Fêtes au Vélo – Day 7 - Bridges Bicycle Touring

Where do I start? Today was a perfect day to more than make up for any trouble yesterday. It started as a drizzly morning, but we had a lovely breakfast at the B&B. There was homemade yogurt and six different types of jam made from fruits in their garden! One I had to look up: nefle. In English it’s called “medlar.” Never heard of that either, but the jam was good! Then as we were packing up our bikes, the proprieter told us that the road all the way to Montsoreau was closed for the cycling festival and that there would be little festivals in the towns along the way. So we followed the paved main roads of the bike festival instead of some of the rougher paths of the EuroVelo 6 route. It was absolutely amazing! Most of the serious cyclists in their full “kit” and fast bikes had passed by before we left. So many people out just riding, with families and friends, on bikes of every type. As we went by the tents in the town we had stayed in, we noticed a tent for a bike shop. We desperately needed chain lube, so we stopped and bought some. So that’s one thing off our list. Then we started seeing people in period clothing on vintage bikes…. Hmmmm….

After couple glorious hours of cycling, we were approaching Montsoreau. And seeing many, many more vintage cyclists on vintage bikes of all periods. Turns out that there is a large vintage cycling club that all came out for the festival. By the way, we didn’t get pictures of the cave homes on the cliffs in Montsoreau, but they were impressive. I was distracted as we went through there by the one car driver that was a jerk about the roads being closed. He almost sideswiped me with his Beemer mirror as he went by. It was lunch time, but the main festival area there was packed, so we continued a bit. I was concerned we’d end up back in the countryside shortly and with it being Sunday, there would be few options for food. I started looking for restaurants. Just past Montsoreau I spotted a beautiful old church along the road with a big open seating area for the restaurant next to it. There were a few cyclists there, but some open seats. We parked our bikes and sat down, one table away from the road. Shortly, another couple sat at the table next to us. Then we started to notice that there was a veritable parade of the vintage bikes going by! The costumes were awesome and it was fun to see the different eras of bikes. There were even at least 3 Penny Farthings! People at the restaurant would applaud when those went by. The people next to us struck up a conversation. Their son is in Sacramento and they were just in Florida in January. They spoke some English to talk directly to Brian a little and the lady was giving me tips about the must-see castles. They’re riding to town in the south of France from Tours.

Back to the bikes, though. There was this quintessential French great grandmother hanging out her ground level front window cheering on the bikes, commenting on their outfits and offering random advice to them. What a hoot! We truly had stumbled deep into French culture, and French cycling culture, at that. Everyone was so joyful and just having a wonderful time, whether the regular cyclists, the vintage cyclists, or the spectators. I can’t get over how lucky we got! Brian mentioned that if we had been planning this trip down to every last detail, he may have intentionally avoided being here for this. Serendipity can be better than planning!

Speaking of luck, at a short stop at St. Clement while having a snack on the church plaza, I was changing the battery on my speed/cadence sensor because my display had started flashing. When I went to open the case, there was the magnet for my crank I thought I’d lost yesterday on that grassy levee! Now we aren’t needing to find a bike shop tomorrow after all. We’ve got our oil and my magnet.

Shortly after we left the restaurant, we were off the route for the festival. Since our destination was Chinon, which is 5 miles or so south of the Loire, we didn’t want to stay on the EuroVelo route. My maps showed an alternate route specifically for a side trip to Chinon and Brian pulled up Google maps. Between the two we navigated some very primitive trails toward town. Soon we picked up a bike route on a main road and got into town about a half hour before the tourism office closed. The lady at this one was a bit frazzled, basically said there wasn’t much chance of finding a room here this weekend and practically tossed the book with the choices to me. I found a couple hotels that seemed to fit what we wanted and asked if she’d call. Turned out my first choice did have a room! I was puzzled, though, that she had a hard time understanding the person on the other end. The hotel was just up a pedestrian street at the Place de Jeanne d’Arc. Couldn’t miss it. Huge statue. While Brian was waiting outside, he saw a bunch of classic cars go by. We had seen a few on our way into town, too. Then we saw why when we got to the plaza. There was a huge classic car rally going on and it was right in front of our hotel! The woman at the desk was frazzled, but I noticed her accent: “parlez-vous anglais?” “Yes, I’m British.” after that we got along smashingly! It’s a relief to communicate easily in one’s first language. One of the reasons I was drawn to this hotel was its name: Le Plantagenêt. As in the royal house. Just because I’ve been reading up on some history and was familiar with this line. The houses of Lancaster and York are branches of this line.

We watched the rally out our window until it wrapped up. Brian was sending our car-fanatic son pictures so fast I wasn’t sure the wifi would keep up! After cleaning up, we headed up the road to find a light dinner. We checked yelp and Google and were headed in the direction of a crêperie. But it pays to watch along the way and read the menus posted. We ended up at a place that had “snacks” á la carte in addition to full “ménus.” We had a 3 course lunch and didn’t want another big meal. Dinner of omelets, salad, and frites was just right.

Tomorrow we plan to see the castle here in Chinon and then possibly get up to Azay-le-Rideau. But we also want to find a laundromat. Romantic combination, n’est-ce pas? We’ll stay here an extra night before heading to the castles in the region east of Tours.