Day 68: Chalon to Montceau les Mines

September 27, 2015

We knew very well from our own previous blog, other blogs, and the hotel staff the difficulty of finding a bike route out of Chalon. So Dodie was well prepared with a big red line on the city map, and the GPS track. Even so, we had to course back and forth a bit, finding the route over the first three km. Then suddenly here was an EV 6 sign saying this way to Chagny (and by the way - where ya been?). We quickly realized that after the 3 km we had left Chalon and were in Champforgeuil.

Just across the street from Chalon old town

Stanislaus, the owner of Le St Jean, had mentioned that the mayor of Chalon has probably never been on a bike. so maybe that is why the town lacks in cycle signage. We also noticed that you only have to cross one street to be totally out of the old town ambiance and into total dreck. Whoever approved the ugly tall apartment blocks needs to be turfed from office.

Still, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. A big factor was the staff at the St Jean. Not only did they make us feel very welcome, but Stanislaus helped us test our phone and figure out how to make it answer a call (not that obvious!). This required a test call to the phone, and since we nominally (phone wise) are from Estonia, this probably cost him a small bit.

As soon as we got onto the EV6 we were on the Canal du Centre, which would be our central focus for the rest of the day. It was again totally lovely cycling, with a great path and the glassy water. We did soon pick up a fairly brisk head wind, which at the end of the day could be blamed for our being just a little extra tired.

Beside the canal, open landscape and farms like this

The guidebook that Keith gave us (EV6 from Bale to Nevers from publisher "Chamina") had alerted us that there is a market in Chagny on Sunday, and we were making a special effort to get there in time, just because we like any market. But at the entrance to the city there was a clue that something special could be coming. The first sign was one about the Sunday market.

It only took a few blocks to arrive at the market, but we were initially a bit put off because it seemed to be all vendors of low quality new goods like handbags, sunglasses, and jeans. Pushing on deeper, though, we came to a pocket of the real thing. What we look for in a French market is first off, of course, the cheese. Next comes bread, and dry sausages, and fruits, but the big treat is the BBQ chicken truck. Normally these also offer pork tenderloin, and my favourite, roasted potatoes.

There was a truck like this in the market at Seurre, and since it was morning I bought potatoes only. 2.50 euros brought maybe 3 pounds, in a grease proof bag. Grease proof is good, because the secret of the potatoes is that they are roasted below the rotating chickens. That way the drippings pass through the potatoes. Great!

So we snapped up a whole chicken, and some pork! Next, the cheese. The one we had got at Seurre - Compte Doux was much in evidence here, plus others with the Compte designation, like Compte Fruite. I think we ended with Tomme de Savoie, plus some Brie de Meaux, just for fun. I have no idea what any of this means!

The market welcomes you to Chagny and Burgundy

Across the way, a rather grizzled fellow was selling bread, including baguette. They looked nothing like Banette, and he assured me that he made them at home and used a wood oven. So I gave one a try, as a logical followup to the Banette story of yesterday.

We thought that was about it, a pushed our bikes through the crowd and past additional clothing vendors. Oh, oh. That bust us into a who other region of food vendors. Cheese galore. Sausage. Bread. And hot ready to go foods in giant woks, plus Asian and Middle Eastern stuff. And more fruits. Lots more.

The first thing that happened in this new sector was that two energetic young men were selling cheese from the Jura, by liberally offereing everybody samples. It was so good, I felt we needed some of this too. The one we got was called Tomyere. Dodie had asked for just a little bit, but she got momentarily distracted by some UQs, and the young man cleverly added a few degrees to his knife angle. The piece came out at 9 euros. Dodie probably would have asked him to cut it back, but he had an ally in me, my approach being that you can never have too much local cheese.

This addition caused our food bag to weigh a ton, and Dodie declared fervently that that was it. The resolve broke down, though, when we found some black figs, in a variety named for our granddaughter, Violette. And oh, there were grapes too!

We escaped from the market, telling all further vendors (whether they gave us samples or not) that we could carry no more.

The enterprising cheese seller adjusts the cutting angle

Violette figs, from France. They also had ones from Spain.

The dishes in these woks looked so great.

Here are those famous super thin French green beans

You need baskets like this with so much to buy at the market. For us, the Bob trailer would have been helpful!

Quite quickly we were back on the Canal, and cycled until we found a sufficiently shaded table. There are lots of benches and tables along the veloroute, just one of its charms.

We unpacked our booty, and divided it into what we would eat right away and what we could eat in the coming days. Dodie tried to claim we had a week's worth of cheese, but of course this is nonsense. I have been trained in volume cheese eating at some of the finest German gasthaus breakfast buffets!

An oh, the baguette. It was unique, and not at all like a Banette. It was a little sweeter, and had some whole grains of wheat decoratively in it. However, we could see the validity of the Banette specifications. The crust was definitely inferior - basically not baked enough. And the mouth feel, while good, was not equal to the best. The underneath, I must say, did have a satisfying "artisanal" appearance, being a little scorched at one end and not at the other. Fun!

Our market booty. Note rather pale baguette.

Now we came to the bit where both the guide book and Keith had issued dire warnings. The choice was to ride straight (sort of straight) to Montceau along the busy D974, or to follow a pattern of diddling up in the vines and off the main road. You might conclude that the Grampies would rather die than climb hills, because we took the D974. (Actually the guide book advised the train - but we think we have already used too much train on this tour).

Ok readers- friends, children, grandchilden, D974 was not actually a crazy decision. It really was little more than the towpath by the canal that we had already been following, widened and with cars permitted. But it was not at all a major highway, and on this Sunday actually had little traffic. Also, unlike in Italy, we repeatedly listened to drivers throttling down and waiting for the safe way to pass us. We never felt threatened on this road.

Village of Remigny, just outside Chagny, with vine hills in the background. Since we avoided going up in the hills we actually did not run in to any vines of Burgundy.

This however was a wine tasting cave, by the canal.

This bakery building was in the town of St Julien, that used to boast a tile works, accounting for the tiles in the construction of this and other buildings of the town.

We were able to get back on veloroute periodically as we headed for Montceau, but as we got to the town we found not a well defined cluster of buildings around a church, but a large and spread out area, boasting even box stores and a McDonalds. We took steps to be along the Canal, because the hotel we were heading for was known to be right on the canal. Still we passed through what felt like a lot of town before coming to it.

The hotel is called the Notta Bene, and we chose it because we are relying on the reports of Wendy Holmes and Dave Morriss (Spare tires Head for England and Europe), and they stayed here two days ago.

The Notta Bene is a major change from the St Jean. The building is totally renovated and modernized, and our room has air conditioning, radio from built in ceiling speakers, a Nespresso machine, slick bathroom fixtures, and one curious thing - a giant wallpaper girl staring at us over our bed. We liked the St Jean, but we like this too. Additionally there is cross ventilation from windows on two walls, and a bathtub, and fluffy towels.

View from our room at Notta Bene includes the canal and a lift bridge

We are paying 60 euros, though Wendy mentioned 55. This could be a Booking vs walk-in difference. But we are not having to buy supper, or breakfast - the Chagny market has that all covered!

Today's ride: 68 km (42 miles)
Total: 3,209 km (1,993 miles)

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