Last night, thunderstorms swept across much of France, including the area where I was staying. I woke up to the sound of thunder and strong winds—but no rain at first. A few hours later, I heard the rain tapping on the tent, but it wasn’t anything too serious.
I got up around 6 a.m. as usual, packed everything up, and set off into a cooler day—which was a welcome change. Not long after hitting the road, I began seeing the aftermath of the storms: broken branches, debris scattered across the path, and even entire trees down. This continued throughout the day’s route. I was just glad nothing had fallen on my tent during the night.
One clear byproduct of the storm was the persistent headwind. Even on flat roads, it made pedaling noticeably harder.
Somehow, I completely miscalculated today’s distance. Yesterday, I ended up doing 25 km more than planned. Today should’ve been shorter by about the same amount—or I should’ve continued further to balance things out. But even after covering 15 km more than originally planned, I still only made it to the same town I had originally marked: Auxonne. That’s about a 40 km misjudgment. I even took a couple of shortcuts—without those, it would’ve been worse.
Auxonne is a small town—you can cross it on foot in about ten minutes—but it has both a campsite and a supermarket, which is exactly why I chose it. It also has an unexpectedly rich history. A young Napoleon Bonaparte was stationed here for a couple of years while studying artillery at the Château d’Auxonne, a 15th-century fortress built on the orders of King Louis XI.
Let’s hope I’ve got tomorrow’s distance right—and that there are no more surprises.
Today in numbers:
125 km – distance cycled
1788-1791 — second lieutenant Napoleon Bonaparte was stationed in Auxonne