Canal du Nivernais

Saturday
Today we drove down to a little south of Auxerre, and went biking along the Canal du Nivernais. When we left home there had been quite a bit of cloud cover, and we thought that would help keep the temperatures down a bit. However, the day turned into another hot summer's day, and there were quite long stretches with little shade, so it was quite draining at times. We found a delightful little cafe right by the canal, where we enjoyed a lovely lunch overlooking the water, with a swan gliding to and fro and swallows soaring and sweeping over the water. Unfortunately my little speedometer on my bike has stopped working and Roger was riding his mountain bike which doesn't have one either, so we didn't really know how far we had gone. Roger has since worked it out on the computer, and reckons it was about 20 miles return, so no wonder I feel tired, especially given the heat - close to 30C! Coming back in the car we passed a road-side stand selling cherries, so we stopped and bought a bag - they were delicious and helped revive me! Then when we got home, we enjoyed a lovely steak dinner, cooked on our new barbecue, and eaten out on the patio.
The Canal du Nivernais links the Loire basin with the Seine basin, roughly following, and periodically joining with the River Yonne in a north/south direction, between the historic town of Auxerre in the north and Saint Léger des Vignes, near Decize in the south. The canal is 110 miles long and has 110 locks, 28 of which are in the southernmost 12 km. We didn't see much boat traffic on the section we cycled, only three, but there were plenty of other cyclists out enjoying the beautiful trail.
Well I think I'm off for an early night - I think I should sleep well tonight!