Nevers to Bourbon-Lancy

Finally a days riding! And a very nice day it was too. We got up reasonably early and after packing and eating some breakfast in the park, baguette and a pain au raison, we went to the bike shop. We waited a little while for it open, and then Paul got his derailleur fixed. He seemed quite competent, reasonably priced too. He even trued Paul's back wheel. So I took the opportunity to get my brake pads replaced as there wasn't much left of them after the trip through the Vosges. Finally, around 10.30 am we were off, all systems go!

Almost immediately we were able to join a bike path that ran along the side of the Canal Lateral de Liore. It started off as a very nice sealed path but quickly deteriorated to a track and then two a pair of tire tracks the width of a car apart. Paul, conveniently, bought gravel tires for his bike before the trip and so was quite happy to ride on the path. A nice change to the past! In the end though we got a bit sick of it because it was tiring, it required a lot more concentration than a road. So we pulled off and switched back to the main road, very pleasant.


The canal itself is quite nice, there are quite a few leisure craft on it and we stopped at a lock and watched as the lock filled and the boat raised. All fully automatic. The only strange thing about the canal was that it was a bit smelly and we noticed at one point some dead fish floating on the top of the canal. We decided at that point that we would not have any fish at lunch time :)


Speaking of lunch! We stopped in a nice little town, Decize. We decided to only have a main as we weren't enormously hungry. Paul got an omelet and I got a tajine of chicken with citron. Very tasty, and all washed down with a nice, chilled, white wine. It is, after all, a hot day.

The early part of the day had been quite easy, basically following the Loire, and in its valley. As is traditional there were a few sprints. I won sprints 1, 3, 4, and 5. Paul got me on 2, he shouldn't have especially since it was a lead out but I wasn't paying attention. Paul won sprint 6 as it was up hill. All of this was a bit tiring and unfortunately the last part of the day, about 20 K's, was quite hilly.

Speaking of hills. Sigh. 5 weeks of touring before Paul gets here and on the hills he just flies up them. Sigh. I think that maybe for the last two or three weeks I may have been taking it a bit easier than I should have. By the time we finally got to town I was completely stuffed! We did 85 Km's, I never imagined we would have gone so far on Paul's first day. Paul of course has a sore back side and I don't :)

The town is quite nice, on top of a hill of course. It has a nice medieval section that we rode through, looking for a hotel, but... there isn't one (within reason)! We rode back down the hill looking for somewhere else to stay and lo and behold, a camp site! What a relief :) For me at least, only 14 Euro.


We set up camp, the first time for Paul with his brand new, and tiny, tent. We then went to the local super market to get some food. A simple meal of pasta tonight, a meat sauce with a jar of peas and carrots. Very nice actually. We had peaches for dessert but we were too full! Paul was in his element with the cooking! There is one slight problem, the lid of my trangia can't be opened. I tried several times, with doors and what not, to try and open it but no luck. So at the moment we only have a single burner.