Today's webpage brought to you by Tammy Marsh
Our shortest day since Day One! We started early, rode hard and reached town between noon and 5 p.m. in order to enjoy this cool city - the mustard capital of the world! Some riders chose a longer, more scenic, less hilly, less busy route and ended up riding about 80 km. An interesting thing to note is the excess of fighter jets we see flying overhead. Elijah is so fascinated by them that he almost rides off the road watching their maneuvers.
Today was the first day I rode after a day and a half break. The break was not in my plans but I completely ran out of energy and I was really in bad shape. I was nervous that I would run out of energy again and need to call the support crew (again). I started in Langres, a fortress city on a hill. The day was shorter than most (total of 81 km on my cycle computer) and much easier as there wasn’t much in the way of hills (the group that took the shorter but busier route had many hills to deal with).
The day got interesting almost right away as I lost part 1 of 2 of my maps. That means I didn’t know where I was or where I was going. But I did some guessing and had to call support once to figure out where to go. After a few more towns, I ended up in the town of Villegusien-le-lac and was run down by a lady who wanted to take my picture. She had me go back to the town square, which was more of a round about as this was more like a village. She knew a little English, and I found out she was with the town paper and I got asked all the standard questions. To make things even better, they ripped a map of the area right out of a book for me. After the photo shoot, I was on my way to Dijon.
The route that I ended up taking was great. It was along a canal with many shady trees. Away from the canal was farmland, with hay, wheat and sunflowers. The road I was on was deserted with only an occasional car and/or big tractor pulling a huge trailor carrying hay. The road was so small that the tractor took 95% of the road.
About 11:30 I pulled into the town of Chazeuil. My CamelBak was on empty and I was getting hungry. I pulled into the only bar/restaurant and got some weird non-alcoholic drink. At first they treated me as more of a pain, but then an older guy wearing a beret and missing all but four teeth was all excited about seeing my unicycle out front. He made sure the other two people in the bar went outside and saw it. They even proceeded to try to ride it! The brake was on, making it impossible to ride, but it didn’t look like they were going to learn it anytime soon. The guy with just a few teeth talked to me in French, and with a lot of pantomining we could kind of talk back and forth. As my mind was on food, I made eating gestures. After some time, I learned that lunch was going to start at noon and no other town around had any food. So, I waited and was talked to (in French).
I am so glad I waited for food. At noon, the owner motioned me to a table. Other people started to filter in and sit down. Throughout the whole dinner, people (mostly men) came in for food. There was no menu so I figured I was going to get whatever everybody else did. The owner, a big man in his middle forties who kept smiling the entire time, put water and a big bottle of wine (I tried a little and it was pretty good) on my table. The first course (I didn’t know there was going to be more than one course until later) was a liver patte with tomatos. Really good bread followed soon after. I finished my plate, ate all the bread, drank the kraft of water and was deciding if I should go up to pay when the next course came. It was chicken filets with spaghetti topped with cheese. I was pretty full from the first course but managed to eat all of the second course (along with more bread as he brought more). The third course was cheeses. The platter of cheeses was passed around the room. People just cut off the amount of cheese they wanted. I tried a few different kinds. Some were good while others where way too sharp for my Midwestern taste buds. I figured by now that dessert was coming. I wasn’t dissapointed. It was good but I was so full that I had to really work on finishing the desert. The meal ended up being 63 frances ($9 USD), a really good deal. I was so full I could barely walk out of the restaurant. When I left, most of the people came out of the establishment to watch me mount and ride away.
The rest of the day went well. Since I was riding by myself I listened to my MP3 player. Today’s selection was short stories and the Star Wars audio book. With many French Mirage fighter jets flying low overahead, it added a life-like touch to the stories.
Dijon is a really nice town. It would be fun to stay here longer. Maybe on the next tour, we can spend a few days here . . . .