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| Château de Menars |
Saturday started out mostly dry, but by lunch we were into the rain again, not a bad thing since we had our full rain gear on. There was quite a bit of wind, but it was usually a tailwind. That was welcome since we were going for a pretty long distance to make it to Orléans.
We got back to the trail in Blois fairly easily. The only downside was that we planned to grab breakfast at the shop near the hotel we had discovered coming into town. It was closed on Saturdays! Seriously, just when you think you get this figured out, that happens. Most shops for clothing, etc are closed Sundays and all but a few boulangers, patisseries, etc. are closed Mondays. Oh well. We found another one on the way down to the trail that was fine. We didn’t get lunch to go this time since there was a large-ish town about halfway to Orléans.
The trail was the complete opposite from the day before: very flat. Turns out we had started out on the alternate route on the opposite side of the river. The main route was on the north side at Blois. But this was the side that gives people access to Chambord. Blois is a popular place from which to rent bikes and make the 10 mile ride to Chambord. In fact, there was a British family at our hotel doing that. It was a nice trail. At the next bridge after Chambord, we connected back up with the main route.
We got into Beaugency, where we planned to get lunch, a little after 1. Our first order of business was to find the tourism office to get a room reserved in Orléans. Oops! After climbing a couple blocks up to it, we found it closed for lunch, reopening at 2. We went back down to the Crêperie/pizzaria we had seen at the bottom of the hill. Needed to get there before they close at 2!
It was pouring rain by the time we got there. I had a galette “fermière” that was good and Brian had a house specialty. They take a large pizza crust, bake it, then
fill it with the ingredients for a salad (Brian’s was like a chefs salad) and fold it in half. It was crazy looking, but he liked it! There was another biking couple there and at one point noticed our bikes had fallen over. Grrrr. No harm done and this time we moved them to a small railing and locked them there. The nice thing about the panniers is that they cushion the bikes if they fall, so the derailleurs didn’t hit.
After lunch, we climbed back up to the tourism office. Inside was an older British man looking at maps at a table. It was a small office and we exchanged greetings. We noticed a Surly bike parked outside when we arrived (same make as ours). It turns out it was his. While I worked with the attendant at the office, he went out and talked to Brian. It was probably the longest conversation he’s gotten to have with anyone other than me since we’ve been here! ☺This cyclist is in his 70s and just picks a location, consults his Michelin “indestructible” map to find the back roads and starts cycling! He had no idea why he was suddenly seeing so many more cyclists in this area. Brian told him we were on a EuroVelo route and what we were doing.
After I successfully booked a hotel near the train station in Orléans, we got back
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| Hoping Homer Simpson isn’t at the controls…. |
on the trail. We had light rain off and on the rest of the day. Some of the route was lovely and paved, some was crushed stone or muddy sand and a bit of a mess. We went past a large nuclear power plant, which was a bit intimidating! Didn’t spot any two-headed animals though! From there, a large part of the last of the trip was along a levee so it was open, windy, and flat. Just outside Orléans we again got caught following a Loire cycling path in a town instead of the official EuroVelo route. We backtracked a tiny bit and got back on course. Getting to our hotel in Orléans wasn’t bad, just a little tricky with the traffic. 43 miles complete. We found an interesting bar for dinner and actually had our traditional fish and chips for dinner.
So, we’ve completed 262 miles in 8 days of riding. Not our longest tour, but definitely had the most to see and do along the way. It’s a great way to see the “Valley of the Castles.” We toured 7 castles and saw more than that. We’re now east of the main grouping of castles. We have concert tickets in Paris Monday night, so we’re going to ship most of the gear home tomorrow to free up space. We’ll keep the necessities with us and maybe take a day trip or two from Paris – Brian has never seen Versailles!
Today we bought our tickets to Paris, being sure we got a direct train with a bike car. Then we hit a sale at the H&M in the mall by the station to get a new, cool-weather outfit each, and a compact umbrella. Then we sought out a laundromat. Yay! Clean clothes! We had grabbed sandwiches to go at the mall, so we had a romantic lunch in front of the washers.
Tomorrow morning we head to the post office, then catch our train. Paris, here we come!
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| Laundry! |
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| Cathédrale Ste. Croix |
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