We stayed in the Hotel Pinnochio in Gy. A hotel dedicated to the lovable wooden puppet/boy. Who knew there'd be such a thing? No fibbing at the back, you know what happens if you tell fibs. After breakfast, (the local boulangerie was closed for the holidays!) we set off up the hill towards the chateau. Actually, I set off up the hill twice. We left our phone charger in the hotel and I had to go back for it. Grrr. I didn't mind to be honest, I actually love walking uphill. (Walking downhill is quite another matter, no doubt we'll come back to that issue later.)
The route from Gy is quite a pull. A good way of getting going first thin in the morning. Round past the chateau and up and up for 3k. The sun eventually came out as we entered the forest, the Grands Bois de Gy. It was another magical walk.
The route through the forest was about 10.5k of scenery like this...gorgeous.
There was evidence all around of woodland management. We never saw anyone, of course, but we saw, kilometre after kilometre, a vast quantity of logs seasoning in the sun, ready for winter. And we passed a woman who was looking for mushrooms, she'd obviously had a good day too because her bag was full to overflowing.
It was idyllic. We emerged from the forest into a big complex of farm buildings. The main house was very grand but in need of some TLC. There were several associated buildings that would have made excellent gites. It was all for sale and it was stunning! We said our "if onlys" and continued on to Geziers for lunch. We found a lovely spot by the roadside under a tree, but I had to swat the whole area with my walking pole just in case there were any lurking snakes.
An hour or so further down the road we were in Cussey sur l'Ognon, our stopping place for the night and one of Sigeric's stops too. Our hotel was difficult to find, being at the very top of a hill on the way out of town. Our starter at dinner that night was mushrooms! A fab 'salade forestiere', followed by fritura mixta of local, little river fish. It was an amazing meal. We had company with our dinner too, for the first time in ages. Two women were having dinner at the same time as us and were very interested in what we doing and where we were going. It was a lovely evening. Nevertheless, we were in bed by 9pm.
We awoke to a blue, blue sky and the nagging feeling that no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't get our clothes properly clean by handwashing them. I was getting a bit concerned that, by the end of each day, we were beginning to smell just like pilgrims. We needed to find a launderette and so had agreed that we'd have a rest day in Besancon, our next stop.
We breakfasted in the bar and were told that the local boulangerie had closed. It was becoming a familiar story. The barman told us about a short cut to the next village. We thanked him and walked off in a different direction. We thought long and hard about following his directions but agreed that we'd stick to the directions in the guidebook from now on.
Our route took us through the village, out into fields and through a wood.
The walk through the wood was a bit like an obstacle course. Fallen trees and deep holes prevented us from making rapid progress. In the next village we were able to buy bread in the local wine shop. We were soon at a busy main road, our guidebook sent us along it for 300 yards, down an underpass and back along the other side of the road for 300 yards. We could have simply walked across the road and been at the same place! That's what you get for slavishly following the directions in the guidebook, I guess.
There was a huge farm shop on the road and we bought some local ham and cheese for lunch. After climbing a steep hill, we passed a sign saying "Besancon 6k" and were pleased we were nearly there. Unfortunately, as it turned out, the 6k took us nearly three hours to walk. We found a little residential park for lunch. When we came out a bus passed us - we thought about catching it (if only we had!) because the torturous route took us forever; through industrial estate after out of town shopping centres. It was horrible. We'd been out in the countryside for so long, that cities made us feel depressed and irritable. The lo-o-o-ong road in to the centre was interminable. Eventually, thank blummin goodness, we were there...and after our shower and siesta we set off to discover the town.
Anyone who's been to Besancon will appreciate how spread out this pretty, little city is...nonetheless, it has a wealthy, cosmopolitan feel. We enjoyed a beer and had a yummy home-made burger from a restaurant in one of the trendy, little squares. We headed off back to our hotel as darkness fell. It felt a bit naughty to be out so late.
We had an excellent breakfast the following morning, which was a bit of a rarity; cereal and boiled eggs - what a luxury! The first job was to do our laundry then it was off to the town to buy provisions and do a spot of sight-seeing. The cathedral was a bit austere, so we walked (and walked!) very steeply uphill to the citadel. It felt a little like a busman's holiday. Our treat was a beer in the square.
We'd come to a significant moment in our journey - the end of the first guidebook!
Distance from Canterbury: 767k
Distance to Rome: 1316k
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