Day 3 – Orléans to Sully sur Loire and Circles in Sully

The hostess took a photo of us

We didn’t get a lot of sleep last night because we were working on the video and watching French television (sort of a cross between Pickers and Antiques Roadshow?). The hostess of the B&B made us an amazing breakfast, complete with fresh homemade crêpes, jams and even yogurt. There was a British couple there we got to chat with a bit as well. We got on the trail at 10. We like using the Eurovelo because it is so well marked and safe. It did not disappoint today. Much of the route today was a bicycle only path on top of a levee.

Jambon- buerre

Viennoiserie au chocolat

We found a town along the way, Jarbeau, that was right on the trail and found a pâtisserie where we could purchase our traditional lunch of “jambon-buerre” which is a baguette with ham and butter (and sometimes Swiss cheese). I also found a sweet treat, which we saved for a snack when we got to our hotel this evening, a Viennoiserie with chocolate. We enjoyed lunch at a picnic spot along the river and Brian took some more video with his drone, which is in the video on our YouTube channel. The route will look strange because something went wrong with his Garmin, so it looks like we went in a straight line to the lunch spot!

Château Sully sur Loire

In reality we went 32.5 miles today, ending in Sully sur Loire. The castle here is beautiful. We actually saw it featured with helicopter shots during the Tour de France this year. So, after passing by the castle and getting a few photos, we sought out our tried and true Office de Tourisme. They were very nice and helpful, but this one seemed to only have a list of B&Bs nearby, totalling 4. At one, they were on vacation, others were full. When they asked if we could go another 15 km to the next town, I said sure. But that establishment never answered the phone. It was getting late, so we started checking for hotels in town on Google. We found 3 very nice ones, with 3 star ratings and 4+ stars on Google – all booked full. Then Brian found one on Priceline with one room left. Grab it!!!!

So here we are in Sully sur Loire, after doing multiple circles around town looking for someplace to stay. It’s a beautiful hotel near the castle and the river. This is the first time we almost didn’t find a place to stay upon arriving in a town and I was nearly resigned to using our camping gear at the campground back across the bridge into town. But is sure is nice to get a shower, wash out a few clothes in the shower, and relax in a bed, with power to charge everything up. We may pass on the Office de Tourisme in the future and look ahead at lunchtime to where we think we can get to at the end of the day. Then we can just book it directly ourselves. Technology wins over tradition in this case.

An “amuse-bouche” of a
melon purée, a lemon mousse
and a charbroiled shrimp

We found a very French restaurant for dinner, after the pub I had scoped out turned out to be closed for a few days this week. I really struggle to translate the names of some of the fancier dishes from French to English, so Brian will use his phone to take a picture that Google translates, sometimes with really funny results. We both got the Plat/Dessert menu. He got roasted duck breast and I got a shank of lamb. Not being a huge meat eater, the lamb seemed really fatty and gamey tasting to me. Brian loved it. Ah, well. The dessert was amazing, a light mouse with strawberries under a dome of hard chocolate, with a strawberry sorbet.