Day 8 Chablis to Venarey les laumes

Learning from the previous days experience I left even earlier; and was somewhat disheartened to discover it was hotter than the previous day at that time! 6am and 25C! Onwards and upwards as I cycled from the Chablis valley Southeastwards; this morning’s nature watch comprised several woodpeckers and a baby deer!
After a hilly start I descended down to a river valley alongside which ran the Bourgogne Canal; which was to be route for the remaining 60Km today! Route finding is very easy in such circumstances! Food finding is less so; and I was in need of coffee; thank you Ancy le Franc for providing exceptional services to cycling Claire!
Refuelled I was ready to hit the road, well towpath. I was less ready for 30C at 9am but carry on I must! I can heartily recommend the cycle of the Burgundy canal, just be prepared to carry all your daily supplies as opportunities to refuel are beyond thin on the ground; even drinking water is hard to come by; the only sign I saw advertising drinking water was advocating a 2km detour to fill your water bottles at the cemetery!! Seeking shade was the new game; taking care not to end up in the canal! A particularly beautiful Walnut tree provided a brief respite, outside the Manoir du Buffon; it looked a little like Parham House in West Sussex.
A cycle novice mistake I made when I first cycled through Scotland was to infer the same text size for English towns matched the same significance of place size, applied to Scotland. I was trying to avoid the same mistake here but failed today! Fortunately, at least Montbard had a little supermarket where I could restock and enjoy the A/C!
Onwards now and it was really baking; my resting heart rate was 120 in the shade and I was feeling rather hot! It was only 10Km to go so I cycled in a super easy gear very slowly to avoid my heart rate rising too much and limped along to Venarey les laumes where I promptly sat under a tree to cool off! Surely the heat will abate soon!

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