Breakfast was an hour later today – they cannot do it before 7 am ‘as the bread won’t be ready’. We pushed our luck and rocked up at 6.55 am. The bread was ready.

Upon leaving Besancon it was a slow crawl for the first two kilometres. Cobbles, traffic, pushing our bike across pedestrian crossings and then the fluvial tunnel.

Built around 1880 it is some 390 metres in length and runs underneath the citadel. It provides a very handy short cut from one side of Le Doubs to the other, remembering that Besancon is on a horseshoe bend of the river.

It was a crawl as there was a queue. Runners, cyclists, walkers. Once out the other side it was shady and a cool 8c. It was not going to stay that way.

If you are a keen walker, you can head to Canterbury in England via Francigena, an old historic trail.

One last look back up the hill to the citadel.

Following a mixture of the canal, Doubs and Saone rivers today there were many nice vistas. I love the old fortifications high up on hills.

The canal of the Rhine and Rhone came to an abrupt halt here, with a water turning circle, and tunnel going under the hill. I later checked maps, and on the other side of the hill there is another canal that joins le Doubs. There is a walking path through.

Peaceful waterways continued.

I’ve seen more canal locks on this trip than ever before. Many have a little house nearby where in earlier years, a lock keeper would have resided.

Tony fancied this bike, or was it the red shoe?

Shortly thereafter we detoured from our route into a village and found the smallest boulangerie ever. We made do😊.

Sitting and eating this was our view.

Wheat dominated agricultural crops today,

There has been a distinct lack of loos on EV6, but today, we found one. A hole in the ground for males and females. Got to love that splash back! Interesting rock cliff adjacent.

We enjoyed the shaded areas. The heat had picked up and for most of the day it was 28c. That is pretty hot for Tasmanians riding. My preferred riding temperature is 10-20c.

We were heading in a southern direction overall, despite our river meanderings. As the day went on a southerly picked up. It did make riding a tougher ask but ever so enjoyable in cooling us down.

We rode around the edge of Dole along the rivers edge. The Notre Dame church dominates the skyline. it was constructed in the 16th century.

I mentioned yesterday the Euro Velo signage. Here is a different one, advising what villages are ahead. There is mess on the sign, being fresh grass cuttings!

We had crossed paths today with two older blokes on e bikes, who had stayed at our accomodation. We tried saying hi but they ignored us.

During the day we saw these guys multiple times and they gave us nothing! We dubbed them, the two cranky old French farts.

Shortly after our last sighting we came across these green things. We had no idea what we were catching. They reminded me of linen vehicles that zip around larger resorts.

We did overtake them although as you can see there is not much room on their left, so we needed to give them a shout. They were pedalling these contraptions and we assume given their pace, they were electric pedal power assisted.

We crossed over the bridge below heading into Damparis. We saw the two cranky old French farts. We got a half wave…things were improving. We kept going. They were sitting outside a boulangerie but we headed to the local supermache and grabbed basic supplies including a banana and water.

As we headed back to the river we were surprised the two cranky old French farts were still there. This time, they stood up and waved! We made it! We need to rename them!

Alas, we have not seen them since as we left Euro Velo 6 heading country and towards our next destination of Beaune.

The last 40 km was a bit of a slog into the headwind and it was seriously warm. Village after village in a predominantly rural area.

Our route into Beaune was excellent and minimal traffic. The last km was slow as we were riding on my least favoured surface, cobbles. The bike shakes despite the big tyres!

Todays route is below. We are now in the capital of the Burgundy wine growing region (so I read, despite not seeing one vineyard today).

There was a site in Beaune I was looking forward to seeing and it was the Hospices de Beaune or Hotel Dieu de Beaune, a former charitable almshouse, founded in 1443 as a hospital for the poor.

The original hospital building still exists and is regarded as one of the best examples of Burgundy architecture.

I did the self guided tour whilst Tony sat in the shade outside. It is quite extensive with 26 points of interest.

We wandered around looking for a dinner spot noting some other buildings.

Then we stumbled across the Notre Dame de Beaune basilica where construction started in the 12th century.

It was seriously very cool inside offering great refuge from the heat.

So we had dinner, wandered back and oh look, whose washing could that be?

Our room was upgraded to a suite. Those two windows are in our bedroom, but I am in a room typing this blog to the right, where we have a lounge room, and a second bathroom with the tiniest walk in shower ever.

124 km done and dusted today, 356 km in the first three days. There is an 85% chance of us getting a wet bum tomorrow as thunderstorms and rain is forecast.

Breakfast here does not start until 8 am! The look on my face must have been something as the guy said “well not before 7.45” so 7.45 it is!

Maybe the bread takes even longer to cook here!! Given we will be awake and up and about by 5.30 am it will be a long few hours….no access to our bike to get it ready either.

So until tomorrow, Ooroo and smile on 😊