Miki was back to give us her usual excellent breakfast. We had a long chat. A hot day. We followed Miki's advice to go via Charroux to see the Abbaye which was built for Charlemagne and les halles. All that is left of the abbaye is an octagonal tower. We also followed her suggestion to go on to the abbaye of Réau, which was where she and Victor lived with family and friends when they first came to France from Holland. The new owner of the abbaye talked to us about the abbaye and of the times when Miki and Victor lived there. We left via a path through the woods and then has a picnic.

We cycled on to l'Ile Jourdaine to cross the river Vienne and then followed the river on a very pretty road as far as Lussac les Chateaux, where we turned east towards Montmorillon. That morning, we had booked into a Chambre d'Hôte in a farm on the south side of Montmorillon. As it was a bank holiday weekend we couldn't find anywhere that was either near a restaurant or that did evening meals. As it turned out, the road to the farm went through small woods near a river and Mme.Ydier was very friendly. The farm house has low beams and the farmer produces cows for meat as well as cereals and maize.We had to ride the 4 km back to Montmorillon for a very good meal in 'Roman des Saveurs' - starting with a gateau of courgettes, smoked salmon and melted cheese. Montmorillon is a small town built on steep slopes on either side of the river Gartempe.The local trade is in books, they refer to the town as Cité de l'Ecrit and there are many small bookshops and bouquinistes. On the ride back in the dark, the front lamp failed and we saw hundreds of bats.

We had planned to spend the night somewhere on the river Indre before Chateauroux, but being a Saturday bank holiday evening, we had to phone many Chambre d'Hôtes before finding one at Etrechet beyond Chateauroux. Fortunately it does Table d'Hôte.

This day started very hot and continued to be so. We set off via Montmorillon to Bélabre. The road ran alongside a military area, so there are no crops, just grassy fields and trees. Bélabre is a very attractive village on the slopes above a river and we bought our usual baguette, pate, cheese and fruit for our picnic. We continued along a very tiny road as far as the Chateau Ronfort which is on the bank of the river Creuse - it is privately owned and no visitors are allowed. But you can sit in a park on the opposite bank and look at the view - that's where we had our picnic.

We continued through the Regional Park of la Brenne - a big area with thousands of étangs - originally made by monks to breed fish and still used for fish farming. This area is marshy, with low trees, very narrow roads and few cars. There are villages with interesting feaures, for example, Ciron has a Lanterne des Morts - a round hollow chimney like tower on a platform which is supposed to contain an everlasting light.

The Chambre d'Hôte at Etrechet was interesting. It is a big 18th century house with a large garden. The garden is simple - a lerge lawn and big trees, very comfortable and shady to sit in. Mme Lyster has an English husband and had lived in England for 40 years. She talked a lot, but manged to serve us with a good meal. The other guests who were from Rouen advised us to visit Noirlac the next day. We asked about the particular characteristics of the Berry region, but the replies were rather vague: it is at the centre of gravity of France, Georges Sand lived there, they do agriculture and have many chateaux . As to the cuisine: they have carp from la Brenne, galette (puff pastry pie containing potatoes). As we went on through the Berry we wondered whether the difficulty in describing its characteristics was symptomatic, it didn't seem as interesting as the other regions of France.

We had some trouble booking a Chambre d'Hôte, either near Chateauneuf sur Cher or at St. Amand Montron, so we decided to go via Noirlac and then look for a hotel on arrival at St. Amand Montron.We had a good breakfast and then cycled off via Etrechet, following a canal and passing by maize fields and a few woods, over an almost flat landscape until we reached Chateauneuf sur Cher. The Cher flows into the Loire, as do the Vienne which we saw at Ile Jourdain and the Indre that we saw near Chateauroux. We then took a very attractive scenic route by the river Cher, having a picnic beside the river. It seems to get hotter every day. We visited the Abbaye of Noirlac which was very worth while.

