Chenonceaux to Blois, via Chateau Cheverney

June 16, 2024

On the Road Again

Phase one of this day's journey from chateau to chateau: Chenonceaux to Cheverny.

Dave and I have had pretty miserable weather on this trip and we observed that by far and away the best weather we have had has been during the two weeks we rode with friends; first in Spain with Jim and Diana, and then last week in the Loire with Eric and Melinda. Are the weather gods trying to tell us something? In fact, at last night's dinner, Dave jokingly told Melinda and Eric how pissed he was with them because now that they were departing they were taking the nice weather with them.

In keeping with that theme, after wonderful weather all last week, it changed with a vengeance as we rode away on our own to Blois on the Loire River. This morning we had a tight schedule, as we had hoped to stop and visit Chateau Cheverney, 40 km away, not because we wanted to see another chateau, but because they had a famous dog kennel with 140 hounds. They feed the hounds everyday at 11:30 am and it’s reportedly a bit of a spectacle. To make this critical event, we had to be on the road by 8:30 or so, which is early for team Jill & Dave. That morning as we dressed at 7:15 and looked both at the bleary weather and the forecast (bad and rainy all day) I wondered if we were insane - really, we need to see 100 or more dogs eating lunch?

Regardless, Eric and Melinda had breakfast with us and kindly helped carry our gear to the bikes where we were suited up in full rain gear to begin our day’s journey. We said our good byes and got on the road.

And, we're off. Note the difference of opinion on which direction we should begin--a typical start of the day in the touring lives of Jill & Dave.

Twenty seconds in Dave decided he needed his warm gloves so we stopped and took care of that and then rode - rather hard for us - to Cheverney. We saw more grape vines than we had seen in the previous few days. Komoot went a bit crazy and took us on a gravel road that turned out to be a private road to a pretty unkempt farmhouse, which was fenced in with no apparent way through, notwithstanding Komoot’s insistence to the contrary. As we were standing in the farmyard contemplating the map in some desperation the farmer came out and said something to us in French- we understood no words but got the idea: it was a polite version of “get off my property.” Happily, we were not in eastern Oregon, because the conversation would probably have been accompanied by a barking dog, a shotgun and the (US) Constitution. He also made some vague hand motions which we interpreted to mean we could go around. We followed his “advice” and managed to ride through another farm field; it was pretty hilarious riding but we eventually made it back to the route, unscathed.

The farmer's suggested alternative route, also a bit iffy.

To paraphrase Forrest Gump: Komoot routes can be like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get.

Due to our time constraint, we rode harder than usual and fortunately the rain held off - at least during that part of the day. We arrived in Cheverney by 11 am which gave us time to organize our bikes and ourselves and purchase tickets. We left our bikes and panniers by the entry gate and carried our daypacks with critical items into the Chateau grounds. We were the only bikes there at that time but when we left two hours later there were probably 20, and everyone simply left their panniers on the bikes. Clearly this is not a high crime area.

Clearly, no one worried about leaving their stuff on their bikes as they toured the chateau.

We entered the grounds and strode eagerly across the estate to the kennels to see……nothing, no puppies, and no staff putting out meat for 140 hungry hounds. We dithered about nearby and visited the kitchen garden and meandered around the nearby grounds. Finally, after 20 minutes or so one lone hound wanders into the compound and then after a few more minutes we saw two more and finally a total of six hounds. They pranced around, accepted some spectator petting as their due and were fun to see. We got some good dog love out of the episode but it wasn’t the spectacle we thought we would experience. There was some speculation by other visitors that the hounds went hunting today. Who knows? Or maybe they are on a diet?

This handsome boy stood proud in the garden next to the kennels.

Finally the "full compliment" of hounds showed up, looking for lunch, no doubt.

Jill makes the acquaintance of a particularly friendly hound.

