2019 - Loire Valley by Bicycle with Bob: Day 23: Mon 23 Sep

Some well needed rain overnight, just the way we like it, mostly fine 14 to 19 deg today. Cool enough to leave the rain jacket on up to about midday. A few spits of rain but nothing to bother the rain gauge. The sun came out in the mid-afternoon, so the photos improved as the day went by.

Walk: 25km

We’ve tinkered with many different plans before and during the tour. The object of the exercise was to see as much as possible in the limited timeframe we have. By not booking anything until we need to, we’ve been able to stay flexible. We toyed with riding to Besancon but that would have meant riding the same route twice and not having the time to look at the southern part of the Burgundy Wine Region. Having seen a good chunk of Dijon over the last couple of days, we were happy to dedicate today to Besancon, and Dole if we could fit it in. That way we can ride all the way back to Lyon for the remainder of the tour.

So up nice and early and walked to the Central Station about 10 minutes away. We arrived quicker than expected so was able to walk onto an earlier train, 0709h, with a minute or two to spare. The train left exactly on time, as usual. A pleasant journey just over an hour, the train was full most of the way. The ticket cost €60 return; €15 per person each way.

Our first mission in Besancon was to find the Tourist Information Centre, which turned into a bit of a trek (via a little coffee shop) when we found the one on Mr Google closed permanently. The sign on the door redirected us to the City Hall. By that time, we were ready for mornos. Map of Besancon in hand we set off.

There were two standouts for me today, Saint Peters Cathedral and Vauban’s Citadel and Museums. Sebastian Le Prestre de Vauban (1651 - 1703) was an architectural genius and brilliant military engineer who specialised in building fortifications. There’s at least a dozen around Europe that he designed. Within the citadel there’s a least three significant museums, a zoo and aquarium. Talk about squeezing a great deal into a smallish space. Not that I’m inferring that the citadel is small, on the contrary it’s huge. That’s particularly obvious when you walk away a km or two and look back. The Cathedral was a little OTT, no, a lot OTT, but it was built by well-meaning people for the glory of our Lord, and it’s a beautifully stunning place to be in.

We wandered some more and ended up back in the city where I had a great fresh veggie stir fry.

As it was early afternoon and we’d given Besancon a good going over, we decided to jump back on the train and spend a couple of hours at Dole, which is on the way back to Dijon. What a little gem it turned out to be. It was also very old, some medieval. Louis Pasteur was also born there and lived the first three years of his life in his father’s tannery house. Just behind that house is the most beautiful canal I have ever seen. The flowers are stunning, and the surrounding old houses provide a wonderful backdrop. The Basilica of Notre-Dame, Dole is a real monster in size and our luck was with us as the equally huge organ was playing when we walked in. So, any excuse for a rest I just sat and listen, gorgeous.

Time was getting away so we had to make a dash back to the train so we could find dinner and get ourselves ready for riding the bikes again. We arrived back in Dijon having walked over 20 km, so I was really looking forward to dinner and a shower. Cleaned up and went hunting for dinner; found it hidden in a back street square Pizza et Pasta, great.