Ride Day 24: Pouilly-sur-Loire to Decize

A swim in the pool on a hot afternoon after a long slog on the bike was just what was needed. Oh boy, it was so delicious. 

 

Salt water pool. Excellent!

 

We relaxed all afternoon, played tug with the owner’s dogs (one of whom (which?) looked a lot like Milo and made me miss the home pups), then had dinner with the owner’s and four other guests. Nobody else spoke a word of English, so it was a bit of a challenge. But fun for that.

 

We got an early start on a chilly morning after a nice breakfast with not enough coffee and rode along beautiful, quiet canals. It didn’t take much time at all to get back to the Canal Lateral du Loire and follow it south. We stopped every now and then to watch a boat pass through the locks. It is still kind of fun to watch. For us at least.

 

This is the Canal Lateral du Loire.

It is fun to watch both commercial and private boats navigate the canal.

A boat yard -- old canal barges are being fixed up at this yard.

 

 

Then we skirted along the edge of the big city of Nevers. We had intentionally not visited Nevers since we’re a little tired of the big cities.

 

This is about all we saw of Nevers. Another time, perhaps.

 

We are in the little town of Decize tonight, camping at the municipal campground. Very inexpensive, but it comes at a price. No TP, no WiFi, cold showers, tons of bugs, and while we were taking a cold shower, a critter ran off with one of our bags. We fouLond it, but a hole had been chewed through. I have no idea what the critter was but we’re hanging everything up.

 

 Lorie took a video of the bugs above our tent. I'm not sure if you will be able to see them, but here they are.

 

We did walk the short distance into town but there wasn’t much to see. So we enjoyed a beer and a glass of wine and walked back to the campground where made sandwiches in the canteen here at the campground and ended up talking to (a) an Aussie woman riding by herself across the EU; (b) a French guy from Paris who is on a 3 month hiatus from work and life; (c) a couple from Dunedin NZ, who had planned this ride 3 years ago and are just getting to it now (sounds familiar!); and (d) a French couple who ride just because they still can; both in their 80s. That’s a nice evening.

 

Decize is a small and very pleasant village.

Busy, but not crowded on a Friday evening. Almost all locals (except us).

 

 

Tomorrow we are on our final day on the Loire, to Paray-du-Monial. After that we push north into Bourgogne and Burgandy. Lorie is very excited.

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