Friday evening at Isle St Laurent at Chalon sur Soane
Just taxied to the restaurant area from our rather naff hotel on the outskirts of town. Not my best choice of the week it has to be said. Perhaps surprisingly we are all feeling pretty good after another 80 mile day which included 4 big climbs totalling nearly 5000'. Actually the roads on the climbs are very well engineered with a steady gradient meaning you can select a comfortable gear and just pedal away steadily and before you know it you're at the top (I wish). In fact they do seem to go on for ages but, in truth we have managed them better than we expected. That may well change when we're in the  Jura Mountains or the Alps however!
The countryside has been beautiful today and we've reached the Burgandy wine region with numerous vineyards, cruising through the town of Mercurie which is quite a centre for wine production.  The weather has been quite cool and once again the rain kept off, so an ideal day for cycling in hills. Tomorrow should be shorter then, joy of joys, we have a rest day on Sunday. I'm hoping that will be a nice hotel as we have two nights there.
As some will know I like engineering stuff and today we saw a very impressive and beautiful aqueduct which was 100' high (sorry to be anoraky). It was actually a feeder to a canal rather than a canal itself. I will post a photo on Facebook (as I have with a number of others now) so you can judge for yourselves.
Thanks to all who have responded to the blog and photos on my Facebook page, it's good to have your feedback.
Now about to eat so that's your lot today!  Cheers