April 1, 2017
Day Five: Jargeau to Gien
The time Dodie spent in her cocoon from evening to morning did her good. We cruised easily over to Chateauneuf, the next town along the river and the one we really should have reached yesterday. Chateauneuf fulfilled my image of an ideal town, peaceful, and with everything close at hand. On the high street, within two or three blocks were three bakers, large flower shop, butcher, and dozens of others. We chose the first baker we came to and were really blown away by the quality and selection. I took a quick shot of some pastries, because maybe I have been deficient in the number of such shots. But it was the sweet buns that seemed the best. One other thing, though. Apparently in France on April 1 it is customaryTo exchange fish related things - like a chocolate fish. Our bakery was offering the fruit pastry fish in the picture. So great!
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The terrific food products on a street like this are balanced by a lack of access to other sorts of things. For example, where would you buy a lawn mower? Oh, yes, most houses do not waste space on lawns here. What I needed was not a lawn m8wer but a keyboard. Amazingly my bluetooth keyboard (already about number 6 in a sorry list of dead 80 dollar units) died on day 2 on the road. The high street did have a computer shop, but a keyboard like that was too esoteric. They recommended the next town along, but so far no luck anywhere.
The church in Chateauneuf was not huge, but had a unique wooden beamed roof. Also a good special feature - a reading room in the main space, with comfychairs.
Church quality really took a jump as we detoured slightly to Germigny des pres. Here stood the oldest Carolingian church in France. It was built just at the beginning of the 9th century by a deputy of Charlemagne, who was a visitor here. The interio4 was elegant, and included a Byzantine style mosaic in the ceiling. I also much enjoyed the small monastery style shrub garden outside.
Just adjacent was a lovely Tourist Information - very clean and bright and with scads of books about all aspects of middle ages life. We bought some gifts there for the Montreal kids. They also had an exhibit by a Parisian painter who seemed to capture well the tones of this region.
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The real blockbuster spot, though, was down the way at St Benoit. Benoit is Benedict, founder of the Benedictine Order. They are Dodie's favourites, because of the "Brother Cadfael" mystery series, of which she has read all. The Benedi tines are also known for gardening and herbalism.
But St Benoit is where the order stashed the remains of Benedict. He is in a crypt on top of which they built a large basilica. We went down for a look, having also observed the black robed monks, one with slightly scary pointed hood.
I was surprised at how relatively low key this site was. That is, no billboards or neon lights. But that is not the style here. Instead we have a mute but massive stone monument. And yes, 5 euros bought us a 50 page book describing the whole thing.
Sully was next up. It has an interesting but not fully restored chateau right by the river. We vaguely thought about stopping, but instead pushed on to Gien. Dodie was going strongly, so why not. Gien looks very impressive as viewed from across the river, with a long red brick castle from the 14th century.
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We crossed the 13th century bridge and found the (closed) tourist information. Oh well, booking.com found us the elegant but reasonable Hotel du Rivage, where our room overlooks the river. On the way we checked our directions with two police officers in a car. We are now at the age where police officers look like children. So French readers - is it appropriate to address a police officer as "tu"? I did.
We decided to blow some money and eat in a real restaurant. All French restaurants are costly, by our standards. Plus portions are small, the stress being on quality and flavour. We were lucky this time. 39 euros brought us an adequate amount of food for cyclists/pilgrims, and the quality and flavour were there as well. To put it in perspective though, enough food for us for a whole day from bakeries is no more than 12 euros.
We were glad today that the knees worked. But poor Dodie is now stuffed up and seems to have fever. I am counting on the magic of the good night's sleep to put her back on the road.
Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 273 km (170 miles)
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