Day eleven

 

Cluny the town I stayed in overnight, built around the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny in around 900AD. Rain is forecast for today and it certainly looks pretty grey outside, just hope for the best. (Photo from yesterday evening). 

Still far away from the Loire valley as far as I can see, yet Loire continually pops up even Cluny is part of the Saône-et-Loire community. This is the Burgundy region, famous for my favourite Pinot Noir wine and other well known wines.

I arrive in Macon midday after a fairly easy ride. The mountains turned out to be hills and the rain soon turned into sunshine albeit with clouds. I searched for butter in Macon but to no avail. Google was useless guiding me to the few supermarkets in the town and the cafe society looked like they had never shopped for groceries in their lives. Every village I enter has a bakery, hairdresser, Tabac and bank but little else. Most seem closed anyway. Even asking locals never results in finding something. People today rely solely on their smartphones. There was a time when you could ask anyone and they knew where everything in the village was, now they just shrug or start tapping into their smartphones. What with Booking.com trying to charge me more for the hotel I booked into I have come to he conclusion all these apps just steal our data and give us bullshit in return. 

As I rode out of Cluny yesterday I saw what looked like a very nice campsite on my route to Mâcon, no signs to it in Mâcon and nothing on Google. It seems only the big commercial campsites find their way onto Google maps. Meanwhile we are stressing ourselves out trying to keep our devices charged. 

Bridge over the river Saône in Mâcon and below a 2km tunnel I rode through during the morning.

Anyway the morning was OK but after failing to find any butter I decided to head for Lyon and maybe I would come across something on the way. There was nothing of course and despite starting from the Saone river in Macon centre I was taken by Maps.me on a road route that was pretty awful and far away from the river. I pushed the bike for at least two hours up hills with traffic roaring past on narrow country roads. Maybe I had just been spoiled with the super cycle paths so far. Anyway it was certainly the worst riding day so far. I failed to find a campsite this evening and exhausted found a field in which to wild camp.

I clocked up 61km today and could have gone further but the traffic was building up and it was getting dark. Most had their lights on including me so I felt it was safer to call it a day. At least sometime tomorrow I should be the other side of Lyon heading for the south of France.