We then went on to St Amand Montron where it was hard to find a hotel and the tourist office was closed. The first hotel didn't work on Sundays, the next was full and told us that no more beds are available in town (and tried to book us into one about 8 kms back the way we had come). But eventually we did find a rather dingy hotel with a bed and decided to stay there.

We went to a bar in a dull square and asked about restaurants. They were not much help, but we did eventually get a cheap meal in a basic place (the only disappointing meal for the entire trip). Having eaten we wandered around some more and found an old area of town and another nicer bar. On the whole we found St. Amand rather dull and the Berry a bit boring.

From this day on, we made early starts (well.. about 8.30 am) so as to do 50 km before lunch time and before it became too hot. But this time it had rained in the night and was not so hot! Today's target is Nevers which is on the river Loire itself and on the border of the Bourgogne region.

We were cycling in the rain all morning but the waterproof tops proved to be OK. We stopped for a hot chocolate and a dry off in Sancoin.

We then went on to Apremont which is on the river Allier, which joins the Loire near Nevers. We had known nothing about Apremont - it is a perfectly preserved mediaeval village and it was very exciting to stumble upon it. It had been a mediaeval quarrying village that supplied stone which was transported via the rivers Allier and Loire to Orleans and other places. It was restored in the 1930s. It has two parallel streets of old houses with stone walls and tiled roofs - probably 15th -16th century. A chateau overlooks the village.

We followed the Allier to where it joins the Loire at Bec d'Allier. Nearby is the big canal aqueduct that brings the Canal lateral a la Loire to join the Allier.

The landscape here is on a smaller scale, more interesting, with hedgerows. The crops are still mostly cereals but there are a few sheep. Although the rain had stopped, it was too wet to picnic, so we had lunch in a bakery near Nevers. The approach to Nevers is spectacular - first there is the view of the giant gothic cathedral standing over the town, then you cross the bridge over the Loire and then go up a hill and straight into the old part of the town. The Tourist Office is in a glass shelter on the side of the Ducal Palace - they recommended the nearby Hotel Cleves, where we booked in. We put the tandem in the yard, changed our clothes, and put the socks and shoes (stuffed with pages from Figaro) to dry. The weather was now fine and there was no more rain.

We followed the blue line that helps tourists to find all the interesting sites in Nevers. This took us to the Ducal Palace, down to the riverside, past the old ramparts and on to the cathedral. We visited the cathedral with its giant gothic nave and romanesque apse. We then followed the blue line again through the pedestrian areas.

We had an evening meal at Bacchus - this restaurant offers a set price meal for €21 including 3 glasses of wine. The sommelier selects the wine to match each of the three courses. He and his wife run the restaurant. The food was good and the wine excellent, particularly a Touraine cepage 'Gamay' 2000.

We chose Fours as our next destination, as it is midway between Nevers and Autun and has a Chambre d'Hôte with a swimming pool that provides an evening meal.

As usual we had a cool morning and warm afternoon. We left Nevers on the south side with a view to following the canal lateral à la Loire as far as Décise. We tried the towpath for some of the way, but found it rather bumpy. We had seen this canal the day before where it crossed the Allier on a big aqueduct.

Décise is a small country town on a hill above the Loire. We bought our picnic there and eat it by the river. We then rode on to Fours following the valleys of the rivers Aron and Alene. Unfortunately this was a fairly busy road and there seemed no easy way of avoiding it.

Fours itself is a bit like a small commuter town. There is a central square with a church and most of the usual shops. But the remaining houses are mainly strung along the mian road.

However, the Chambre d'Hôte was just off this road and proved interesting. It is called Chateau Latour. It's scarcely a chateau but is a fine Georgian style stone house built in 1720 with a slate roof. A bonus is the big swimming pool where we were able to cool off on our arrival. The people who run it also have a brocante as well as several fields, with chickens in the garden and goats in the field.

