Today’s ride: 135km, 1292m elevation

Total so far: 552km, 2637m

The bonus of getting in late on day three was that we didn’t have breakfast sorted, so we had to stop in the village to get something to eat. So thank you to Patisserie Guillet in Bourbon-Lancy for the friendly welcome and the best breakfast of the trip by a country mile – a Paris-Brest to die for and a pain au chocolate so fresh that the chocolate inside was still oven hot, and both were dwarfed by Graeme’s pan suisse. Incredible.

The rolling hills of the Bourgogne continued to welcome us with interesting climbs, patches of woodland and fragmented agriculture that seemed to create opportunities for wildlife. A deer ran across the road in front of me, then back across between me and Graeme 100m further back, we chased a leveret down a lane, and numerous birds of prey impassively regarded our progress from their perches. At one point, a stork circled the road ahead before landing in a field and peering back at us from its semi-camouflaged position. It was lovely, a real privilege to ride through and a landscape that reminded me of home.

There was English weather in the forecast too and spots of rain started to infiltrate our day. By lunchtime we had reached the medieval town of Charolles, famous for giving its name to the breed of white cow you see all over Bourgogne and the associated beef and dairy products. Sadly we couldn’t find any of them in town as the local fromagerie was closed, so settled for a delicious local goats cheese instead.

We managed to at least pick up a piece of Charolles steak on the way into Mâcon, cutting through the 1.6km Tunnel de Bois Clair that connects the town with Cluny and takes out the final climb. It was a thrilling diversion but sadly the town didn’t excite me. It rained heavily as we arrived and the traffic was busy and chaotic; it just didn’t feel right. Instead, we pushed on to a lovely campsite in the village of Vonnas, where the campsite owner Ludo gave us a friendly cyclists’ welcome. It was a nice evening and we were in reasonably early, so Graeme went to get pasta to accompany our steak while I set up camp. We ate, showered, got done washing done and hung it out to dry… then the sky suddenly darkened and it poured with rain. An hour later, we were huddled outside the toilets drinking a beer while a thunderstorm passed in the hills to our west. We were starting to wonder if we’d ever get a day that went right.