Day11, was a do very little day after all the rushing around on the Himalayan - you can only bible so much, so a coffee and cake day
Day 12, the trip back home started, but again a bimble across France, with no particular destination in mind, though I did want to get to the Morvan area as I'd heard so much about it. So I aimed North West and set off.
Although not in a rush the morning got off to a bad start, with a closed road due to a diesel spill and a deviation route set up, this being the Alps, there's no quick alternative, but an entertaining road about the Gorge D'Arly, initially held up with traffic, but managed to squeeze past the traffic using the awesome 24.5 bhp, and the huge Italian HGV trying to negotiate the hairpins whilst he'd stopped for a chat with another HGV driver coming the other direction, I assume to ask about whether the road got narrower
(I don't think I mentioned the extra 0.5 bhp before, I'm sure it makes all the difference. In fact the bike has lessened up nicely now with almost 6,000 miles on the clock, so much better than when new). Once I'd escaped the traffic, and gone in the wrong direction twice, the Alps are so disorientating, I reached Ugine and headed towards Anncey, in my frustration I opened up the throttle and think I got flashed at least twice on the main road - by those sneaky cameras they use in France which are at knee height, painted grey and hidden on the side of the road
Anncey was dreadful and lovely at the same time, the lake is an amazing azure blue, but as with all cities, traffic everywhere. Eventually found my way out of Anncey and on the D1508 towards Frangy and Valserhone. I've not been here before, the road climbed and climbed, huge limestone cliffs and forest as scenery, impressive, as was the French motorway engineering, not as high as Millau, but not the less impressive.
I came off the main road and headed cross country towards Bourg-en-Bresse, crossing the L'Ain river, lots of gorges here, very picturesque and great roads, not as many hairpins as the Alps, but fun curves all the same. I managed my usual lunchtime trick here by not being able to find anywhere I liked the look of to stop for lunch until well into the afternoon, should have stopped much earlier. Anyway stopped just after Cluny n the D980 in some shade. Something horsey was happening in Cluny, horses and horsey types everywhere, I got the impression that it's wasn't just a thing for the weekend, but something the town is involved with long term.
A small French col
and a roadside lunch
I ended up in Saulieu in the Morvan, so a long ride today and even managed to unintentionally find some gravel roads which were part of another deviation when I was lost again, well not lost really as I didn't know where I was going so never lost
Landed on my feet at the campsite, my French camping neighbours were a lovely couple who I subsequently bumped into in the town when having a wander and had a beer or two with. They'd booked a meal at a small auberge in town and invited me along. One of the joys of travelling alone is the opportunities it presents to interact with others. The auberge turned out to have a fantastic menu, really great food at reasonable prices. They took me through the whole menu so I was able to opt for interesting courses I'd not considered before, pressed ham with herbs as started pan fried duck with cherries and Creme Brûlée (which was huge), also tried snails, just chewy garlic butter really, OK but not my thing. Not sure what the wine was, they had a long discussion about it, it was local and very nice. I can recommend Saulieu, a lovely medieval town, though not the campsite which was very noisy at night with constant HGV traffic on the main road and some partying people.
Herewith photos of Saulieu and dinner...