Bromptomaniac

By morning, all my clothes were dry, I had slept better and longer than the night before, and—thankfully—it wasn’t raining. Even though today’s distance was greater than yesterday’s, it didn’t feel nearly as daunting.
When I stepped outside, it was still grey and foggy, but that didn’t matter—the roads were dry. For the first half of the ride, the path climbed steadily, with far more canal locks than the day before—sometimes one every couple of hundred meters.
At Pouilly-en-Auxois, the summit of the Canal de Bourgogne, the water disappears into a 3.3 km tunnel and reemerges flowing in the opposite direction. From there, the route descended gently all the way to Dijon. I hadn’t seen any boats passing through the locks—or even sailing on the canal—either yesterday or up until Pouilly-en-Auxois. But after that, there were quite a few. With so many locks to navigate, traveling by boat is the very definition of slow travel.
I arrived just before 2 p.m., but since my WarmShowers host wouldn’t be available until after 6, I decided to head to a campsite instead.
After pitching my tent and taking a shower, I walked into the city center—I’d had enough of cycling for one day. I did a bit of sightseeing, but after two days of riding over 100 kilometers each, my quads and knees were completely shot. I made my way back to the campsite and spent the rest of the day just relaxing.

112 km — distance cycled
1984 — year the last French Grand Prix was hosted at the Dijon-Prenois circuit; that year Niki Lauda won F1 race there to secure his third championship
200 000 — visitors attracted to annual International and Gastronomic Fair of Dijon