MONDAY, 2 July 2018 Richelieu
‘Knock! Knock!’ on the door at an early hour. Who could that be? Nobody ever visits us. Nobody knows we’re here. Maybe it’s the Jehovah’s Witnesses? Do they even have them in France? Open the door and who should be standing
there but
looking very smug and pleased with himself. Too astonished to speak, I stood there
staring at him. “Well, aren’t you going to ask me in?”, he snapped. I picked him up and brought him in, and though
he seemed a bit battered and bruised with broken and missing bits and pieces
he was almost
whole. “OMG! What? What happened?” I finally got managed
to stammer, and then the whole story came out.
It seems that old Pumbeef had found him quite indigestible and after a couple
of days Pierre found himself floating around in the Loire. Realising the experience had not been quite
as shattering as he first believed, he literally pulled himself together, and
taking command of a passing branch, navigated himself down the Loire as far as
Chinon where he struck out for shore, hitched a ride to Richelieu with a passing
pantechnicon and here he was. I felt him
all over for broken bones but not being sure if there were any, took him to the
ED at the local hospital for some precautionary x-rays. They were somewhat reluctant at first giving
me strange looks which I put down to communication difficulties, but I pressed them and with that particular
gallic shrug of indifference, they eventually agreed. They showed the results of the x-rays and
Pierre was given the ‘all-clear’. The
doctor allowed me to keep this one which he said was of his head and showed
that it was quite empty.
So we brought him back home and have patched him up as best we can with a plaster and a bit of leftover confetti from last Saturday's wedding.
Tuesday, 3 June 2018 Villandry to Tours
A 50 km drive to Villandry this morning to start our ride to
Tours. Today was the first time we have
driven with the change to speed limits from July 1. All 90kph limits on roads without a dividing barrier
have now changed to 80kph. That’s for
the WHOLE country and over a million kilometres of roads. And from our driving,
at least 60 to 70% of the time the roads have a limit of 90kph. All towns in France have a speed limit of 50
kph but in so many of them it is impossible to drive at that speed because the
roads are too narrow or there are cars parked on them or you need to slow down or stop because of cars coming the other way. Anywhere near a school or in very built-up areas,
the speed limit is 30kph.
Having reached Villandry, Pierre was itching to go and
insisted on riding shotgun.
Most of the ride was on cycle path along the banks of the beautiful
river Cher.
This 370 km long river actually joins the Loire at Villandry
so we were starting just up from the confluence.
The path changed to little roads
then back to path only then back to road, winding through woods
and more forested areas,
past acres and acres of ripened crops and ripening sweetcorn,
Pierre hoped he wasn't being too corny,
and we even came upon the ‘Great Mill’
which was having its bins filled with wheat from this truck.
This was the site of a 16th century flour mill
which once stood in the middle of the river but was shifted to its present
location in the 1970s.
On we continued past old sheds
and old houses fitted
out as hotels
and a golf course with no-one on it at 11.30 am though we
did see a few hackers out there on our return, and a lake and a large park until
we arrived in Tours. This is the fourth time we’ve been to this
city so we’re starting to feel like we’re getting to know it. It is a very big place situated between the
banks of the Cher
and the Loire rivers.
I hope you can tell the difference between them because we certainly
can’t. The distance between the two rivers is about 2.5km and the city block is around 10 – 12 sq. km, completely built up and densely populated.
After another average and over-priced lunch, so hard to pick
a good restaurant from the huge number available, we rode back to where we
started from and came home.
Pierre sniffed the leaves and declared the area on track for
a fine vintage.
Wednesday, 4 July
2018 Tours
to Amboise
The official guide for the Loire à Velo cycle path divides
it into 35 sections ranging from 15 to 30 km, with a few at only 12 km. Most people riding in one direction will ride
2 or 3 sections a day. Because we return
to our starting point each day, we usually only ride one. Today, however, as the first section we were
planning to do was only 12 km we added on the next one of 15 km. After driving to our starting point and
readying ourselves to ride it’s usually after 10.00, then with a stop for
coffee somewhere along the way if we’re lucky to find a worthwhile place, pausing to look at
anything that takes our interest, snapping away with the iphone (the camera,
unfortunately, went into terminal decline a long time ago after one too many
bangs on the ground), lunch at the half-way point before we re-trace our path
and a wander around the place we’ve ridden to, it’s usually after 4 before we’re
back at the car and then another hour’s drive home. Tonight it was almost 6.00 before we got back
to the car and 7.30 before we were home.
Some days the rides are more interesting than other days; more
variety, more to see, more happening along the way, more interesting towns. Today was one of those days as we set off
from Tours to ride to Amboise. It started
off with a bit of a puzzle as we came across what looked like a giant upside-down
mushroom.
There seemed to be an explanation as to its purpose along
the top section but we were unable to decipher it.
(Click on photos to enlarge)
We were cycling at this stage through a
wooded area along the banks of the Loire and saw these strange clusters of pots
at intervals along the path
Peering into them they all contained some kind of liquid
which we doubted was for thirsty cyclists and as we were under attack pretty
well constantly in this area by swarms of midgies we thought they may have been
part of some experiment in insect control. Maybe that’s what this sign says.
Yesterday we rode through acres and acres of crops and sweet
corn. Today it was nearly all grape vines
and the occasional field of sunflowers.
Pictures
Fields of sunflowers are noticeable now everywhere we
drive. In some, a lot, but not all, have
started to flower. This lone flower is
an early bloomer.
In a few weeks they will all be flowering and the fields
will be yellow.
And how about this poor tree, stuck all by itself in the
middle of a field.
We thought it was a baobab but on closer inspection decided
it wasn’t.
As we reached
the end of the 12km
section of our ride, and on our best behaviour as we were under video surveillance which meant no wheelies in the main street, no sneaking up on l'il old ladies and ringing the bell madly and yelling out 'BIKE', we came across this coffee shop;
a most unusual
sight. Naturally we stopped and went in.
There was a spanking looking machine working
away roasting the beans.
We ordered two
monstrously over-priced cappuccinos, I mean, come on, $7 for a small cup,
though here it’s called ‘grand’, ‘small’ being reserved for the thimbles they
use to serve espresso, but at least it tasted nice.
While there, Pierre decided he was hungry, and lucky for us,
right alongside was a hole-in-the-wall pizza machine.
Just pop in your coins and out plops a pizza, though we
needed to check first that the ‘zz’s weren’t meant to be ‘ss’s Luckily, they had gnome-size serves for
half-price so that saved us a few euro.
There were the usual cute-looking houses along the path
and someone had got rid of all their old teapots and
what-nots cluttering the kitchen by putting them up on the wall
Picture
while one entrepreneurial couple were eking out a living
flogging glasses of Perrier water to passing cyclists.
At the same place Faye joined in the fun but couldn’t decide
which face suited her best.
Pictures
Personally, I thought the moustache was her best look.
Finally arriving at Amboise we had a win in the lunch
lottery, finding a pleasant restaurant with a meal at a reasonable price. Amboise is another very, very old town with a
long history of involvement with French royalty and intrigue and politics, but what
makes it hallowed ground is that it is the final resting place of
Leonardo da Vinci. He came here at the invitation of the king
Francois I at the end of 1515, was here for just over three years, contracted an illness
and died. We sat at lunch just across the road from this castle
which contains the tomb
where he is allegedly buried, walked through the town entrance
and past houses
and along the same streets that he would have trodden. I can’t
say, unfortunately, that I felt any spark of his genius striking me. We ran out of time to explore his museum and
the castle in Amboise and left hoping to find time to come back and explore this very interesting town some time in the next week.
