Too Old to Cycle

Current Location: Chalon-sur-Saone, Burgundy, France
Total Distance: 1,449 km
Longest Day: 87 km (twice)
Flat Tyres: 8

Lock keeper's cottage - Canal du Central

Bottoms' Status (Perfect 10): Judy 6.5, Mike 6.5

Too Old To Cycle?

What did the doctor mean? I shouldn’t cycle for five days? I shouldn’t cycle more than five kilometres per day? Or maybe - I could cycle, but take it gently for five days. It was a lost in translation moment and Judy and I looked at each other in despair. All those cheerful “Bonjour Monsieur” greetings were all well and good, but when the chips were down our French was letting us down.

We waited five days for our Schwalbe Marathon Dureme
Tandem tyres to arrive - but we figure the wait's worth it.

In the end we decided the helpful doctor meant I should ride gently for the next five days – just don’t overdo it. At that point I didn’t really care much. I’d been hoping he would amputate my right leg leaving me to pedal like some sort of freak circus monkey with just one foot. Instead, he explained (we think) that I’ve pulled my right quad from over exercise – a painful but non-life threatening injury. He charged me E23 and sent me on my way with a prescription for E14 of anti-inflammatory and painkiller pills and a magic gel that I get to rub into my upper thigh.

That injury and the wait for new tyres to arrive in Nevers has slowed us down and we’ve missed one rendezvous with friends.

This stork and its family were nesting
on top of the church in Dijion - much
to the delight of passersby. (Church
on right)

But the upside has been the opportunity to slow down, at times to a standstill, and absorb the changing countryside. From grapevines we’ve moved into dairy country with herds of big milky Charolais and we’ve left the Loire Valley behind.

Pat and David came to our rescue with a pair of pliers -
then insisted we keep them even though they'd once
belonged to his father or possibly grandfather.






For the past few days we’ve been following canals and overtaking slow moving pleasure craft as they motor along at five knots. And then there are the locks – some automated and some with lock keepers in pretty cottages who assist those ascending or descending the canals. It is France as we anticipated it and the scenes imprint postcard images on our
 memories.

Judy's Quotable Quotes:

Mike: What's in the rice for dinner?

Judy: It’s called Surf and Turf. The leftover sausage from lunch and a tin of tuna.

Canal du Central with the Eurovelo 6 stretching away in the distance.