To - Dole
Distance - 100km
Time - 6.5 hours
Total - 1129km
Lets start with a happy St George's Day to everyone. It seems more important when you are away from home.
Wow, has It been 2 weeks. I suppose it must have been and I'm almost finished with France. I'm definitely ahead of schedule, not that I have a schedule. I am writing this in the foyer of the Auberge de Jeunesse (youth hostel) at Dole waiting for the staff member who should have been here at 6pm to make an appearance. It's now 6.40pm and 20 minutes ago two other members of staff turned up and apologised and said the person who would be able to help was late and she would be about 10 minutes. She just turned up whilst I started the blog, not so much as a 'desole'. Anyway, I have somewhere to sleep tonight.
Back to the beginning of the day. What a lovely sunny day, not too hot but beautiful cycling weather. I took a couple of pictures of the countryside as I rode and I even stopped to listen to hundreds of frogs mating in a pond. I say hundreds, I don't know how many there were but they were making enough noise for a hundred. I heard the first cuckoo and it seemed as if the trees had decided that today was the day they were going to open their leaves. Isn't nature great.
My ride today was a mix of the river Saone, the river Doubs and the Canal Rhone au Rhin. The Saone and the Doubs merge at the town of Verdun sur la Doubs and I kept moving across from one river to the other. Seurre looked a nice town but I didn't stop because it wasn't coffee time and it was too early for lunch! As normal I look out for lunch at 12.30pm ish but couldn't find anywhere so fell back on the bread and cheese option, I am always prepared for such a contingency.
St Jean de Losne was a nice little stop and I had a beer overlooking the Saone in the sunshine and then it was straight on to Dole. Well it is a lovely town, very different from what I have seen before. I've been trying to work out what is so different about the place and I think it is because there are no half timbered houses. The buildings are all stone built. It's obviously a very old town and their are still loads of old buildings around every corner. It is well worth a visit. I found out that Louis Pasteur (the man who invented pasteurisation for milk) was born and lived here and therefore I am expecting my milk to stay fresh longer whilst I'm here!
You may have noticed that I managed to do 100km exactly again. I cycle around and around until I do the hundred or its just a coincidence, I'll let you make your mind up.
Anyway back to the Hostel. I was pestered to bits by a little Arabic girl who wanted to look in my bags whilst I was waiting to get in. There was no shyness and after an initial cuteness when I let her look at my map and the velcro fastener on the plastic map holder I had to stop her opening up the bags. The room, as you would expect, is basic but the hostels are a lot cheaper than other accommodation and this place does have single rooms, so no joint occupancy and no-one in the bunk with me! Lets see how I sleep, I don't usually need rocking.
Photo 1, Rapeseed field with lovely blue sky.
Photo 2, The confluence of the Saone and the Doubs.
Photo 3, My best friend!
Photo 4, Looking up at Dole from the river Doubs.
Photo 5, Nice fountain in the square outside the Tourist Info.
Photo 6, The Hostel
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