which is flat and fast and really nice and [Music] relaxing. We’re having a decadent lunch of salmon mousse and bread. And there goes a paddle steamer cleaning up the canal. Here we have the little river running along next to the canal. We just came around the corner and saw these beautiful cows having their siesta. The special white cows. I think they’re the chervet cows of Burgundy. Now they don’t like me standing here, so I better carry on going. Now, some people looking at this video will say, “Wow, Ethel’s about to get rained on. Check out the cumulo nimbus there.” But Ethel says, “The French weatherman says that it’s not going to rain today.” And I have trust in the French weatherman. Okay. So, we’ll see what happens. Love these cows. This is a beautiful cate. So I thought we’re sitting undercover in our campsite. And why are we undercover? Because it was raining earlier and I was uploading a YouTube video. Yes, it rained, folks. You heard it here. Just a few minutes ago. It was raining, but now the sun’s out. Gail’s made a delicious dinner. Hooray. And uh time to eat. It’s day 26 on the 14th of May. And we are off to the city of Bone, which is pretty much the central city of Burgundy Province. And tomorrow we’ve got a rest day. So today we’re doing 90ks and looking forward to our relaxing day tomorrow. And there across the lake you can see our campsite which is a lovely place but the mist has disappeared and it’s another perfect day for riding. This morning we had a lot of uphill climbs and now we’re back down on the canals. So it’s going to be a bit more level for most of the rest of the day. We’ve been cycling along the canal central. Um, and now it goes downhill for a long way in a series of locks down into the canal that goes up through France. This is the main canal through the center of France. A cycle way along the canal deser. It’s great on this section. It’s all lovely greenway through the forests with the the creek next to it. Now, this section of the canal seems to be completely empty. There’s no way his boats can come along here. They must be doing some maintenance. We’ve been going on the Euro Villa 6 for a while now. And now we divert onto the Vevel 51 to get to Bane Burgundy. And look at this beautiful welcome to our first bridge. We’ve just come through the village of Santine, which is interesting because it’s the start of the Cleats of Burgundy, which is a UNESCO phenomenon of um all the vineyards on the hills, which we’ll soon see that have been tended by the Cersian monks for the last thousand years at least. Those here are all those vines that Gail was talking about stretching off into the distance. You can see all the seasonal workers J to trim the vines at the beginning of the season. chatau farmhouses among the vineyards and little villages. It’s all here for a perfect afternoon. The tractors here look like they’re from some sci-fi movie. So, that fellow up there just did lots of thunder at us and we are expecting to get wet. We’re racing a tractor and we’re racing a storm. We lost the race with the storm. But it’s actually quite nice and refreshing after a hot day. We’re taking a shelter from the rainstorm in I don’t know a little bath for the the workers I assume. Although there’s a rainstorm out there. There’s blue sky above so we shouldn’t have to shelter here all that long. Guess we’re coming into our campsite there. Just a moment ago we were stopping west in the middle of a storm and here it’s completely dry. And there we are coming into B. Hey Ethel, what you doing? Ethel. No, that’s so bad. So we’re in Bone on our day off and we have walked across to the from what’s better cheese than someone who makes cheese well enough to afford a McLaren Ferrari. So we’re going into this cheese shop cuz this is where it’s at. This is ghost cheese from Burgundy. It’s got flowers all over it, which we’re hoping will add to the allure of the taste. Let’s see. Is it good? Not as good as my Aldi Brie. [Music] All right, here we are. We’re near the ancient hospital area. There’s a giant panda. We’re not sure why, but he’s pretty cool. So, we’re exploring the streets of Bone, and there’s a vasilica. [Music] We’ve exited bone quite easily from the in through the industrial areas and now we’re going back into the countryside. We had a nice rest day in Bone and uh now we’re heading off towards our next destination 80 km ride. I managed to save 20ks by taking us on an alternative route than the official um Eurova route. And it looks like it’s going to be a nice day. Got an app. Let’s have a look. What is it going to be? Oh, nice. It’s cheesy. Um, it’s quite sweet and and it’s instant. 5 minutes. That’s what it’s all about. We’ve arrived in Su. We’re back on the route of the EV6 and we’ve arrived. We’re in the town of Su next to the Seun River and we’ve done a bit of grayish shopping and having some lunch. Great. We are out of the vineyards of Burgundy almost immediately this morning and we’re into the windy wheat fields again. Windy wheat fields all over. We’re back beside the canals again. So we’ve just joined the Grand Canal on the Leva Blur through the courtier. It sounds as Ethel rounds the corner of the Vo de Blau, we’ve entered a beautiful area from Sanjay. It’s so pretty and there’s a few boats around. Again, cycling into Dole. is a long straight canal. Thankfully, sheltered from the wind. So, it’s quite nice and relaxing after 60 ks, 65ks of riding mostly in the wind. We have woken up early in Dole and wondered into the old city before anyone else is up. We are on a mission. We are looking for that baguette, that breakfast