We were joined at breakfast by two American families on a road trip around the Loire valley. Brittany was a little disappointed with breakfast – she had taken a diary tablets expecting 'real' French hot chocolate and got hot milk and chocolate powder. By the time we were getting back onto the bike, it was raining fairly heavily – rain that continued throughout the day.
Our first stop was Château de Chenonceaux, a stunning tribute to the style (and greed and vanity) of the French aristocracy. The whole thing was built across and around the Cher river, and its owners motto was 'if we finish this, history will remember us'. We forget who they were....
We were soon back on our way past a variety of big, impressive chateaux (many still owned by the original aristocratic families), but today our hearts were not really in it and we were completely château-ed out. Simon was in a particularly bad mood, which became worse as the result of a couple of minor mechanical failures (which were fixed in the pouring rain).
Things improved slightly when we found some fruit stalls by the road selling the cherries that we have been seeing in the road-side orchards for the last few days. We eventually reached Orleans and managed to find a room in an Ibis Hotel (not our first choice) with free WiFi, a Chinese restaurant next door and a supermarket across the road.
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I think you have the wrong day at the top. That was Thursday's ride, no?
ReplyDeleteDad (John)