Day 34: Dijon à Domblans

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These photos start to look all the same – we are very fortunate with the weather.

We did the usual boulangerie breakfast instead of paying 12€/person for the hotel breakfast. Unfortunately, the market was not open today, so we loaded up picnic supplies at Carrefour.

On the way out of the city, we stopped at a bike store to pick up two new chains for our bikes, as we noticed an over tolerance (>1%) stretching in our chains using a chain-wear tool in the community bike shop yesterday. I overpaid for the chains at 30€ each. Should have been between 10-15€. Not sure why I sometimes just freeze and pay instead of taking a moment to think or asking for a cheaper option.

Today the goal was to get to a nice rest-day spot, which Liz found in Domblans, which had the only downside of being 100km away from Dijon. But with an early start, some Petit Écolier breaks, and the rest-day carrot (a pool at the hotel!) dangling in front of us, it would be doable.

The geovelo.fr route was again great, and took us over smaller country roads into the Jura, home of vin jaune, Comté, and La Vache qui rit.

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Just a bit outside Dijon, we ran into a couple harvesting Mirabelles from a tree near the highway, and we had a quick, delicious snack, too.

The slightly downhill or flat terrain for the first 60km made for fast progress, and we decided to stop for lunch only after 70km of the 100km route are done. We stopped in a tiny town, Mouthier-en-Bresse, enjoying our picnic in some shade near a church, which was a welcome relief from the hot sun (still, can’t really complain about the weather).

One major bummer was that another one of my spokes went. Either I am really unlucky, or my back wheel spokes are all near the end of their lifetime. Not sure how to proceed now. Repairing the remaining 29 spokes along the way will cost more than a new wheel, so we decided to try and find a new wheel in Geneva.

After lunch, it started to get a bit more hilly, with some 10% inclines, but nothing long, so doable. And near the top of the last climb of the day, Liz’s eagle eye spotted a farm selling fresh goat cheese, so we stopped and the nice farmer sold us a garlic and regular goat cheese for 3.40€. He was a truck driver before retiring to farming here, and knew Switzerland very well.

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These pretty horses were a welcome break on the climb to the highest point of the day  (~370m/1200ft).

From the highest point, it was a steep (18% at times) descent into Domblans, where we picked up more supplies for a nice picnic dinner at the pool. Liz got some strong beer cans (7.2% plus), but that is ok because it is a rest-day tomorrow. Oh, and we got to eat the carrot at the end, i.e we had a nice dip in the cool pool.

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The pool had a stationary bike in it (aqua biking?), so I did kilometer 101 in there. Peformance, as Liz would say.

Total distance/elevation to date: 2672km/15’832m
Rest days: 7
Day 34 Route and Stats

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