Burgundy to Belgium
Previous: Strasbourg to Dijon
With only the barest outline of a plan, and even less of a clue, we headed west from Dijon with the vague aim of making it to Bretagne (i.e. Brittany, not Grande Bretagne). Somewhere along the way we realised that Bretagne was perhaps not a great idea, as it would take us a good 800 km out of our way from our intended summer destination of ‘the north’. Also along the way, 7 months in for Chris, almost 6 for Maree, we hit a bit of a slump (homesickness? mediaeval church overload?) and started thinking about going home. So we paused in Orléans for a couple of weeks. Chris sitting tight with the bikes (some work to catch up on, still keen to improve his French), while Maree headed across to London on the Eurostar for a week’s break to catch up with friends. When she returned we found ourselves recharged but still undecided as to what we’ll do once we get to the north…
While we were recharging, the weather began to heat up. Our aim of getting to the coast where it is at least 5 degrees cooler on 30+-degree days in Orléans became a priority. After finding ourselves heat-stressed riding through a couple of 26-degree days on the road north, we decided to sit out a string of hot days in Vernon before the last dash to the coast.
In the meantime, we arranged to meet Arlene in Dunkerque on 7 July for some Belgian cycling together: our new target.
Day 1. Dijon to Flavigny sur Ozerain
21 May 2025 (61 km)
Our journey west began on the piste cyclable along the canal de Bourgogne, part of V51, the tour of Bourgogne. All very civilised, off road from the edge of le Centre Ville of Dijon. However, we had our sights set on Flavigny sur Ozerain for the night, so we turned off the canal at Fleure sur Ouche up the hill to cut across to the Seine Valley (past the source of the Seine).
After searching Fleure sur Ouche in vain for a cafe (we did find a circus with lots of animals), we started up the hill, stopping for a rest in Ancey under the shade of a wall, until a nice local pointed us to a much more comfortable park bench in the church yard (still no cafe, though). From Ancey, the promised sealed road soon turned decidedly unsealed, with some quite rocky sections. Nevertheless, it was through a beautiful shady forest that kept us cool, and the lack of seal forced us to take the climb more slowly, making it less strenuous.
Fortunately we joined some good sealed back roads for the downhill run on the other side. While we were working our way up the forest, the warm sunny day turned somewhat more cloudy, and by the time we rolled into Trouhaut on the other side, we felt the first spots of rain. So we sought out shelter in the entrance to the church there, just as the thunder started rolling in, and the heavens opened. We sat there happily munching on our picnic lunch (and trying out our new caffeteria on our new trangia stove), as much more rain than we had seen all trip pelted down for a good half-hour. Once the storms passed and the rain stopped, we set off again.
It was an easy downhill/flat ride down the quiet D10, until we turned off up the hill to Flavigny 4 km from our destination. The main climb to the hill town didn’t start for another couple of km. cycle.travel suggested taking an unsealed trail up the hill, but after the thunderstorms, the muddy trail did not appeal, so we took the main road up to the Chemin des Ruelles, which was fine despite all the signs suggesting it was not the way to get there. It was a steep last 500 m into town, where we found our comfy gite for the night.
Flavigny was surprisingly quiet - much more so than we would have expected from equivalent Italian hill towns we know - despite its moderate level of fame as the location for the movie Le Chocolat, and its anis bonbon factory (which of course we patronised).
Day 2. Flavigny sur Ozerain to Semur en-Auxois (the long way)
22 May 2025 (47 km)
We woke to a rainy morning, and surprisingly chilly, as we realised once we braved it outside. Our poor bikes had spent the night in the rain, but seemed to cope ok. We had decided that Semur en-Auxois would be a good place for a night, and as it was only 16 km direct from Flavigny, we opted for the long road, re-joining the cycleway along the canal de Bourgogne again, to head south for a while.
It wasn’t rainy when we left Flavigny, and a km south we found the brasserie and brewery, with a very impressive terrace and a great view back to the village. Of course it was closed, and not so enticing anyway in the cold. After a quick photo break, we headed up the hill, where we encountered thick fog.
