We completed the green cycle route today, doing around 70km from Givry to Creches-sur-Saone. We started fairly late at around 9am after a delicious breakfast with croissants. The first 50km or so were very easy – the best cycle route we have been on. It is so well graded, tarred throughout and totally separate from the road, you can make good time. Very gentle slopes. All through stunning countryside with rows of trees shading the way, fields of wild flowers, eventually also vines. It is at its most stunning when we were taken a little way up and had a vista over the surrounding farms.

We past Cluny and went into the town to see if we could see the Abby, but it was disappointing, very busy with cars on narrow streets: However the buildings were stunning – all made of old stone. (why don’t they make the center pedestrian only like so many other towns?)

After Cluny the bike path became a bit steeper in parts until it eventually ended. We made our way on to the town of Creches-sur_Saone at around 3pm (very hot by this time), which is a pretty bustling place with several hotels and large shops. We are in the Comfort Hotel – part of a chain and pretty standard hotel.

Highlights:

• the Tunnel du Bois Clair few km after Cluny – it is only available to bikes or walkers, 1.6km long. It is pretty cold inside (relief from the heat) and lit by electric lights. There are bats which hibernate from Oct to March when the tunnel is closed, but we didn’t see any.
• Talking with a Dutch couple on the other side of the tunnel who had cycled from Barcelona and were on their way back to Holland – quite a bit older than us and doing similar route.
• Shopping at the Carrefour near our hotel – it is like a hypermarket with hundreds of cheeses and a whole isle of yogurts to chose from, quite overwhelming:
• Eating hamburger and egg at a Belgian cafe in the mall – we were beginning to crave protein.

Lowpoints:

• One spoke broken – at least the rate of breakage seems to be slowing
• The computer keyboard is no longer working (at least a few keys aren’t) – must have taken a knock. We bought a cheap keyboard at a local shop and that works for now, but it is French so some of the keys are in the wrong places (a,w,m and .) which makes life difficult. Also one more thing to carry – we are wondering if we should buy a new netbook.