Tuesday 24th July
Chalon-sur-Saone to Dôle: 3 hours 50 minutes, 70km

“Today was a good day. It just had that feeling about it. The sun was yet again shining and I was in a good mood. You see, what mood you’re in becomes harder to detect when you’re on your own. I think it’s simply because you have no one else to take your bad mood out on. For example I only knew I was in a good mood today, because by contrast the past few days I found myself cursing at the Eurovelo 6 signs for taking me on a winding route, over what seemed to be every hill in the surrounding area! And well today, I was not cursing at all. In fact, I’ve been bonjour-ing every person I pass, even cars!

A nice man gave me a free orange from his fruit stall as I passed through a small town called Gregey. He obviously hadn’t seen that many cycle tourists passing through his town. In fact, come to think of it, I hadn’t seen that many since leaving the Loire. It felt good, the look on passing peoples faces were different. They had more a look of awe and astonishment, as opposed to the ‘oh not another cyclist’ look I experienced back on the Loire.

The ride overall, was quiet and enjoyable. The sun was scorching so riding into a mild head wind for most of the day was actually a blessing. Nothing too eventful happened but I can report that I had a glorious lunch. I bought some baguette, camembert, wine and chocolate, and found a nice shady spot near a pond to enjoy them. I really have to recommend the solo lunch outing, don’t want to say ‘picnic’ as its not very manly, but that’s what it was. I will definitely being doing more of these uh.. Solo picnics.. Hey I drank the wine straight from the bottle, so I can reclaim some man points.

My bicycle computer started playing up about 5km from Dole. So when I got to the campsite, I spent my time resetting the clock and batteries, rather than exploring the town. I am couch surfing tomorrow (after 6 nights of straight camping) and the ride is shortish so I should have time to explore tomorrow morning.

A note on campsite prices. They have steadily and consistently increased as I’ve travelled east. Starting at €4 in Nantes to now €11 with no noticeable difference in quality of facilities. I might have to start wild camping more often.”

Matt Krog

Read all of Matt’s posts on his website. All of the posts about Matt on CyclingEurope.org can be found here.