This made the roll down the hill to Pouillenay much colder than we had dressed for, and we found ourselves quite keen on the idea of a warm stop at the bottom of the hill. The one bar/hotel in Pouillenay looked about as closed as a closed bar/hotel can look, but we have learnt not to judge openness by the lack of welcoming lights, signs or open doors. And sure enough, the door was open, the tv was on, and coffee was available.
While there we searched the maps for any boulangeries/bars/restaurants on our route: a surprisingly fruitless search. The best bet was a well-rated restaurant at Pont Royal a few km further up the canal trail than we had planned to go. So we decided that was as good a destination for lunch as anywhere. After a leisurely ride down the canal, we found ourselves at the busy restaurant, where we went the full menu-du-jour. It was good.
The ride from there to Semur was along undulating back roads through fields and forests, which were looking pretty as the sun began to make an appearance. Monumentally, at 10 km from our destination, Maree got her first flat tyre, and we had a quiet 45 mins by the side of the road sorting that out. We finally made it to Semur around 5, rumbling down the pavée through the centre-ville and out the other side to our impressive chambres d’hôtes for the night.
Day 3. Semur en-Auxois to Vezelay
23 May 2025 (62 km)
After a leisurely morning admiring Claire’s interesting art collection in our chambres d’hôtes, we headed out without jackets for the first time in a while.
Our backroads route for the day followed the autoroute. With poppy (and other wildflower) season in full swing, it was a pretty ride. We stopped at Bourbilly for lunch provisions in the boulangerie and coffee in the salon de thé, and paused by the pretty moat of the chateau without venturing in.
We took our picnic lunch down the road by a pond on the river, a little disconcerted by the Lepotsporosis warnings from all the muskrats and nutria. We saw our first hoopoe of the season, on one of the backroads along the autoroute, hopping along in front of us for 100s of metres.
After a day of easy riding the last 2 km were a steep climb to Vezelay. We stayed at a flash hotel just outside the gates a the bottom of the hill. We wandered up into the town around dinner time to the crazy big basilique at the top of the hill. It was another beautiful hill town that should be full of life.
But it was quiet and a little deserted, with many of the restaurants seemingly disinclined to open before May 29. We ended up at a good restaurant next to our hotel at the bottom of the hill. But perhaps the experience of deserted Vezelay planted the seed of our slump in mood…
Day 4. Vezelay to Auxerre
24 May 2025 (61 km)
…And then there was Auxerre.
Out of Vezelay, cycle.travel sent us down a steep footpath rather than the main Auxerre road. In retrospect, we would have taken the road, as the fine gravel on the footpath made it troublingly slippery: even walking down the last half was a little precarious. We rejoined the main road, to find it deserted. Shortly after we turned off up the forested hill to La Goulote (which we chose to bypass), enjoying the display of wildflowers along the road, and the deep shade of the forest.
It was a long gentle roll down the valley to Châtel Censoir where we re-met the V51. We chose to eschew the boulangerie and shops there, to keep heading down the canal. The canal and the river dipped in and out of each other, making it a more interesting canal ride, particularly when the valley sides turned to cliffs. We even had a brief stop to fossick for fossils at an old quarry, just before the sharp bend in the river at Mailly le Chateau. There we did something we would never have done on our old bikes. We chose to climb the steep hill to the town, where we had hoped to find a cafe for lunch.
We didn’t find a cafe, but we did find the view point, heading past two women happily drinking wine at a table outside their house on the corner (Bonjour!), and again, having clocked the view on the ride out (Rebonjour!). No cafe, but we did find the final stages of the Saturday marché at the church, and scored Gallettes au Saumon, which we munched on on a bench under a tree having a nice converstation with the Gallette lady and her husband, and their daughter, and their dog. Before leaving town, we decided we needed to head back to the view point to take a better look at the chateau (Rebonjour to our drinking ladies). It was behind a locked gqte (seemingly turned into apartments - looked like a nice place), and back out again (Au revoir!).
