Corbigny

Our ride started at the hotel in Decize, but first we had to wait for our bikes to arrive. We were all a little nervous about what standard of bikes we would be supplied with. Would they be of the same great standard we had enjoyed on the previous 3 sections, or would they be rusty old clunkers ?

Eventually a van arrived at around 9.30 am. The young driver introduced himself as Jean-Luc and then set about getting the bikes prepared for us. At the time we estimated JeanLuc to be around 29 years old. We were staggered to later discover that he was actually 51. I guess nature is kinder to some than others.

When we finally had a chance to examine the bikes, we found them to be quality bikes by Velo de Ville. They were a bit more "tired" than our previous bikes but they proved to be the most popular of all the bikes we had ridden.

After about an hour of setting up, we were finally ready to start the ride. There was some confusion as to how long the ride was going to be (varied between 45km and 85 km). We were a little concerned when we came to the conclusion that the ride would be closer to 90 km in total, To add to the fear factor, the weather also looked very threatening.
The first part of the ride out of Decize was quite terrible. The road was narrow, and heavily trafficked by large speeding trucks. It was a big relief when we reached the Canal de Nivernais, and no longer had to ride in fear for our lives.

Our ride then closely followed the Canal all day. Our first impressions were very favourable. The canal was narrow and regularly interspersed with numerous locks. It was quite amazing to learn that the construction of the canal began in 1784, and was not completed until 1840. It must have been a monumental engineering achievement at that time. The main purpose of the canal was to join the Loire and the Seine Rivers to allow timber rafts to be floated from the forests of Morvan all the way to Paris.

Although we had expected the tow path to be rather rough, we were relieved to find that, for most of the ride, the path was really very smooth. This made for very pleasant riding.

By 11.30 am we had ridden about 20 km and were looking for something to eat. We turned from the path at Cercy La Tour and finally found a boulangerie. We ate our lunches outside while the rain started. It was not a great omen, especially as at that stage we had no idea of how far we still had to ride.

The weather deteriorated until we were all quite wet. This was only the second wet day we have had since we arrived in Europe 6 weeks ago, but we had no option other than to push on. The canal was punctuated by regular locks, each one with a small manager's cottage (It was the cottage that was small, not the manager).

The ride went on. 45 km, 55 km, 65 km but Corbigny never seemed to get any closer. At one stage Maggie was excited when she saw an otter.

By this stage we were all getting tired as it had been a long day. 70 km came and went. I estimated that we still had another 20 km to go, but was reluctant to share that information with the rest of the peloton.

We then encountered a region where the canal dropped sharply in elevation, necessitating even more frequent locks. It was quite a spectacle. We were all quite surprised when we rode past one cottage which looked like it had become stuck in the mad days of the 1970s. They had even laid pieces of carpet on the road outside, along with lots of eclectic hippy paraphernalia.

The final 10 km went on for about 20 km, so it was a quite a relief when we finally arrived in Corbigny. According to our speedos we had ridden around 90 km- an amazing achievement under the circumstances, especially for Maggie who was barely able to walk at the start of the day.

Tomorrow is a much more modest ride of around 40 km.Read more