Digoin to Decize
The campsite I stayed last night sat right on the Loire, which brought one nuisance: frogs so loud that earplugs couldn’t muffle them, and it took a while to fall asleep. Once out, though, I slept well.
With the heat growing more oppressive by the day, I got up earlier than the previous week to get a head start. Until Bourbon-Lancy I followed the EV6 along the Canal Latéral à la Loire, then the Voie Verte. Curiosity got the better of me and I made a detour into Bourbon-Lancy, pedalling uphill for a couple of kilometres for not much in return.
Back on track, I stuck to small backroads before making a beeline to Decize. The town sits on an island — nothing special about it, but pleasantly so. Tomorrow I’m taking a day off staying with an acquaintance in nearby Saint-Honoré-les-Bains. Sleeping in a bed and doing nothing will do me good.
Today in numbers:
75 km — distance cycled
4 — times Queen Louise de Lorraine came to Bourbon-Lancy to take the cure for infertility
31% — Decize population decline since 1968
52 BC — first thermal baths built by the Romans on the site of present-day Saint-Honoré-les-BainsDay 6 – Digoin to Bourbon-Lancy