Vezelay to Autun to Cluny

Balance in anything is elusive for me. Including in cycle touring. This year I have intentionally taken on a route that is in several ways more challenging than my previous routes: it is longer, I have included some extremely challenging climbs in the Alps, I have included several rest days, and 4 in Nice, in places I want to visit. This leads to some long days, with substantial climbing. I suspect you have read my words ... "I try to do the hardest thing I can and still have some fun." I'm looking to discover what that might mean, and it  is not an easy balance to find.

So this year my plan, while here in the relatively flat north of France, is 55 - 70 mile days, climbing of not more than 4,000 feet. Now to some of you that probably sounds like a piece of cake, but for me I am finding that it is not. That my touring bike, while more forgiving, sturdier and stable than my road bike, is slower, is not a surprise. That riding it loaded is slower than riding the back roads at home unloaded is not a surprise. However, I did not anticipate how much time it would take me to find my way through cities. For every small city I route my way through, add anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes, depending on my confusion level, to my elapsed time. My average speed is s.l.o.w. There are a lot of small cities in northern France.

This affects the balance: less time for photos. Don't put a foot down; keep going. But also importantly, less time to actually visit, explore and enjoy the places I pass through or stay. Yesterday afternoon I arrived tired enough in Autun, a city with esteemed Greek-Roman ruins, about 4:30. After 45 minutes, or maybe an hour and a half, of trying to find my way through a hideous giant street fair, taking up much of the center of the city, where I could barely walk my bike through the mob, I arrived at my chambre d'hote exhausted. Shower, clean up, dinner.....no time to visit the amphitheater. There was no internet, so I couldn't post. Just as well, because I needed sleep. And I did sleep. But I had an hour or so's walk about town before dinner, and captured some details.

Because of this varying balance, or lack of balance, between enjoying longer rides and visiting historical sites, I suspect this trip my posts will be thinner, with less history in them. Also, my photos may be fewer.

Autun struck me on first and only glance, as a beautiful medieval city, with older roots, that was not itself turned into a museum to the past, or a town given over to tourism. It seemed to have a continuing vibrance, a life of today, a culture and vibrance of this era.  These photos have been of details I noticed while walking around a bit before dinner.

Today's ride was about the same length, between 55 and 60 miles, about the same climb. Luckily I arrived in Cluny in time to visit the famous Abbaye. If I had missed it, I might have stayed in the morning, and taken a train for part of my route tomorrow. Balance askew. But now, no need.

From time to time I post images specifically for one reader or another. They always recognize them. Here are two:

I met a lovely man from Switzerland, who stopped to talk while I was taking this photo. I felt rude, and probably I was, when he suggested that we stay stationary and visit. But I didn't have the time to stop and talk, I needed to ride and talk. So I said, essentially: yes, I'd love to visit with you, but could we ride together instead of standing here? And we did, until I turned off in Cluny. He was in France for a short tour, mostly to get away from home in Switzerland, I think. He had taken the train to Lyons and was even older than me: 75. I think he enjoyed riding on my wheel, he said something like that. I know I enjoyed having someone ride on my wheel, instead of always being on the faster riders wheel, like I am on club rides at home.

NEXT POST