A big day today. We'll hit the 600 km cycled mark in 7 days (if we make our destination later today)! 85 km to do today.
Another early start with Michel, our host, providing a filling breakfast. Over breakfast, Brett described the ride from Mike Wells' book, The Loire Cycle Route, which will be our guide until the end of the ride. It takes the reader through the highlights of the Loire Valley - attractions, must-sees, and the countryside we'll ride through. Brett read out loud that today is generally a very flat ride. Hooray!
The first 20 km of the ride was a series of rolling hill climbs and descents ... incessant ... and a number of them steep. At one stage we thought about taking Brett's book, having him bend over, and placing the book (gently yet firmly), in a place it would never be found! Later we found out that the book did mention the climbs, however, Brett thought it best if we didn't know.
The views through the rolling hills were beautiful. A series of old farms houses, barns and stables dotted the countryside, most having been in place for many, many decades. We passed places such as Les Garnots, La Grande Borne, Chez Gueunaud, and Chez Cartier - Chez being 'the house of' - all small farms owned by proud French families, whose land holding can go back centuries.
We saw our first variety of other ground crops today, besides corn and sunflowers, of beets and grapes. We are starting to enter the wine-growing areas of France. Sancerre, here we come! Again, cattle dot the landscape, and the fertile fields seem to have plenty of fodder for them. We see acres of enwrapped bales of fodder, that have been harvested and about to be stored for winter, laying in the paddocks. We also see mounds of manure stored beside the road, sometimes covered for 'fermentation' and sometimes not, and surprisingly no odour emanating (that we could detect!). Traditional farming still uses traditional fertilisation methods. It must be healthier for the land.
We stopped for coffee in a small village before heading for our lunchtime destination of Decize. We were on track to reach Nevers by 4.00 pm, as our AirBnB host could only receive us before then, or after 8:00 pm. We had another day of great bike paths and canal riding.
Decize stands on an island in the middle of the Loire River. Like we've experienced in much of our trip so far, there are few cafes open until noon at the earliest, so we looked for a boulangerie. I saw Col venturing out from a casino and thought why not! Only when I walked in did I realise it was a supermarket chain. Pickings from the salad bar it is!
We had expected a headwind of up to 20 km per hour today, however fortunately that never eventuated and we had a swift run into Nevers. We all agreed that it was the best we'd felt after a day of riding ... then we all huffed, puffed and groaned as we tried to get off our bikes upon arrival at our home for the next 2 days. Helene, our host, showed us her home (now our home) which was built in the late 1800's. While we were keen to shower and get to the nearest bar, Helene had other ideas - showing us through each and every detail of her house, one she was obviously very proud of. After about an hour of touring a small apartment, Helene bid us farewell until we handed the keys back in 2 days. Her place was so perfect that we decided not to touch anything and sleep on the floor. Actually, Col did. Fortunately on a mattress in the kitchen. His selflessness allowed us to have a room each, rather than another twin share arrangement. We did expect him to have a Michelin Star breakfast ready by the time we woke up in the morning.
Finally, we found a bar nearby. The patrons seemed like a tough bunch who stared at us when we walked in. To show them that we wouldn't be intimidated, Col and Brett ordered the largest, strongest beers that the establishment had, David ordered the local Sancerre wine, and I ordered a strawberry milkshake.
Comments
Post a Comment