Back down the hill and onto the canal/river trail all the way into Auxerre, where we tackled the escape-room-esque challenge of finding our way into our airbnb. We had booked two nights in Auxerre to wait out the rain, which didn’t really eventuate. Our neighbourhood in Auxerre was quiet and pleasant, but the deserted streets of Auxerre on a Sunday, even accounting for the wine festival along the river, didn’t grab us. Our mood wasn’t helped by a complete lack of internet access on the first night, when both our phones went on the blink in our internet-less house. It was time for us to pull ourselves together and get back on the trail.
Day 5. Auxerre to Villeneuve sur Yonne
26 May 2025 (55 km)
A gentle ride down the Yonne toward Paris: all very lovely but not spectacular, although for long stretches, the surface of the river trail was about as good as it gets. After a small detour into the shops at Gurgy in search of morning tea at a boulangerie, we continued on to Joigny. Even though we were going to turn left before there, we had found ourselves on the road to Paris.
Joigny was our great hope for somewhere for lunch, but we were sadly disappointed to find all of the restaurants in the old town closed on Monday. After riding up the pedestrianised street to the place, we rode back down to find a boulangerie to get some rolls that we ate in the shade of the park over the river (having done almost a full lap of the park finding a way in).
More easy riding to Villeneuve sur Yonne, where our self-contained house at the back of our host’s property was very comfortable for the night. We dragged ourselves away from the tennis on the telly for a walk around the town, through its impressive gates, north and south and then along moats protecting them. Our mood had begun to lift.
Day 6. Villeneuve sur Yonne to Flagy
27 May 2025 (54 km)
It was a calm start to the day along the Yonne toward to the Seine and Paris. After stopping to watch a boat navigate an ecluse, I made the mistake of commenting how lovely a day it was for riding, with cloud cover and no wind.
Our first destination was Sens, another big town that we hoped would agree with us more than Auxerre. It did, but the detour into Sens didn’t start well. The local police pulled us up and told us off for riding up the pedestrian mall. Suitably admonished, we walked our bikes the rest of the way up to the impressive cathedral and Halles on the main square. It was becoming a little windy, but we found a sheltered table outside a cafe, where we took coffees, and had a faltering chat with an elderly local couple. Local entertainment included the passionate traffic altercations along the one lane road through the square.
After a gander at the Cathedral and the also impressive hotel de ville on the next block, we bought some rolls at the boulangerie in la place, and headed out down the hill (along approved cycling roads as guided by cycle.travel) back to the Yonne for one last time. From here our route took us across the hills from the Yonne toward the Loing, another tributary of the Seine.
Lunch was in a park in a town a little out of Sens, where the wind started to feel like a serious head wind for the first time. We passed through many villages, with very few bars/boulangeries to be seen, but a few park benches that we took advantage of to rest as we tired from the unfamiliar climbing (all of 250 m) and pushing against the wind (like this).
Flagy sealed our return to a happy place. It’s a tiny village, but big enough to support a bistrôt, where we took an apéro on our evening stroll around the village, and Le moulin de Flagy, where we stayed. The moulin is a restored mediaeval water mill, where we had a comfortable room, and a flash restaurant where we had a great dinner looking over the mill stream.
Day 7. Flagy to Noyers
28 May 2025 (72 km)
We woke to some fairly heavy rain which kept coming down until about 10:30. Happily it stopped after that and we had a day of no rain to bother us. It was a cycle through undulating back roads among fields of wheat, barley, peas, corn, canola, spinach, and God knows what else. Villages were quite frequent but none had open bars or boulangeries until the bigger Souppes sur Loing, where we stopped at a bar for a coffee, until we were chucked out at 1pm closing time.
From Souppes, we were back on a canal path, on the bottom end of the veloroute Scandiberique. After a stop at Le Martin Pecheur Bar bedecked with Scottish flags (with the promise of live entertainment, but closed), we arrived at the intersection of the three canals, with a detour left to Ô Frais supermarché for lunch and to buy provisions for our night in our Gite at Noyers.
More canal path all the way to 2 km from Noyer, and back roads to our 4-bedroom 1850s house. Very comfortable.
