Mâcon is the point where the Saône changes character. Upstream it is a slow, reedy river through meadows, and here it becomes a proper waterfront, with stone quays, a long bridge and the flat Bresse plain stretching away on the far bank. The town is the capital of the Mâconnais wine country, home to the poet Alphonse de Lamartine, and for a rider moving between Burgundy and the Beaujolais it is the natural place to do the dull but necessary things.
The fuel stop itself is by the river, close to the main routes, which means you are in and out without wading into the old centre. Mâcon is a town of thirty-five thousand people, so it has plenty of stations, supermarkets and cafés, and it is open on a Sunday more reliably than the villages in the hills. If your tank is running low, this is the place to fill it, because the next stretch of small roads north and west into the vineyards offers little in the way of pumps.
If you have time to spare, walk along the quay. The Saône here is wide and calm, and the view across to Saint-Laurent-sur-Saône, which belongs to a different département and a different province, reminds you that this river was once a frontier. The wines of the Mâconnais, especially the white from Chardonnay grown on the limestone slopes to the west, including Pouilly-Fuissé, are a short ride away, and a bottle in the pannier is a fine souvenir if your luggage allows.
The riding in and out is plain town traffic, with roundabouts, lights and the occasional lorry, and it demands a little patience in the early evening. Once you leave the ring road to the west the landscape lifts quickly, with the rounded, rocky hills of the Mâconnais showing stone villages and vine terraces, and the ride becomes a different animal entirely. The river is a handsome reason to stop, but you will not regret the climb out.