September 13, 2024
Day 11 - Saint-Loup-Lemaire to Poitiers
Last day on the bike!
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We signed up for breakfast in the chateau, mostly to prolong the incredible experience. The breakfast was the usual French light fare - croissants, bread, yogurt, and muesli. And coffee, luckily. Breakfast was served downstairs in a room with stained glass windows and long tables.
It was another cold day - about 10 degrees when we packed up and got outside. Rich retrieved Schnooks from the “other” chateau, and we were out the gate and on our way about 1000.
Today was more of rural France, but we did have a couple of stopping points to add some interest. The first was the “Pont Romain” or “Vieux Pont” in Gourge. This bridge dates from the 11th century, and bridges that old are often mis-named as Roman in France. At one point, this was the main trade route between Nantes and Poitiers.
And then, back into La France Profonde. Today’s feature was kilometer after kilometer of fields, all growing the same crop. We’re not crop experts, but it looked like it might be sugar beets or turnips.
The landscape was flat, and the blue sky went on forever. We felt like we were in Kansas.
Robin found a cute bakery in Ayron for lunch. We sat outside and watched the busy traffic go by on the N149. A lot of large semi-trucks. We were really glad that our route went in a different direction.
In Chiré-en-Montreuil, we stopped to look at a cute old chateau that wasn’t open for visits.
And then we were on the final approach into Poitiers. We hit some really nice bike paths that routed us around the end of the airport, then dropped down to ride alongside La Boivre, a gentle stream that led us almost into the heart of Poitiers.
And before we knew it, we hit a Poitiers city limit sign! Time for a celebratory selfie!
We biked (and walked a bit) up into town, and pulled up to our hotel (the Best Western Poitiers Centre Le Grand Hôtel again) in triumph. We followed a car into the parking garage and spent a bit of time breaking everything down and packing up the car, then headed upstairs to check in.
Dinner was at Au Bureau (At the Office) across the street. Apparently that joke works in French as well as it does in English.
This ends the riding portion of our trip. I’ll add another entry in a couple of days to summarize the trip and talk about what we learned.
Thanks for reading!
Today's ride: 61 km (38 miles)
Total: 608 km (378 miles)
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