After leaving the horse farm we picked up another escort of local cyclists and headed west and north toward Digion, about twenty kilometres or so, following the Canal du Centre after leaving the hills around the farm.
Digion brought us to the last river of this trip, the Loire. The Canal du Centre actually crosses the Loire on the Pont du Canal at Digion, basically an aqueduct carrying the canal over the river.
We had a quick group photo with the local tourism office on the bank of the Loire, then headed to the town of Bourbon-Lancy for what turned out to be another awkwardly translated mayor’s speech and a snack. Pretty little town centre, though.
Lunch was picnic style in a little village a few km north of Bourbon-Lancy, and we used both the official Eurovelo 6 route and main roads to finish the ride to Decize. Unfortunately the EV6 through this district has almost no signage, making it hard to follow even with a map and GPS. With the detour out to Bourbon-Lancy it wound up being a long day, over 100km and we didn’t get to our hostel until nearly six.
Dinner was a very nice pizza at a place right on the bank of the canal just outside Decize, then an early bed.
The day ended with a really spectacular front of very dark clouds filling the south-east horizon, so our weather might be in for a change…
Random amusement: when I misspel “canal” while writing these posts on my phone, one of the options it offers is “cabal”… biking alongside the cabal would make this a very different sort of European trip indeed!