M. Petillot let us look round all the junk in his barn, which he sells to Dutch people who buy houses in the area. We had a good Table d'Hôte meal during which a big storm blew up - rain was coming in through the windows.

Another fine day, that became very hot by the afternoon. To avoid the main roads, we took the hilly side roads along the edge of the Morvan Regional Park, passing through villages and farms - we even had to wait for a herd of cows to go down the road. We saw a spotted woodpecker (Pic épeiche) and several big brown hawks, one quite close up.The ride into Autun is good - up a hill and into a square (champ de mars) where we had a picnic lunch.

The Tourist Office is nearby and they told us about the Hotel Tete Noire nearby, which we booked into.

Autun is surrounded by wooded hills above the valley of the river Arroux. The centre of Autun has many narrow streets, lined with old houses. The Rolin family were famous in the middle ages, the best known member being a lawyer in the 14th century.

We walked through the pedestrian area to see the cathedral. Our photographs of Autun are here.

The Musée Rolin was very well worth the visit. They have a collection of roman mosaics and sculpture and many early paintings including a nativity with Rolin attending, by the Maitre de Moulins (Moulins is to the south of Autun). In addition there is a collection of local impressionists and post impressionists - including Louis Charlot - and a watercolourist (Maurice Denis - nice pink paintings). But the best thing in the collection was the mediaeval stone carving of the temptation of Eve by Gislebertius.

We sat by the fountain outside the cathedral for a drink and then went on to have a meal in a creperie in rue de Banc next to the Musée Rolin. It rained hard so we sat inside to eat. When the rain stopped we went for a walk round the Roman Ramparts.

We set off early from Seurre to cross the last part of Burgundy, between the valley of the Saône and that of the Doubs, which we joined at Dole. The land was surprisingly flat with lots of villages. We chose to go via Dole so that we could cross over the river Doubs and use the very small road on the south side beside the forest of Chaoux - which proved to be very attractive with the river on one side and the forest on the other. We found a pleasant picnic place by the riverside. We crossed back to the north side at Roset with a view to cutting off a big curve in the river. We tried the towpath of the Rhone-Rhine canal, which was in good condition for a short distance, but then suddenly became very rough. We then had to backtrack a bit so as to join a suitable road. We should explain that the river Doubs is navigable in this area and plays a role as a part of Rhone-Rhine canal for some of its length.

We managed to follow the north bank of the river on a small road until almost into Besancon, where we had to climb a long and very steep hill to go over the bridge and into the town. We found the Hotel Granvell quite quickly - we saw another tandem in the shed and later on met its owners Mark and Sue from Portland Oregon. We had a meal with them inthe restaurant Polonaise.

On our first evening we walked in the pedestrian area, along Grand Rue and to the 8th September Square. We saw the chateau Granvell (a 16th century family made famous by a father of humble origins who became a notary and his son who was a doctor and lawyer, a parliamentary adviser and chancellor to Charles 5th.

We walked out over the Battant Bridge and looked back at the long rows of grey stone houses on the river front.

This was our day of rest. We had a lazy start and then went up to visit Vauban's Citadelle, high above the Doubs. We walked around its ramparts, getting views of the town and river from various angles. On the way down, we visited the mainly romanesque cathedral which contains a painting by Fra Bartolommeo.

In the afternoon we went to the Tourist Office, which is over the Pont de la Republique to get information about places to stay in Montbéliard and the location of a bike shop, where we bought some brake blocks. The brake blocks replacement was the only work done to the tandem for the entire trip. As this was a very hot day, we enjoyed the air conditioning in the Toursist Office while we were reading their information

The Musée of Beaux Arts and Archaeology is entered via a building with a classical facade, but the gallery is in a concrete building with ramps and landings built by a pupil of le Corbusier. The ground floor had a temporary exhibition of paintings of Mao by a Chinese artist. Above this was a very good collection of early paintings including Bellini's Drunkenness of Noah, and some Cranachs. A local collector (a communist called Besson) had donated a big collection of Impressionists including some good locals (Marquet and Andre) together with Renoir and Braque. It was very hot and humid in the museum, so when we left, we sat in the Square 8th September with a cool drink watching the passers by. This square is a very busy, with cafes, a carousel, buses and occasional posers in noisy cars - then a wedding party came out from the Town Hall.

