Today's route was an easy ~30 miler down to Pouilly-en-Auxois - just a short 5+ miles through the country side to Marigny-le-Cahouët where I could pick up the Canal de Bourgogne that would take me all the way to Pouilly-en-Auxois. So I didn’t mind when told that breakfast would be at 9 – a bit past my normal hour for a caffeine infusion but it did leave me some time for morning journaling.
I was the only guest at La Maison Févret, a B&B that is not only home to the charming owners Luc and Cécile but also “an artistic center for workshops, concerts, and residencies”. Promptly at 9 am, I walked into the large ornate breakfast room sat down what I would call a traditional French petit-dejeuner with a little extra – a PDJ+ if you will. In addition to the bread/croissant/coffee/juice there was yogurt and fruit. I took some bread and fruit for the road, loaded up Vivien George and we were on our way before the church bells chimed ten.
It was a wonderful morning for cycling. Though the cooler weather continued, patches of sunshine provided some warmth against the crisp morning air and I soon paused to remove a layer. The countryside continued to gradually change, still open but with more trees popping up among and between the fields. And of course there were cows.
I’d passed a Route Barré sign soon after leaving Semur, noting a detour due to a bridge closing over Canal de Bourgogne at Marigny-le-Cahouët. I was not too worried as the sign was pretty detailed and I presumed the detour would be well-marked. My bigger concern was the surrounding hillsides and how long and/or arduous the detour might be. I queried a pair of cyclists coming from the direction of the canal and they assured me that the detour was brief and well-marked, just a ways up along the canal to the next bridge crossing.
When I reached the detour crossing, I came across a group from Back Roads who were spending a week cycling around Burgundy. I had a nice conversation with the group leader Angela as she stood watch, making sure all the group made the turn down the canal path. She soon sped off while I meandered along, enjoying the sights and reflecting on my previous journeys along this stretch of the canal. Things seemed a little different than I recalled – the Canalway seemed more open and sound of the adjacent motorway more apparent. Canker stain disease has ravaged the plane trees along the Canal du Midi and it appeared that a tree replacement program was also underway along some stretches of the Canal de Bourgogne.
Cycling along a canal way can be both breath-taking in its beauty but also boring in its monotony. Knowing this, I had plotted a side detour off the canal between Braux and Éguilly. As I pedaled along, I began to feel a bit chilled and hungry and my thoughts drifted to a nice warm lunch in Pouilly. However, that would require that I pick up my pace to arrive in town before 2 pm. I contemplated my options while stopped at my planned turn-off and who should appear but Lucy, driving the Back Roads sweep van. We had a nice conversation about cycling in Burgundy – she is the leader who’d designed the routes and specifics of the tour. She shared slices of juicy ripe fruit left over from the rest stop that reminded me of how hungry I was. As Lucy drove off down my detour road, I turned back on the canal way and made tracks for Pouilly.
This Route Barrée sign had enough detail to give one confidence that a way through the barrier would be found
Lucy from Back Roads - the handful of fresh fruit she shared reminded me that it was getting hungry out. I stuck with Option A and made tracks to Pouilly
The Canal de Bourgogne connects the Yonne and Saone rivers, tributaries of the Seine and Rhone rivers, respectively. The watersheds of these two important French river basins meet near Pouilly are connected by a 3,300 meter tunnel known at the Burgundy Canal vault that runs under the hills between Pouilly-en-Auxois and Créancey, located in Côte-d'Or. As I approached Pouilly, the wide canal became a narrow channel that eventually disappeared into the earth. I won't see it again until sometime tomorrow. For more information about the tunnel you can follow this link Scott Anderson posted when we rode through here three years ago.
The Canal de Bourgogne vault is a 3300 m long tunnel that travels under the hills beyond Pouilly-en-Auxois
This was my third time staying in the modest L'Hotel du Commerce, an establishment I fondly remember for helping me locate my lost phone at the end of my first solo cycling tour. It’s a small, quirky place with the advantage of an early check-in time and a restaurant that served good food during my last visit. Anticipating a warm meal and leisurely afternoon, I was sorely disappointed to find the restaurant closed and the hotel lights darkened. There was code box at the hotel entry, so I double-checked to make sure I’d not received any arrival instructions. I tried calling the hotel, but only got an answering machine. And the woman at the bakery next door could only shrug her shoulders.
I sent a message to the hotel through Booking, found a small table outside the hotel, and in lieu of a hot meal settled for an apricot tart and an espresso from the bakery accompanied by my morning haul of bread and clementines. I was munching away, trying not to shiver, when I heard a conversation coming from inside the hotel. I opened the door to the small lobby and found André talking on the phone to someone who was mentioning my name.
It turned out the door to the hotel was open the entire time and my keys were waiting on the reception countertop, along with a map showing the location of the parking garage for Vivien George. André walked me over to the garage, carried my bags up the stairs, and recommended L'Hotel de la Poste for dinner. I finally got the delicious hot meal that I’d been craving all day.
L'Hôtel du Commerce - closed all day today and tomorrow
