Château de Joigny

A few hours ago, our final group of 8 riders completed their ride along the Nivernais Canal and Yonne River, arriving at the beautiful historic city of Joigny. It was a perfect, fairytale ending to an incredible 7 weeks of riding in Europe. How privileged we have been to have been able to share such an adventure together.

Following the success of the previous day's picnic, we all decided to buy sandwiches for another picnic lunch. While the women stayed at the hotel, the men joined me while I led them to the Boulangerie. I promptly rode out of the hotel and turned left. The surroundings soon felt strangely alien. I came to the unpleasant realisation that I had led the group the wrong way.

When Maggie and I had walked to the Boulangerie the previous day, we had left via the front entrance of the hotel. Today I had left via the rear entrance. That is why everything looked weird. I had to admit to the others that I had made a mistake, and then retreat to head off in the correct direction.

The short ride to the Boulangerie took us past the city prison (complete with towering walls and barbed wire). We purchased the picnic ingredients and rode back to the hotel.

“What took you so long ?”, was the immediate query from the waiting women. "I don't want to talk it", was my reply.

We were soon heading out of Auxerre, feeling the full impact of the freezing cold air. Soon our fingers and ears were frozen, but it only added to the fun. The day was absolutely still and foreshadowed another perfect ride.

Since our final ride was only short, we wanted to savour it for as long as possible. The pace dropped back to around 17 kph, and at times even lower.

We were now riding along the Yonne. It is a beautiful river whose broad width contrasted with the narrow canal we had been following for the past three days.

At around 10.30 am we deviated from the river in search of a coffee shop. The GPS indicated that there would be a suitable cafe in the centre of the town, but we were all skeptical of the odds of finding a nice coffee shop in such a deserted village.

We needn't have worried. In spite of the odds, we found a marvelous place – large, modern and serving great coffee. It really was a tremendous surprise.

A short distance further on, I spied a sign indicating a nearby “Pique Nique” location. It was only round the corner, but complete with lakeside views, tables and rubbish bin. It was also complete with two parked cars, which we first thought were empty, but then noticed there were two people laying down in the rear seat of one of the cars. We had obviously interrupted some sort of illicit liaison.
It really was very funny. They probably thought they had found the perfect deserted spot for a romantic interlude, only to have their activities disturbed by 8 Australians on bicycles. They eventually emerged from the vehicle, rearranging their clothes and looking rather sheepish.

The remainder of the ride was completed without incident. Once again, the early cold was replaced by beautiful warm sunshine.

Whenever you reach the end of such a fantastic ride there are mixed feelings of relief and disappointment.

Our final hotel in Joigny was Le Rive Gauche. It was a perfect place to finish an epic cycling adventure. The hotel was located in the middle of many acres of lawns, gardens, lakes, petanque and tennis courts. It looked like it had once been the palatial home of someone rich and famous.

At the end of the day we shared a memorable dinner at the hotel. It was easily one of the best we had enjoyed in the entire trip. There were about 8 courses, all of which were impeccably prepared and presented. What a contrast to the debacle we had shared the previous evening.

Tomorrow we make the journey to Vermenton, where we will have a week doing nothing but rest and eat. We have earned it.Read more