A Dubious Day on the Doubs 

September 1st

The Doubs River gets its name from the Latin Dubius because of its erratic course.  The river starts in the Jura Mountains and runs along for 267 miles ending in Verdun-sur-le-Doubs where it flows into the Saone.  The funny thing is the distance from the start to the end is actually only 56 miles. Ya gotta love google for all the stuff you can look up.

Today we rode a small section along the Doubs from Besancon to Baume-les-Dames for about 40 kilometers.  The trail is a section of the EuroVelo 6 route and has a smooth paved surface which always makes for a fun ride. The first interesting thing we came across was corn being harvested. The machine was like a huge clipper snapping off the stalks about a foot above the ground.  The entire plant was pretty finely chopped and shot into a tractor trailer which then raced off to dump it before returning for another load.  

Our next stop was to find a picnic table for lunch.  Just a few kilometers past the corn harvest was a lock with a table so we pulled over and set up our tasty treats.  This is a typical on the go lunch for us but sometimes I mix it up and make a smoked salmon, goat cheese and caper sandwich instead of cheese and crackers.

The next unusual thing we found was some wooden boxes attached to about 4 trees along the bike path.  We had to stop to see what they were all about and discovered a little surprise.

Finally we finished up our day with a coffee and ice cream treat at Le Bistrot du Barrage along the bike trail. We stopped here last year and met the owners who were adorable and friendly.  Jay has always felt bad because we didn't have the exact change for them so we ended up under paying for our drinks.  We were happy to be able to rectify this by leaving a nice tip after paying this time. We had a great time chatting with them...a little French, a little English...but in the end I think we all understood each other.

Before dinner we walked by a little wine bar and decided to stop for a sip or two.  I ordered the Vin Blanc from Pouilly at 6 Euros and Jay had a Rose at 4 Euros.  We're really loving these prices! Some places will give you a treat with your wine and so when the bowl of noshes arrived we dug in and to our surprise the taste was of peanut butter...what?  I'm not sure that flavor goes very well with wine but we ate them all anyway.  We arrived for our reservation at Brasserie Carnot and ordered more Rose and I had a delicious Salade Nicoise.  At dinner a father and twin daughters from Britain sat next to us.  He was such a sweet man and it was obvious he was without a spouse or partner.  He had been in the south near Cannes for 2 weeks with his son and the twins. Listening to their conversation and chatting with him we could tell he was a very attentive and great dad.  The girls, Chloe and Zara, were adorable, didn't eat much, didn't play on any devices but had their little stuffed animals which they used to tease each other occasionally.