Digoin to Nevers

 In Digoin the two major canals coverage. On our day off we visited the ObseraLoire next to the lateral canal and determined our direction out of town. On the next day we bicycled over the canal bridge over Loire River and continued on the quiet and flat canal pathway for 33 km.  It turned out to be a lovely sunny day.  

Right before Bourbon-Lancy where the trail ended we past an American couple from Wisconsin going the opposite direction. We stopped and chatted for while and got advice on the rest of the days ride. We had met a French cyclist Alain who was also trying to determine the direction, but he was much faster and had gone ahead. 

After we took the direction given by the American couple we followed D15 to D30 in direction of Cronat and just before we reached Cronat and while crossing the Loire once again run into Alain coming in the opposite direction!!!  It turned out that he had taken a much hillier route and even though much faster we had cought up with him.  We rode 55 km with EG of 381 ft.  

That night in Cronat a major weather system came through with a lot of thunder and lightning and heavy rain setting off the church bells several times.  Our next days ride was also along the canal pathway quiet, flat, beautiful and sunny in the afternoon. 

Towards the end of the day we came to another Frenchman bicyclist stopped on the side of the road. We stopped and asked where he was going. He pointed to his nose and said I am follow my nose!  The nice man gave us a small map brochure of the area since we didn't have a map of the area.  

We rode 59 km and EG of 397 ft, having to dodge all the tree branches and debris from the storm the night before arriving at Nevers about 3:30 pm . 

Days two and three - Cleppe to Digoin

 Wed. June 1, We left our hotel in Cleppe near Loire River and headed north as the rain started.  This ended being a very picturesque, hilly, and long day. We rode 60.2 km with an elevation gain for the day of 3,238 ft. It was very hilly.  At noon we stopped in Jodard at a small grocery store and bought local cheese, smoked Salmon, yogurt, and Apple's for lunch.  The lady shop owner was from Morocco and gave us some dates. We then rode another 5 km to le Roche castle and had a picnic under some trees and away from the rain.  The rest of the ride was still up long steep hills and then down the other side. We arrived in Roanne at 4:30 pm cleaned up and rested until headed out to a restaurant across the street for a dinner of tastey roasted chicken and fish.  

Thursday June 2, we left our room at 9:30 am after a hearty breakfast.  It looked like it was going to rain again but after an our the sun came out and it warmed up. About 2 km from hotel we found the bicycle path running along the canal and was able to follow it to Briennon. From there we crossed the river Loire and found the Void Verge which took us for 45 km north and then west to Digoin. We stopped at 25 km and had lunch of our leftovers from the day before. Today's ride was even longer at 69.2 km.  But the trails were flat with an elevation gain of only 413 ft.  However this was very welcomed as we were very tired from yesterday's ride and the long ride today. Our hotel is lovely and we are having dinner at the hotel tonight. 

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Our start in the rain just east of Loire. 

Lunch break in St. Martin

Hotel in Clippe. 

Crossing Loire

Le Roche Castle

Canal de Roanne a Digoin. 

Lunch on the Voie Verte. 

Our hotel in Digoin. 

Canal lateral a la Loire, passing over the Loire River. 

L’Eglise

Adventures Begin

 We arrived in Lyon with all our luggage and digits intact.  We will start our bicycle tour of France this time traveling from east to west. Starting from Lyon then heading north and west all the way to the Atlantic shores following the flow of the Loire River then north to take a ferry from Roscoff to Cork in Ireland. In Ireland we will be heading west to The Dingle peninsula before going north again all the Sligo before turning south east and ending in Dublin to fly home. 

Our first ride will be tomorrow just west of Lyon and close to the source of Loire River and we will follow it to its termination at Atlantic Ocean.  Then head north to Port of Roscoff to take an overnight ferry to Cork in Ireland.  

I hope you are all doing great. More to come soon. Best wishes to you. B&A  

Europe 2022 Adventure - Lyon, France to Dublin, Ireland

 

Europe 2022 Adventure - Lyon, France to Dublin, Ireland

We are planning another bicycle adventure this spring and summer, celebrating Anne's 65th and my 70th turn around the sun.  This is a dream adventure for both Anne and I, to visit Ireland.  Anne's ancestry comes from Ennis, Ireland and we are very excited to visit Ennis for a few days and lookup information about her family. 

We have also decided in order to help with reduction of poverty and global warming, we would donate a bicycle for each 300 Miles of riding we do on this trip, through World Bicycle Relief.  Each bicycle given by World Bicycle Relief fund costs $165. We are expecting to ride over 1,400 miles.  If you would also like to help with this worthwhile cause by donating, please take a look at their website:

https://worldbicyclerelief.org/

Our plan is to start in eastern central France close to the source of Loire river in Lyon and follow it to its end on the Atlantic Ocean in Saint Nazaire.  Then go north and take a ferry from Roscoff to Cork in Ireland.  

In Ireland from Cork, we will head west and then north to Galway then north again all the way to Sligo, before heading southeast and ending our last week in Dublin.  

We will try to keep up this blog as we go along this trip and would be happy to stay in touch with those of you interested.  Wishing you all the best.  Please sign up if you are interested.  To sign-up you will have to be in the Web version and hit the "Follow" button on top under the Blog Title.  Thank you.