Rather than going straight along the centre of the Rhine valley to Colmar, we decided to head for the foothills of the Vosges to see the Route du Vin and to spend the night near Cernay.

We made a lazy start, following the Rhone-Rhine canal, the first 7 km on the towpath. This is a well-paved track called the Coulée Verte and used for family bike rides. We went past the vast Peugeot factory on the other side of the canal, where hundreds of new cars were lined up.

We turned away from the canal at Montreux Chateau and entered the Alsace region. Here there are numerous small villages with German names and nice countryside between them, growing maize and potatoes, as well as beach woods. The houses in this area are half-timbered, with steep roofs, German style. We saw storks flying. We had our picnic in a beach wood and then went on to Burnhaupf le Bas which was having an immense fair - the road was marked as barred but we decided to walk through, little knowing that the stalls and other activities would stretch for a long way and prevent us from taking the turning we wanted. This meant that we had a lot of trouble getting past the pair of A and N roads in our route. Eventually we escaped onto a small road and into Cernay.

The Chambre d'Hôte at Uffholz is a very pleasant and peaceful place. They have three purpose-built rooms facing a private garden, each with kitchen and bathroom. We sat in the garden reading and our host gave us cherries and strawberries grown in their garden. The father of the host suggested that we should visit Neuf Brisach on the way to Colmar.

We walked back to the nearby centre of Cernay past a large war grave cemetry. Most of the graves were from the first world war, when the French were involved in many battles in the attempt to reclaim Alsace, which had been taken by the Prussians in 1870. Large parts of Cernay appear to have been rebuilt recently.

It's a pity it was a Bank Holiday and all the shops shut, or we could have made our own meal. Although this is supposed to be on the route du vin, we haven't seen any vineyards yet. We had a buffet meal at a place near the Chambre d'Hôte.

We noticed today that people are talking alsacien, which sounds like German but with a few French words.

We would have like to follow some more of the route du vin, but due to the heat and the distance, we decided to take the shortest route. This was shown on the cycle route map as a cycle route on minor roads which joined the towpath of the Rhone-Rhine canal for the last 30 km into Strasbourg. The route was signed as far as the canal, and even better, the towpath is beautifully surfaced all of the way to Strasbourg. The latter was a very peaceful route, straight and level with picnic places along the way.

Eventually we arrived near the centre of Strasbourg, seeing a major road on the other side of the canal. We turned off from the canal by the hospital onto a cycle track that runs alongside a river, ducking under bridges from time to time. After a short distance, you come up to road level and take a cycle lane towards the centre, crossing two roads. Then you are in the pedestrian area and arrive in the square in front of the cathdral. The cathedral faces the square, it is the biggest and most impressive we have seen, built of the red-brown Vosges stone and covered in sculpture.

After getting the information from the tourist office, we tried several hotels near to the centre, but eventually had to settle for the Continental near to the railway station. However, this was a good choice as they were very helpful about storing our bags and tandem the next day.

Our photographs of Strasbourg are here. We walked back to the cathedral square via Petite France, which is an old area of timbered merchants' houses by the water, one of which is the Tanners House. We then passed by Guttenburg square - Guttenburg lived in Strasbourg for 10 years while he was developing the printing press.

After a visit to the cathedral, we had a meal in a restaurant nearby - J had Baekehoff (bakers oven) - a stew of potatoes, onions, carrots and 3 meats in riesling and G had confit de canard.

Strasbourg has hundreds of cyclists, marked lanes, cycling signed as allowed in pedestrian areas, contraflow in 1-way street outside the hotel. Pedestrians and cyclists seem to coexist also cars and cyclists.