We were late risers today, until we heard the rumbling of trucks on the adjacent road. Since that road was a dead-end, we wondered what they could be until we got up and saw that they were various carnival trucks assembling in the parking areas behind the Mairie, getting ready for the carnival that would be opening in town in a few days time.

Since we were the only boat at the end of the moorings, we ran the main engine again this morning to get the battery charge up a bit. But several boats soon arrived to fill the port, so we turned the engine off again. Soon, we had a Swedish boat asking if they could raft alongside of us while they went into town to get some supplies. At this stage, we decided to go for another bike ride today, to the town of Pesmes, which is listed as one of the (100) "most beautiful towns in France". It was about 15km to Pesmes, so we would get 30+ kms under our belts again for the return trip. Such trips are convincing us that we could work up to the 50km/day that many cyclists are doing on their long-distance trips through France, especially along the rivers and canals with their fairly flat terrain.

So, around noon, we headed off across the river before turning left in the direction of Perrigny-sur-l'Ognon. On our way out of Pontailler, we saw several adjacent households who seemed to be having a competition as to whose garden could be the most spectacular.

After a short ride, we reached Perrigny-sur-l'Ognon, which featured a church with elegant spire and the Pompiers shed with an old manual pump on its roof.

We continued on for the longer ride to Pesmes. Along the way we passed a forest that was being harvested. However, unlike the industrial-scale forests in Australia which tend to be clear-felled, the community-scale forests in France tend to be selectively logged, leaving most of trees to grow on. Over a number of years, all of the trees will probably be harvested, but the gradual rotational nature of the harvesting never leaves the landscape looking totally denuded. Because of this rotational harvesting, at any point in time, the forest will contain trees ready to be harvested, plus trees at different stages in their life cycle, from newly planted up to nearly ready to be harvested.

After a pleasent not-too-strenuous ride (some long gentle climbs and some long gentle falls), we arrived in Pesmes. Having come in via the "back-door", we were somewhat puzzled as to why it was regarded as one of the "most beautiful towns in France". It was OK, but nothing very special. It took us a while to find a cafe/bar where we could get a cool drink, but as we searched for that, Rita found a little artisinal shop making beaded jewelry, which she thought would be an ideal gift for a friend back home. While she was lookimg in that shop, I went wandering to explore other parts of the town, and soon discovered why the town was regarded as being "special". It seems that our ride from Perrigny (which is also on l'Ognon) must have been gently uphill, because we arrived in Pesmes well above the river level, on a plateau on which the town sits. The other side of town falls dramatically back down to river level, and now I'd found the lookout area. Whilst we were tempted, we decided not to ride down to the river and look back up at the town, because we knew we'd have to ride back up again.

So we turned around and rode out the back-door of Pesmes again. On the way out we saw a road-sign that we had never seen before, warning motorists of squirrels crossing the road from one garden full of oak trees to another on the other side of the road. Sure enough, as we rode on, a squirrel ran across in front of us - luckily, we had been warned!

That evening we had drinks on board HyBoot before returning to Kanumbra for dinner. I was going to say "a quiet dinner" but the peace was disturbed by a couple of carfulls of local lads on the adjacent road, who decided it was a good place for a drinking and smoking party which went on well into the night. Oh well!