Day 53: Cronat to Paray Le Monial

October 29, 2022

THANK YOU, JOELLE ET JEAN BAPTISTE!

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In every blog page we have written since the beginning, we start at the start of the day and go through pretty much chronologically. But this time we feel we should explain the subtitle right away.

The day had gone swimmingly, and we arrived at Paray le Monial in good time. Since tomorrow is Sunday, we figured we should stock up on food while we could, and so stopped at Netto, on the edge of town. It was 5 p.m. I know this because stuck outside the grocery I decided to use my newfound skill with Whatsapp (training from Didier) to bug our daughter Laurie in Seattle, where it would be 8 a.m. 8 a.m. Saturday morning - good time to wake up!

The call was in progress, and grandchildren were just getting woken up as well, when Dodie came back out of the Netto. It was nice to see the grandchildren, but also we needed to pack away the groceries fairly quickly and go into the town to find our hotel - "Hostellerie des Trois Pigeons". So we said a quick goodbye, loaded the groceries rapidly, and took off.

It was not until preparing to park the bikes in the Trois Pigeons garage, that Dodie reached for the bike lock keys, kept in her purse, to find the purse not there! Thinking back, it seemed the purse had been left on top of the panniers when the groceries were loaded! We jumped back on the bikes and tried to remember as well as possible the route we had taken from the Netto to the Pigeons. Back at the Netto, still no purse. Dodie went in to talk to them, but no luck.

I have had the misfortune and the mental scars of riding behind Dodie when various mishaps have occurred. I accumulated one more, just seeing how dejected Dodie was as she came out of the Netto. There was very good reason for dejection. The purse contained cash, several credit cards, drivers license, and both our passports!

We tracked back to the Trois Pigeons, double scrutinizing the roadside, but no luck. I had decided the first step was to go see the front desk lady to get the best phone number for the local police. But there was no need to find her, as she came running up, gabbling that one of our children had been trying to reach us, and had phoned the hotel four times. In fact, here he was on the phone again right now!

I took the phone, and the voice on the other end, not one of our children, said he was in front of the hotel right now, and had we lost a purse?

In front of the hotel were Joelle and Jean Baptiste. They had found the purse, not at Netto but near the train station. We are still unclear just where that is. They looked inside and diagnosed this as belonging to a tourist, so they surmised they might be found in a local hotel. They then phoned all the local hotels, repeatedly, trying to track down any possible Canadian tourists!! Our hotel kept ringing our room, but of course we were out cycling back and forth to Netto.

You can imagine the scene then, when we, Joelle, Jean Baptiste, and the purse were all reunited. That was about three hours ago, and we are still pretty shaky about the purse, and still so gratified to think that there are still people like this in our world. Displaying her own world view, Joelle told Dodie she needn't have worried, because we are in France. The people of France are kindly, she said. We are not about to dispute that now!

The day began with two more of those wonderful people that help to build confidence in the world overall (despite current headlines about Russians in Ukraine). Martin and Yolanda, the proprietors of the Purple Heron in Cronat, are again two of the sweetest people one can meet. It was mainly Martin who had greeted and dealt with us, and we could not expect a warmer greeting, a more sincere interest in what we were about, or a better place to be provided for our bikes.

Martin also fondly remembered Susan Carpenter from the Spring. He recalled that she had lost her helmet and was a bit bent out of shape over it. (Susan, we now hold the record for most valuable thing lost!).

Yolanda and Martin, of the Purple Heron in Cronat

Martin had promised an easy ride for us today, and he was right. It started on quiet roads, and offered views of increasing number of Charollais cattle, in intense green fields. We are getting close to Charolles itself, and I guess we could suppose that they would be densest there.

These guys are out in Brassicas. What fun for them.

What a nice road, and this is not even the good stuff for today.

We arrived near Bourbon-Lancy, and the cycle route signs seemed very insistent that we should take a by-pass and miss the town. But we were having none of it, and turned resolutely against the signs.

Bourbon-Lancy has a small but nice medieval section, with an original gate from the 13th century. Just beside this section, a Saturday market ws underway. It had some nice fruits and vegetables, and there was one cheese stall, but overall it did not wow us. I think in order to wow us a market has to have at least one BBQ chicken truck!

The Bourbon church also was nice, with pointy twin towers. We may be getting a bit jaded (or tired) since we did not try to go inside.

We spent an inordinate amount of time circling in Bourbon trying to get out. Dodie has been using the fact that her GPS bounces all over the place, when in fact it finds any satellites at all, to explain this. OK, we'll accept that explanation.

When we did leave Bourbon it was onto a route that paralleled the Loire, and then onto Le Canal Lateral a la Loire. From there we had canal riding through Digoin and basically all the way to Paray. We Grampies are happy to be back near the Loire, and nostalgic to once again be on EV6, one of our first long distance routes.

At Digoin the canal proceeds on a bridge over the river. There are a number of these ponts-canals in this region.

Somewhere near Digoin, we liked the reflection.

Dodie spied this tree created window onto the canal.

Finally, in Paray, as we ran around after the lost purse I was still able to snap a shot of the famous basilica. Tomorrow we will stop in and renew our acquaintance with it.

Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 2,253 km (1,399 miles)

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Scott AndersonOh, my gosh. I’m so relieved for you two, and well understand the emotions involved. I went through something similar back in Wales when I returned from a hike in the mountains and found I was missing my wallet. Like you, it had an outcome that gave a great boost to our faith in humanity. There are fine people everywhere, if you’re lucky enough to encounter them at the right time.

Our incident still turns my stomach when I remember it: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/uksummer2022/a-hopefully-brief-descent-into-hell/
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1 year ago

Tricia GrahamCan imagine your huge relief being reunited with your purse. We stayed at that same hotel in Paray and found it lovely
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1 year ago

Keith ClassenHow nerve wracking! Great ending thankfully. Makes me think of my incident this trip where my wallet sat loose on my bike rack when I noticed it was not in my pocket. Panic stations! Couldn’t believe it was there after many kilometres.
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1 year ago

Susan CarpenterI am always encouraged by the honest and helpful strangers I meet on the road. It’s wonderful that Dodie’s purse was found by Joelle and Jean-Baptiste, and that they were so persistent in their efforts to track you down. Having lost my wallet/valuables on more than one occasion, I’ve found that remembering the honesty and good will of strangers eases and outlasts the feelings of anxiety one has in searching for the lost item.
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Scott AndersonRead your adventure with your wallet-gave me vicarious palpitations.
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Tricia GrahamThere was a definite sinking feeling in the pit of our stomachs. Still, all ended well.
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Keith ClassenWhat is it with touring cyclists and their wallets? Paranoia reigned today, as Dodie obsessively checked that the wallet was safely put away.
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Susan CarpenterMeeting such wonderful individuals really does act to restore our faith in the essential goodness of people.
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonJust an observation you might consider. We never carry our passports around with us into anyplace except where they’re specifically needed. They’re always kept stuffed down in a secure spot one of our panniers where they’re less likely to get lost or lifted. Of course it’s still possible to lose that specific entire pannier, as we did once; but that was nearly 20 years ago now.
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1 year ago