Chartres, Tours and Orléans with Anna

After breakfast we left Bernadette and her husband and went off to the old city center.

It was very nice to see all those half-timbered houses and impressive churches and the cathedral.

It was a wednesday and quiet busy in the city, we had to manoeuvre between the cars and finally found ourselves on a market place, where we bought some  fresh bread. After that we left Tours and pedalled in the direction of Blois.

A large part of this route was along the river La Loire, flat and easy going. Beautiful scenery and for the first time this trip we had the wind in our backs instead of in our faces. We decided to stay on the southern side of the river in the beginning, because we wanted to prevent having to climb the steep hill that we descended the day before near Rochecorbon/Vouvray. That went well, apart from the fact that we had to cycle a few kms on a busy highway. We must say that the French culture on cyclists has really changed in a positive way: cars stayed behind us until they could pass, and while passing us, they kept the obligatory 1,5 m distance.

On the way, we had a detour because part of the cycling path had to be restored due to heavy rainfall. We came through a village called 'Village aux dames', which made us wonder if the mayor of this town would be a female. We don't know. A bit further we found an Aldi shop, where we bought new groceries.

We planned to cycle to Blois this day and find a place to sleep there. In the end we had cycled 55 km. and wanted to stop in Chouzy sur Cisse, about 10 km before Blois. According to our guide there would be a camp site there. We couldn't find it and asked around. People told us that it had been closed about five years ago (!). So we found ourselves another B&B with 'la dame de Cisse'. We had our own studio there with kitchen and all, and a swimming pool with a water temperature of 16 degrees Celsius. Of course we quickly jumped into our bathing suits and into the pool. Our muscles were very grateful for that. We had a great night's sleep there and got a very nice French breakfast the next morning.