Le Voie Bleue

September 9th

The Voie Bleue bike trail sometimes intersects with the EuroVelo 6 route and today we rode on a section of that dual trail.  We started along the Saone River where the Doubs River flows into it in the town of Verdun-sur-le-Doubs.  From Verdun we headed south toward Chalon-sur-Saone for 20 km.  The trail meandered along the river and through farm land so we stopped along the way to learn about the crops.  The first one was identified (by my iPhone) as a French Passion Flower but didn't say how it was used and there was a huge field of it.  The next one was Wild Cabbage probably fed to the Chaorlaise cows we see every day.  The French also plant rows of Poplar trees we think for making paper but we haven't really confirmed that yet.  The last crop was corn and we saw the farmer harvesting the corn.  It's amazing how it starts as a stalk and ends up a few minutes later as husks of corn in the back of a truck.  Jay is very fascinated by the farming here. We had a lovely spot for our picnic lunch that had a view across the river to Verdun.

Our lunchtime view

We returned to Close 8 for dinner and it is a totally amazing treat. The problem is that it is so much food.  I couldn't even begin to have dessert from our prix fixe menu. Jay soldiered on and managed to finish the poached pear and raspberry sorbet. What a guy!

Oeufs en Meurette Chardonnay  

Supreme de Volaille (Chicken)

Scalloped Potatoes Side Dish