Pedalling for a Purpose

Our shortest day of riding for the trip ... for 3 of us. David made a promise to his wife to investigate a chateau that might make a great holiday destination at some point. Being a wonderful husband (as conveyed by David about David) he solemnly promised that he would do so. Unfortunately, we passed the turnoff for the said chateau yesterday, blissfully unaware we were soooo close. David was confident that it was still a day's ride away near Nantes! When David broke the news, we 3 Australians provided our input ... 'Catch an Uber', 'Tell your wife you saw it', 'Tell her it burnt down', etc. However, honourable David decided to add another 60 km to today's ride by heading back 30km to inspect a very very old chateau, then 30 km back to the morning's starting point, then 37 km to Nantes. Stewart, being David's buddy, offered to accompany him. We Australians looked down at our shoes averting eye contact, kicked some rocks, and said we didn't re...

It's an easy ride out of Angers this morning, through well-maintained parklands and wide bike and pedestrian paths. There we a lot of people out walking or running, as well as cycling. We pass waterways that resemble mill ponds - very smooth with not a ripple from wind or water flow, in fact, we passed a rowing club that seemed to be the perfect venue for such a sport. As we do every day, we see a few multi-day touring cyclists. They have full rear panniers and sometimes front panniers as well. You can easily tell they aren't cycling for just one or two days. This is a fraternity, and a wave or nod is reciprocated by the same. When travelling on my own last year I would have stopped, chatted, and swapped stories of our journeys ... the route, the destination, and any tips about the road ahead. Travelling in a group makes this more challenging as you don't want to hold the team up, or want to chase the pack to catch up. Being a Sunday we see lots of families out cycling ... ...