21st of July we were happy to have some cash with us, because a lightning had probably interfered with the internet system of Lons as no-one was able to pay by card anymore, neither at the restaurant nor at the hotel and we had no access to WiFi anyways.
We left Lons-le-Saunier after a typical French breakfast at the “resto” à la place called “Mjiam”, which was exactly the right expression for how yummy the “pain au chocolat and raisins” were. We were lucky to continue on the old railway line with the “voie verte” for our next leg to Chalon-sur-Saone.
It was very windy and clouds moved fast and changed quickly in size and made their own grumbling noise. The more we got out of town and into the forests we realized how much damage was caused by the last thunderstorm yesterday. There were leaves, branches and complete trees lying on the road which we still could manage to get around. But the next thunderstorm rolled in and I found a perfect shelter at a farmhouse where they dried their wood. It was such a dry place, that it was a paradise for antlions. Robert never had seen such a thing before, but you could see everywhere the cones of a complete Antlions colony.
It just started to rain heavily when another biker named Vincent joined us under the roof. It was getting really heavy rain and I never understood why in English it rained cats and dogs while in French it rains like a cow is pissing: “comme vache qui pisse” The sound comes immediately with the image they create with their words. I never associated cats and dogs with the sound of rain. But this sound got even worse as it started to hail on the metal sheet roof really loud.
We were so lucky to have found our shelter, because we would have been completely soaking wet. But after a half hour of patience we were back on our bikes in our different directions.
Vincent came from Louhans where we wanted to go to next, but he predicted us that probably the Monday market in town had already closed due to the heavy rain. So the only place still open was the restaurant of the BHV (Bar de l’hotel de ville) where they offered the freshest dishes directly from the market. We had so much fun with the waitress as she called us the men with the beautiful stockings. Each one had to finish his main course before he had the right to deserve a dessert. Bienvenue en France.
The next leg to Chalon sur Saone was going by Saint-Germain-du-Plain where a tower of a castle from the 12th century still was left after the revolutionary wars. Just before the little creek of la Noue we were completely blocked by a fallen tree. No chance to get our heavy bikes over this barrier. We had to take the main road for a while to soon join the “voie verte” again and wanted to warn others who came against our direction even with a dog trailer behind their bikes.
We biked parallel with a guy from Mainz who had toured France already for 3.900km in 30 days and exchanging experiences until we arrived in Chalon-sur-Saone. The town still has a medieval centre around the Romanic-gothic cathedral of Saint-Vincent, which had also lost its façade in the French revolutionary war. It was just under renovation and service was offered only in the church of Saint Peter. The priest offered us to return after he had said Mass. We just used the time to find a hotel room before the rain started again.
After the service the priest was so nice to give us the stamp of Saint Just who came from Chalon. There were other famous citizens like Nicephore Niepce who invented the photography, but unfortunately his museum was already closed. Just in front of the museum a local wanted to take a photo of us with our stockings. It seems to be something which inspired him, because in the court of the museum was a huge photo on display of a man taking a photo of women’s feet on a catwalk in the sixties. We had our fun and the day ended again with a beautiful rainbow.
