Day 4 : Ou est le camping?

In the morning the other cyclists had already left. First we had to travel over a large road leading toward Dijon. Then we needed to turn left to Til-châtel, after which we would end up in the area where we had been most thirsty during our last vacation. We applied a lot more sunscreen and took a pee in the bushes. The area didn't seem that bad at first, we passed over many small hills and the sun shone brightly. We again passed the sign indicating the village charmes, where Bram took a picture last time. It was incredibly warm. The next village came a bit later than expected, but we had prepared ourselves well by carrying some extra water and a melon.

 

In Auxonne, we wanted to buy groceries at the same store as last time. It was closed for lunch, as most stores in France are. We even saw French people showing up, indicating that they also couldn't figure out which were open and which were not. Luckily we found an open bakery. We got a pizza that we ate in the shade. There was a sign indicating it was 32 degrees.

We bought as much as possible at the supermarket, which was open by now. To stick to our plan of saving time by repeating our previous trip as much as possible we ate everything in a nearby park, the same as we ate in two years ago. The road was easy to find because I still remembered most of it. It was also relatively flat. In St. Jean de Losne we crossed the Saône river and then raced over a blisteringly hot road. Just as two years ago, we bought ice cream at a supermarket. Then we cycled through the heat for a few more hours at 25 km/h.

We were still on schedule to arrive at the campsite around 19:00. Because we were hungry we bought a pizza at a stand, which took 45 minutes to be ready. It was half a meter across and shaped like a blob of dough. Now we still wouldn't arrive before 20:00, but at least we had eaten a good meal.

It wouldn't be far to the campsite. In the village was a sign indicating the campsite, however, 2 km later we still hadn't found it. After cycling back and forth, we decided to continue to the next village, which was also supposed to have a campsite. After 5 km we arrived and took a side road, going 3 km downhill to where the campsite was supposed to be. Again nothing. We climbed all the way back and continued for another 10 km to the next village. A 3rd campsite was again nowhere to be found. 

 

We asked for directions in a bar. The owner told us there was no campsite, but there was one 10 km in the wrong direction. When we walked out I asked Bart, "so we are going to lie in a ditch somewhere?" to which he replied, "yes". That's the nice part of spending so much time together, we didn't need to discuss anything. A further, after cycling 180 km, we stopped somewhere by the side of the road. Bart felt the need to interview me with his mobile phone, so I could explain how we cycled 180 km and now had to sleep in some field without anything to drink.