Day 8. Noyers to Orléans
29 May 2025 (61 km)
The pergola in the backyard of our gite was perfect for stringing up the bikes for a bit of chain cleaning and lube-ing (and checking my deraillieur was ok, after it was making a bit of a racket yesterday afternoon). So, I rose early and had a tinker, and when Maree arose, we had a lovely breakfast at the table under the pergola.
After a bit of pumping up a spongy front tyre, we began with a few km along backroads through barley, wheat, corn and canola fields back to the canal trail. From there we chose to stay on the trail rather than cycle.travels suggested backroads shortcut in search of a cafe. We were in luck at les trois écluses, with coffees under the trees by the canal. We had a leisurely stop there, before heading off down the trail again for another stop only a few km on, at a shady bench. We detected an impressive 6 bird calls on Merlin while sitting there (including the Eurasian Oriole and the Marsh tit), but alas we couldn’t see them.
Onward we stopped for lunch at a likely looking bar at Sury aux bois. Fairly average fare on offer from the AC/DC-loving proprietor, who had perhaps banged his head one too many times. It was here that the penny dropped that today was another public holiday (l’Ascunsion), and the traffic on the bike trail was quite busy.
We repeatedly passed the same groups, zooming by after requisite rests, as we were overheating in the blistering 23-degree heat. The crowds grew as we entered Orleans, and got to our new place, greeted by our host, Celine, whose house was to be home for the next two weeks, with Maree taking the train to London for a week in the middle.
Day 9. Orleans to Cloyes Les Trois Rivières
14 Jun 2025 (62 km)
After 2 weeks in Orleans, our last day, Friday, was too hot so we bunkered down in our cool house all day uniti 11 pm when we went out to the impressive spectacle lumiere at the cathedral, made all the more spectacular by the lightning and thunder of the approaching thunderstorm. With great timing, the heavens opened just as the show finished and we walked home enjoying the cool of being completely drenched by the downpour.
A 10 am departure from Orlean along le Loire for one last time before we headed inland, first through the Orlean suburbs, and then out into the open countryside. During our two-week pause, the corn had grown substantially higher and the wheat and barley yellower.
It was not as hot as the day before, but it was humid. It was comfortable enough on the bikes, but when we stopped we realised we were hot. We took advantage of the few-and-far-between shady trees along the way for frequent rests. Our expectations of finding somewhere for lunch were low, but we were proven wrong at Ozouer le Marché, where we first stopped under some trees and used a fire-hydrant/tap to dip our heads under the cold water so that we weren’t too frighteningly red to go into a bar or boulangerie. We found a boulangerie with tables and chairs in the town and had lunch under the shade of their awning, still feeling too hot.
After that, more open farmland for another 25 km, with a couple of stops under some trees, a close encounter with a mole crossing the road, a pheasant jumping along ahead of us, and a field of poppy heads not unlike the ones in Tasmania behind security fences. We finally hit the downhill roll to le Loir, which we will be following in the next few days. Cloyes was lovely (low expectations and they were exceeded). Our hotel was comfortable, and fed us a good dinner in the bar. The restaurant was booked out for a French-Australian wedding party. The French bride came out for a chat mid-party.
Day 10. Cloyes to Chartres
15 Jun 2025 (72 km)
Our ride out of Cloyes was against a stream of bike-race support vehicles, but we didn’t encounter a peloton all day (apparently le Tour de Loir-Eure is on, but we couldn’t find a map of the stages).
Cool, shady ride up the valley to begin, past the Château de Montigny on the river. Then off onto a back rod through more farmland (small blue flowers) to avoid the windiness of the cycle route along the river through Chateaudun. We decided to follow a bit of windiness in search of lunch to Illiers Combray, where we stopped at a restaurant for a very slow lunch!…Although the start of the day was cool, time in the sun was starting to feel uncomfortably warm by the time we reached there, and it took a while to cool down before finally lunch and a cold drink arrived. Our patience was tested waiting for dessert. The pphoto board at reception did have evidence of Emannuel Macron and his wife havign dined there too.
