A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.
Auxerre Town
It was only just past 7.00am and so things were still quiet, this is the Yonne river by the way since the canal doesn't start until later.
Rubbish
Even the waste heaps were pretty!
Houses & Canals
This is the first in what will end up a series of photos of lovely houses next to a canal. I wasn't really paying attention at the time but it could be that this is where the canal deviates from the river, since you can see a canal lock and the river continuing to its right.
Follow my leader
The group of four cyclists, two men and two women, I would track for the next couple of hours. Sometimes I'd lead and sometimes they would. It'd depend on which of us was stopping to chat, eat croissant, or take photos. The cyclepath, with wonderfully smooth tarmac as you can see, was easy riding. So, even with my two panniers, it was still easy to cruise at 25km/hr.
It was not until they stopped to turn back that I actually spoke to them, other than an initial 'bonjour'. Then it was questions about my recumbent and the planned trip that were the topics of conversation.