We had a very filling breakfast at Hotel Mondial in the heart of Tours and headed out of town on easy-to-follow bike paths. It's been another magnificent early morning ride through paddocks of fallow fields and some dead sunflower crops. The heads of sunflowers actually turn to follow the sun. Eerily, all the dead sunflowers faced the west, as if their dying moments were chasing the sunlight one last time.
The wind this morning was meant to be 20 km per hour and while this didn't eventuate, we still had a headwind whenever we rode on exposed ground. This was sometimes on the top of levees, and sometimes as we rode between acres of fallow ground. While riding through acres of barren, freshly ploughed land, we came across a murder of crows - I'd never seen so many in one place. As we rode past, they took to the air ... it felt like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's movie, The Birds!
We were often riding on gravel paths through forests ... and it felt like a boulevard of trees with branches bent over the path and touching each other offering us protection from the sun and wind.
We stopped in the town of Villandry to check out the Chateau. It was guarded by 2 layers of high hedges so it was difficult to sneak a picture. We'd seen a few chateaus by now, and couldn't stop for every one of them without adding a couple more weeks to our trip. The hedges didn't stop one guy getting a photograph - supported by his wife.
We rode a few hundred metres further along and stopped at a boulangerie for morning tea. A food machine sat next to the store where you could buy a baguette 'fresh' 24 x 7! We did see some motorcyclists walk by our parked bikes in awe of their riders ...
Our next stop was another chateau photo opportunity at Langeais ... a nice little town with closed shops at 11am on a Friday morning!
We rode another 90 minutes before stopping for lunch at Avoine and had some sandwiches in a forecourt of the local church. We were now re-energised for the final 30 km of today's 90 km journey.
We went off-piste as we neared Saumur, and did some climbing to head past some of the region's main wineries. The wineries have extensive vineyards, but interestingly, the wineries themselves were generally in caves carved into the hillside. The unique blend of limestone and chalk is not only great for grapes, but the many kilometres of stone carved out for caves served as building materials for the surrounding houses.
We saw rose bushes planted near rows of vines - these act as early warning signs for the growers. They monitor the roses for early signs of insect infestation that may affect their crops e.g. aphids, etc.
We finally arrived in Saumur at 4.00 pm, checked in and showered, and then toured the town before dinner. The Chateau overlooking the city was impressive, owned by royalty at one time in the 1500s, and now owned by the city council to be run as a museum.
Tomorrow we head to Angers, around 60 km west. We're nearing the end of our ride across France, and hoping the remaining few days will be memorable. Au revoir.
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