The afternoon sun was getting a bit much, but the ride from Illiers to Chartres was mainly along separated cycle paths (reminiscent of German cycle infrastructre), with increasing shade as we approached Chartres. Once we hit the outskirts it was a pleasant shady cycle path along the Eure into town. A km or so from our chambres d’hôtes for the night, we clocked a shady guingette on the river, pumping with locals taking their apéros, and we resolved to join them.
Les Conviv’hôtes was a winner: we were greeted warmly by our host, Sylvie, who helped us with our bags up the stairs to our comfy loft room, plied us with cake and tea and even offered to do our laundry for us! It was getting late when we ventured out to our ginguette, which was a good enough place for dinner after our big, slow lunch at Illiers. We then wandered up into the old town to do a lap of the crazy big cathedral and the tourist-trap restaurants that surround it, happy with our choice of guinguette. The Chartres Lumière spectacle is apparently worth seeing, but by 23 h, we were disinclined to leave our cosy loft, with the memories of Orleans spectacle still fresh.
Day 11. Chartres to Vert en Drouais
16 Jun 2025 (58 km)
Our planned destination tonight had been Dreux, but the hotels with bike storage were taking a bit long to get back to us. Amd with the weather not giving us any excuse to put it off any longer, we found an attractive looking camping site in Vert en Drouais 5 km west of Dreux for the first night’s camping of our trip.
After being well-fed and farewelled by Sylvie we headed down the river out of Chartres, another beautiful forested cycleway for most of the first 15 km. We took the short detour into Saint Piat in hope of finding an open bar or boulangerie (no hope on a Monday), but we had a pleasant sit and ponder by the old mill on the river to cool down. Onward, we did manage to find an open bar in the larger Maintenon where we sat for a long while chatting with an Austrian couple cycling from Mont St Michel to Paris (the main cycle route we find ourselves on). Rather than stay put at the bar for lunch, we bought baguettes next door and headed off for a picnic lunch a km or so up the road by the river.
At Chaudon, we turned up the hill from the river, along a nostalgic stretch of rough stony road across some higher farmland to the supermarché at Cherisy, where we stocked up on provisions for our night’s camping. The supermarket carpark was uncomfortably hot (for us- only 26 degrees, but we were really struggling). Stocked with provisions we followed the cycle route around the north of Dreux to the little village hosting our Camping for the night.
After a frustratingly long wait to buy two cold drinks in the one tabac in the village, we fronted up at le camping, where we were greeted by the personable young owner, who set us up with a lovely shaded pitch among the trees on the creek along the back of the property. We set up the tent,and went out for a walk as advised by our host to the three branches of the Avre, where we were able to cool our aching feet in the river. The cooking went well and the sleeping went well (we even managed a bit of telly in the tent). The eight months of carrying our camping gear around had finally paid off.
Day 12. Vert en Drouais to Vernon
17 Jun 2025 (55 km)
THe 26-degree days were just entrées to the increasingly warm weather over the coming days. 27 today, rising to 35 on Saturday. Given our distress when it hits 26, we decided to find a cool house in Vernon where we could wait out the heatwave for 5 days.
After the morning camping ritual of drying the tent, rolling up the gear, mulling over a coffee, we headed back down the Avre to the V41 St-Jacques à velo route that we had been following north. We stopped at St George Motel for morning tea and lunch provisions at the boulangerie. The trail north of St Georges Motel was a rail trail: civilised, quiet and largely shaded. Back on roads, it was a long stretch with less shade and not a lot of enticing lunch spots. We finally settled on some shady trees outside the cemetry at Neuilly, where it took us a long time to cool down. Thankfully there was a tap in the cemetery where Maree refiled the water bottles and tipped some water over her head.
Ten km further on we took shelter under a Jacaranda by the Eure at Pacy and took in a couple of tabac-bought cool drinks. Then a 60-m climb to really test our heat tolerance (not too bad after a rest at the top). It was quiet back roads all the way to Vernon, the last few km a fun roll through shady forest to our lovely home for the next 5 days.
