October 28, 2022
Day 52: Chatillons en Bazois to Cronat
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There was only one other resident in the hotel last night, and this turned out to be Stephan, a rather interesting fellow. Stephan is a trainer of seeing eye dogs, and he is in town to install one with a blind man that lives here. Stephan was interested in our bikes and in the idea of cycle touring. I introduced him to Osmand+ and the notion of downloading maps for offline use, plus of installing gpx files for guidance. He seemed to catch on really quick, despite our stumbling along in each other's languages. So maybe we have a possible convert to Cycleblaze and cycle touring!
Although the hotel lady was very sweet, and she did drive out early to the bakery for us, the breakfast provided was the absolute minimalist French variety. Consequently we left hungry, and would be on the lookout for a place on the route to pick up some food. Unfortunately our only chance would not come for 30 kms.
The 30 kms passed pleasantly, with all our favourite canal scenery at hand.
Our chance for food came at Cercy La Tour, where the GPS showed a bakery up to the right. Up really described it, since the little road was really as steep as a road can be. I went up ahead of Dodie and was surprised to round a corner and be confronted by a set of steps! I parked my bike, with some difficulty on the hill, and ascended the steps. There was the church and a square up there, but no bakery immediately visible. Dodie said the GPS showed it somewhere off to the right, but we were as far as we were going to go with this town.
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We had been looking at our route, which as we recalled was still the Tour de Burgogne, but it seemed to inordinately wiggle out toward Decize an back. We poo pooed that and at Cercy took off on D roads, directly toward our overnight stop at Cronat. This move also put a bakery and a grocery store immediately on our way. Dodie was really hungry, so we stopped first at the bakery and then at the grocery. The baker, another Didier, was about to close in an hour, which would be 2:00 p.m.. He explained that he begins his daily process at 2:00 a.m. While he would not go to bed immediately at 2, he definitely needed to close, to get ready for bedtime. I think as a long time shift worker herself, Dodie made a good connection with the man.
Some nice buildings appeared as we made our way toward the grocery. There was also a form of war memorial that described the history of the resistance, including the killing of five local men here in 1944. The five columns of the memorial symbolize the men and bear their names.
We have been seeing so many Charollais cattle in the fields all around, it figures that the grocery would be advertising them. But we really don't intend to eat any of them. They are very sweet, though we think they look a bit dopey.
We continued with our program of a D-road based run for Cronat, finding by and large that they were quiet and picturesque.
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Our place for the night was called the Purple Heron. The owners are Dutch, from the Hague, and speak five languages. Of course, they understand bicycles, have a bicycle garage, and a selection of pumps and lubes.
The weather this afternoon has been the warmest in a long time, and it was easy to imagine that we were back in the middle of Summer. We were able to sit out on the patio and eat the salad and other goodies we got at the grocery, in the gentle air and evening light. Our D-road exploit had got us here really early, so it has been a chance for a lot of pure relaxation.
Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 2,178 km (1,353 miles)
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