Had a reasonably good Vietnamese meal in Autun last night.
This morning we set off early and were hit straight away by a brutal climb on cold legs. After that, the ride was a good one. A lot cooler than of late and with wind in a favourable direction. The terrain was hilly and the roads were small and quiet. The last 20 or so miles was on a good cycle track. The scenery was now dominated by the vineyards of the Burgoyne (Burgundy) wine region. The vendage (grape pick) is now in full swing and lorryloads of piled-high grapes were queuing up outside the various wine cooperatives to have their contributions to this year’s vintage assessed. (Neither of us are great fans of red Burgundy wine - too thin. Maybe we just need to try more of it? We like the whites tho.)
We reached Mâcon on the Saône river (which feeds into the Rhône) and, after a beer, quickly found a centrally placed hotel. Hotel Brit.
I don’t think that Mâcon has any great claim to fame but it’s the only big place we’ve been so far it looks quite an interesting city in which wander around. Early evening, in one of the busy squares we listened to a very good ‘Irish’ (French) Folk/ProgRock Band who were very talented and were going down very well with the crowd.
We are more or less on target, mileage-wise, and the trip has been incident-free.