It was grey and cold in Autun this morning, enough to put me off pausing and taking in more if the old city….another visit maybe.

What was really appealing was cranking up the temperature on my heated jacket and getting cozy.

Ever have one of those mornings where everything seems to go slightly pear-shaped and takes forever? I did today…

It’s not like I’m not used to packing my bags and stowing them on Harls, so how come my big bag, which had less stuff in it than yesterday, wouldn’t pack down? Then the panniers, had they shrunk overnight?

Then where is the spare set of keys? – Five minutes later I found them….hanging off the lanyard round my neck! For the love of all that is Pear-Shaped, let’s just go ride!!!

Because we bailed out of the mountains a day earlier than I’d intended, due to the weather closing in, we gained an extra day in France which is no hardship at all. It also means that we didn’t have big miles to cover and d’ya know, I’ve loved that; maybe time for a bit of a “Trip Planning” rethink!?!?!

Anyway, we covered just over 175 miles today; moving from Bourgogne to the Cher.

That’s 175 gloriously relaxed miles continuing on the lesser, yet truly superb, roads of this lovely country, France.

I made plenty of brief stops, some to grab a photo, some just to take in the view and others because at times the sky truly took my breath away!

In the USA, the State of Montana is known as “The Big Sky State.” Well yes, when you are there it’s very impressive, but you know it doesn’t have the monopoly on Big Skies…I saw plenty here today. The sort of sky that makes me feel really small and when you look up into the blue bits, you know that you are looking at infinity….or at least a very long way!

One of the great things about riding the lesser roads, apart from they are blissfully quiet, is that despite not munching off the miles I get time to drink it all in and avoid suffering from the type of boredom that motorway pounding can induce. On the other hand some of those lesser roads are not quite as smooth as the Autoroutes and that in itself hands out another type of fatigue, along with a numb bum! So, yes another reason for frequent stops too, but you know Dookes, I can never stop for long, always needing to move on.

Tonight I’m back with my friends Claudine and Jacques on their farm just outside Vierzon. Having a sense of humour Jacques, when he saw me stretching out after getting off Harls, asked me if I fancied a ride on one of their horses this evening …he’s all giving is my mate Jacques and the answer was no!

So it’s a glass of nice Bourgogne Pinot Noir, rillettes de canard and some other nibbles then off to have an early night; tomorrow we are a mile munching again, off to see other friends in Brittany and that’s likely to get quite messy!

“But you know he’ll always keep moving
You know he’s never gonna stop moving
‘Cause he’s rolling, he’s the rolling stone”

Catch you later.

Dookes