baguette because the early bird catches the baguette. We are under the city of Dole. We are going exploring their historic fountain area which is owned by the city in these cabins under the ground. We’re sharing some space with the birds. We’re having a breakfast bit in front of the D cathedral. Cathedral. Just found a little patch of sun to keep warming. Yeah. Cocktails ringing to wake everyone up. But there’s no one awake other than Gail and I. [Music] We’re in little Venice, Petite Venice, La France. We’re leaving Dole after a lovely morning of exploring the ancient city greenways. And we’ve got mostly greenways today all the way to Besson. Everyone’s out on their morning training rides along the Dubes River. It’s a beautiful morning. Not a breath of wind. Lovely. The frogs are laughing at us as we’re cycling along here. It’s a very sweet sound. I feel like for a lot of people, that’s what they would love to do. Not so much me. I’m quite happy with my bicycle. Crazy going where no one has gone before. We got the easy life today. Flat canals, no headwind, no rain, only 50ks. Oh, it’s just life is good. The landscape is so different here on the Dubes River. We’re in the Jura Hills and it’s very wooded. So these lovely meadows of grass and then beautiful hills and forest. So Ethel will now be tasting conte which is made in French Conte which is in the east of France which is where we are now. This is an original taste. Oh that’s a very nice cheese. That is salty. Two thumbs up. It is. It is. We leaving Aaner with Ian as our guide showing us the commute route through into Bansong next to the river. It’s beautiful. The view up from the DS to the city walls is quite incredible. So dramatic. It’s like um Lord of the Rings or Narnia just before the fight scene. Going to go breach the walls sometime. Sunday morning in Besson Oldtown. We really are doing a an assault on the sil. This is steep. Quite a climb. The scale of the sit is quite mindblowing. It’s immense and so defensive. But what’s very odd is that they’ve got a zoo in the grounds of the citadel and there are some baboons in the moat. This is the view from the top of the citadel down to the whole center of Bessong. So impressive. There’s Zel down there looking after the bikes and I’m exploring Besson UNESCO citadel. So after climbing up to the top of the citadel just a few moments ago, we are now going to go underneath the whole thing along the canal through that tunnel over there. Here we go into the tunnel. and under the city. There it is right behind us. We’ve just gone underneath all those chunks of rock. There’s a paddling race happening today on the river. We’re just cycling through the stunning countryside of Franche. And I have to say, I think this is my favorite part of France. It’s just too lovely for words. We’re very thankful and excited to have our compe cheese, the local delicacy courtesy of Ian and Sophie for lunch. So, thank you very much for that. As well as, let me just tell you, the scandal of the day is Ethel is having more beer for lunch. He’s having more of it. Oh my goodness. But that’s the mold beer, the French cheese. Those beautiful limestone cliffs. Can’t get enough of those. As we cycle further towards Switzerland, the landscape does feel far more Swiss. We’re leaving Clevel on a calm, sunny morning and got about 100ks to go. Cycling along the canal with a canal on our right and the doobes just behind these bushes on the left. And uh it’s a beautiful day, but we can feel the the weather’s changing. The the wind has changed to be from the north and it’s cold and it’s bringing rain possibly tomorrow. We’ve cycled about 40 kilometers already this morning and we’ve chanced upon some bath ducks in the city of Mont Belliard which was run by the Germans for 400 years. So, we’re about to get a small touch of Germany already in France. This reminds me of a peppermint crisp chocolate. Delicious. We’ve just changed the canal system we we’re going along. And now we see a sign saying that way to the Ryan, which is the road we are headed, which is exciting. We’ve been heading uphill all morning. And at last, we have come over the ridge, and now we’re going downhill. It’s very slight, but you can see the locks are pointing that way. You can see all the locks disappearing into the distance as we just freewheel down. towards Mal House, which is [Music] great. Okay, this is me. I’m doing my confession cuz that’s what happens in France. I have been eating too much Haribo Draggy Bus. They are so yummy. Are you f Are you focusing on them? These are like jelly babies but on steroids and they are so good for cycling. So just product placement I recommend. All right, Ethel is going for his first European swim. Nice. He’s very happy in there after a hot day of cycling. And it is super hot here today. Very surprising. We’re cycling past the circus which is setting up. And here they’re training the little ponies. We’re cycling through the historical center of Malhouse. Mulos. Our last day in France. We’re on our way to Basil. We’re saying goodbye to France here. That’s a pretty old city. By complete chance, we stumbled upon the fresh produce market goods of Mull House. So, we’ll get some supplies. We enjoyed exploring Mull House and uh the ride through there was quite good, good bikeways, but it’s always good to get back to the river. But which one? We don’t know. We don’t know. Is it the round? We’ve been going along canals and rivers which have not been able to be navigated by these massive big barges. And now we’re on the Rine and they have huge commercial ships as well as massive cruise liners.