A Ride from Port to Port Along the Burgundy Canal

June 21st

The Burgundy Canal has a lot of locks and each lock has a lock house called an Écluse.  Today we rode from the port of Pont d'Ouche to Pouilly-en-Auxois for 40km.  Along the way I love to stop to take photos of the lock houses but today we were trying to get a ride in before the rain. The clouds looked ominous at times but we only had a few drops from the tree branches as we rode.  One of my most favorite sites from our many rides in France is the view of the castle of Chateauneuf between these two ports.  I stopped to take yet another photo of this place and Jay asked how many dozens of pictures I had already taken of this town on the hill.  I'm not quite sure but I do have a lot of them.  At the end of our rides I like to have a little reward.  Today's was a cafe creme at the restaurant at Pont d'Ouche.  A great reward indeed!

As we were driving back into Beaune we encountered several road blocks.  We barely were able to circumnavigate the "do not enter" sign placed in front of our parking garage.  Once parked we started our investigation of "what the heck is going on?"  Apparently every June 21st in France there are music fêtes to celebrate the summer solstice.  We showered and headed out to experience some of the many bands, groups and small orchestras strewn about the old city center.  It seemed they were all pretty much amateurs because the music was not really very good for the most part but good for them giving it their all. 

Dinner was again at Le Monge and was excellent but the photos of lamb shanks and chicken thighs just don't do the meal justice so no pictures from this dinner.