Took our time over coffee and porridge in the room this morning as our train doesn’t leave till 0930h.
Our “little different” host (ten cats, a goldfish tank (with an annoying blue light) and fish in our room) bid us farewell at 0820h. Although it was ok, Mr Host needs some serious maintenance and modifications on his motel.
As we rode towards the railway station the local markets were in the process of
setting up. They were spread all over the town and involved the whole array of
market stuff from fresh food to trash and treasure. It’s a shame we had a train
to catch, or we would have lingered longer.
At the station Bob fetched a coffee from across the road and it was hot and strong. I’m enjoying the French coffee this trip; I haven’t been keen on it in the past.
Luckily, we were early so that assured us a hook to hang our bikes on; there were only six on the train. Within minutes all the six hooks were full. The train left exactly on time 0931h. We even ran into a UK couple who we’d talked to at Amboise about a week ago; it’s a small world. This area is certainly a mecca for cycle tourers.
Bob made a new friend, Xavier, an older German fellow who had just finished cycling the Black Sea to the Atlantic 1,450 km, a great effort. We are a friendly bunch, the biking fraternity. Saw some nice French countryside, but not the normal green and lush; quite dry really.
Arrived in Dijon a whole three minutes late, how awful. The ride to the motel indicated that we were in a very nice city, clean as a whistle and very well laid out with plenty of pedestrian only space. We couldn’t book in, but the “owner” took our luggage and locked it away. He didn’t have a place for our bikes, so they’ll have to remain on the street. Which is not ideal but they’re only bikes?
We then shot a bearing to the fresh food market hall which is normally a great venue to pick up some great lunch food. But alas this time it wasn’t so, all fresh food but nothing we could eat without first heating up. So, we wandered a bit more and came across a Carrefour mini supermarket which had everything we needed. I ended up with a chicken salad, Manhattan style. Lunch done we wandered again, aimlessly, the best way to see a city.
After a shower and dressing for dinner, we went walking and found ourselves further away than we’d planned. It certainly built up the appetite. Dinner was at a very busy restaurant we spotted earlier next door to the markets. We both had poached eggs in a red wine mushroom sauce for entrée and breast of duck with beans and potatoes for main. Both courses were tasty as.
Tomorrow we get fair dinkum about exploring Dijon.