Just so you feel you can learn something, the backstory on the dogs is that they are an unusual cross breed of French Poitevins and English fox hound, and have been bred in Cheverney since 1850. They are bred for hunting and the current Count of the Chateau likes to hunt. There are allegedly 80 males, 40 females, and 20 puppies - but from personal knowledge I can only swear to a total of 6.

Since the kennel visit was a semi-bust we had time to visit the Chateau. The hat on the lawn symbolizes the recent hat festival they had here in May. Go figure.

There had been a recent ladies hats exhibition at the chateau and a few reminders remained.

The Chateau was built in the late 1500s and has been in the same family for its entire existence. It’s unusual in that it only has one style - late Renaissance - rather than a mix of architectural and interior styles. It was not ransacked during the French Revolution due to the popularity of the family.

It was well-presented and not too crowded and we enjoyed a somewhat edited but pleasant visit before walking through the grounds and finding the tea room in the Orangerie. The claim to fame of the Orangerie is that it hosted the Mona Lisa and other artwork during WW2 when Paris was occupied.

The orangerie where we had lunch. It too was decked out in hats.

We had lunch, and after a week of rich food and wine indulgences (we blame our friends and riding companions for our lack of restraint 😎), we returned to our old ways and split a croque monsier (a French version of a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, but much fancier). We laughed when we saw the menu denoted this as a “heart healthy” selection; its ham, gobs of melted cheese, two large pieces of bread, fried in who knows how much butter. I can say it was delicious and we felt virtuous because we split it (admittedly with a beer and glass of wine).

After lunch we got on the road to Blois, our destination for the night. It was only a 20 km morning ride and we had been lulled into thinking there would be no rain that afternoon (thank you Weather Channel App for that huge error) but two minutes after mounting up it started to rain and indeed rained steadily the entire rest of the ride. As Dave said as we pulled into Blois, the rain was as bad as a day or two we had in Norway last summer - not a happy thought. We were not as cold though - so thank heavens for small mercies. It just reminds us again that waterproof gear is not really waterproof; it delays the inevitable, but the inevitable DOES arrive, and we were soaked through, including my belt pack, which I (again) foolishly failed to tuck fully under my rain jacket.

We were booked at a B and B and we had not been advised of a check-in time, but knowing French B and B’s I was afraid to arrive too early. So, when we pulled into Blois at 2:30 we opted to go up to the train station to check it out for our early train ride coming up in two days. Sunday afternoon was very quiet which was a relief in the pouring rain, as we can see this is a bigger town. We figured out there was a lift and it was working. In Blois there is a very impressive structure meant to ferry bikes and peds across the tracks. Here you can see Dave negotiating the ramp.

We then made our way to our B and B, called La Perluette, an old mansion right on the river. When Georges, our host greeted us he commented good-naturedly on the fact that we were early, but it was no problem to check in. We dripped our way up the stairs to our large room overlooking the river, and the experience was reminiscent of the day of the flat tire debacle when we arrived in Mazamet like two drowned rats. Dave put our panniers in the bath tub to avoid messing up the nice furniture. It was an afternoon of bliss though as we both cherished that hot bath. The only fly in the ointment was that the b and b had no alcohol in the house, so Dave did not get his post-ride beer.

Our panniers drip drying in the tub, soon to make way for us.

Our host Georges was full of sightseeing ideas of the local area and we felt a little bad because we probably weren't going to do much. We had mentally sketched out our free day in Blois to do laundry and catch up on the journal. Jill has been struggling to stay current. It’s much harder to keep up when you are hanging with friends as we did last week.

That evening we had a fun FaceTime call with our son, daughter-in-law and grandson. Our grandson Nick got a a summer hair cut and we enjoyed seeing it. We then walked downtown after getting an assurance from our host that nothing, or not much, is open on a Sunday. That indeed proved to be the case but we found a little Asian place and had good sushi and a Vietnamese dish. It suited our mood perfectly as I needed a change from French food. When we walked in at 7 pm it was empty. Thirty minutes later it was packed.

Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 1,670 km (1,037 miles)

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