Beginning in the most romantic city in the world, our second leg of our round-the-world tour saw us cycle 354 miles through beautiful French countryside and past Romanesque churches with a final push up into the Jura Mountains.
With the iconic Eiffel Tower behind us, we followed the Seine out of Paris to the southeast to the historic Fontainebleau for lunch. Our route covered lots of cycle paths along the beautiful river and through various forests, some of which were better surfaced than others! In the afternoon we enjoyed well-surfaced, fast roads and French beautiful countryside before staying in Sens for the night.
An early start saw us cycling along lovely quiet roads before stopping in Chablis. We enjoyed more peaceful roads after lunch before arriving in the medieval town of Semur-en-Auxois in the evening – just in time for the annual music festival! With a punk band outside one hotel and a DJ by another, it’s fair to say we had a noisy night in preparation for the longest cycle of the leg on day three!
Up and out nice and early, we followed the Burgundy canal before having lunch in Nuits St George. The afternoon was fairly flat before arriving in the small Roman Spa town of Lons-le-Saunier for the evening.
We kick-started the final stage with a steep climb to get us limbered up for the day ahead. We then crossed the Jura Mountains into Switzerland with a seven mile long climb of over 1200m. A beautiful and fast descent to Lake Geneva was the perfect end to the ride before celebrating by the lakeside and with a well-deserved meal in a restaurant.
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