September 4, 2016
Blois: Wonderful weather
Last night's dinner was a fantastic experience we were at grill house - part of a chain. It was next to our Ibis budget hotel and near a motorway off ramp, quite a distance from the town. It was a humming show with the waiters and waitresses running and the place packed. The Grill Man was a show in himself as with great deftness he dealt with the orders as they came. Ken had his usual salad but I had delicious grilled duck with haricot verts and we had a very good bottle of Saumure wine. Sitting next to us was a delightful Dutch couple John and Annmarie who had driven 800km from Holland that day - about what it will take us about the rest of the time we have to do!
The weather forcast for today said that there would probably be some rain in the afternoon and that the temperatures would be much cooler only reaching the mid twenties - that certainly suits me. Our first stop was a Beaugancy a very well restored town with a large number of historical treasures. We had planned to stay there last night but the price of the hotels there was out of our league.. We came to bridge where we had a decision to make. We could either cross the bridge and take the rather longer route pass the Chateau of Chambord or just continue along on the right bank to Blois. It was starting to rain a little so we decided to take the direct route (sorry Jan I know Chambord was your favourite chateau when you and Gill cycled here). But we didn't take this direct route without first taking a detour to Mer in our quest for coffee. Mer is a rather ordinary town but we did eventually found a bar to get coffee. This was at a PMU which was packed and gambling was in full flight - it must be the Sunday activity even though the Church next door was calling the residents with massive peal of bells.
Back on the track the rain started and Ken put on his coat but it really didn't ever come to anything. We felt sorry for the poor farmers, it is so very dry here at the moment and they must have had their hopes up. The choice of route was a good one, it was quiet with small interesting places along the way. At one stage we rode for several kilometers beside the magnificent stone wall enclosing a small chateau. We thought whoever had lived there must have been very important and certainly didn't want to share what they had with others.
Blois is approached along the river and the town gradually reveals itself. On a Sunday it was almost completely deserted as we pushed our bikes up through the pedestrian only streets to or hotel near the Chateau
Today's ride: 59 km (37 miles)
Total: 1,568 km (974 miles)
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