September 7, 2016
Chinon
We are sitting on a park bench outside the Marie waiting until we can check into our hotel. Once again it is a cloudless day and the temperature is in the low thirties. It is really hard to imagine that it will ever rain. Everything is bone dry, the grass where not watered is completely dried off and leaves are falling off the trees largely because of lack of water and heat rather than the onset of Autumn.
The hotel we stayed in last night was charming with beamed ceilings and walls that were made of rough stone. There was no air cond but an open window and a fan did the trick and we slept well after our delicious meal of artichoke and fois gras crumble followed be entrecôte
Today's route was first along the levee for quite a long way. Then we came to a spot where a decision needed to be made. We could either continue along the Loire then up the Vienne to get to Chinon or we could turn away from the river and go up over the hills to reach Chinon that way. This was described as a challenging route but was about 15km shorter. Having done lots of river bank riding in the last few days we opted for a change and took to the hills. Actually it wasn't too bad at all nearly all uphill but perfectly ridable except for a couple of very steep pinches where we needed to get off and push. One of the great bonuses was that we came to Huismes a very workman like town which had the great advantage of both an open Boulangerie and a Bar for the necessary coffee. It was interesting country up there, We were expecting lots of grapes - there were some - but there were some really wonderful crops in particular there were really magnificent crops of sun flowers, often the sunflower crops we see are rather pathetic.
On we climbed until we were high above Chinon where there has been a massive proliferation of box stores and supermarkets. We called in at Aldi to check out their sox and came away with chocolate and figs. Chinon Castle is set up high above the town and the road down is very steep and busy (actually there was ascensor we cold have taken if we had known) and we lost nearly all the height we had gained in a wild ride down to the river and a shady tree for our lunch
Today's ride: 44 km (27 miles)
Total: 1,715 km (1,065 miles)
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