Day 39: Savonnieres to Amboise, France: Tour de Tours

June 27, 2012

Since the Boulangerie in Savonnieres opens at 6:30, we reluctantly gave up on the opportunity to cook plain oatmeal and off I went on my bike into the town. Probably the biggest event of the day was happening as I arrived. A delivery truck parked in the middle of the street (which is 1 1/4 lanes wide). Another truck came behind and (wait for it) honked. The excitement was over quickly, though, as the first truck moved.

After our baguette and cheese we said goodbye to Artur in the next tent. It had been his first night in a tent on his first bike trip. At 15 months, he found it a bit overwhelming.

We cycled along the Cher River, which runs parallel to the Loire for about 60 km. It was mirror smooth at first, and lovely. The path was right by the river all the way into the major town of Tours, so we started with a quiet and contemplative time.

For the first time since Nantes the Eurovelo 6 had missing signage on the outskirts of Tours. We ended up cruising through an extensive area of allotment gardens, from which yet another kind local stopped and steered us right.

Lovely allotment gardens at the approaches to Tours.

The bark of what we believe are Chestnut trees. The way into Amboise was lined for 3 km with giant ones, but they are really everywhere.

The outskirts of Tour were very mundane and a big switch from the ancient and quiet villages were have become used to. However, the closer we got to the centre of town, the more interesting everything appeared.

The appearance of the town improves as you get closer to the centre

To answer Arthur's recent question in the Guestbook about where all the people of France are (if they are not in our photos), they must be shopping for fashion clothes on the ripped up main street of Tours:

The main street is under construction, but with lots of people out shopping anyway

As the days go by we encounter more and more touring cyclists along the way. and some make repeat appearances. Sophie and Pierre are the champions at this, for as we wandered randomly in downtown Tours, here they were, speeding up behind us as usual!

We made our wandering a little less random and we searched out the Tourist Information. With the failure of the dynamo GPS charging scheme (more about that another time) we need something for me to look at at the back of the caravan. It turns out that what keeps me happiest is my very own copy of the current Loire a Velo map. There are six of these, that we bought on Amazon before we left. Now we are buying extra copies one or two at a time, at the Tourist Information. They are about 2 Euros each, I think.

We stood under this unable to find the Tourism Office for quite a while

Another option for cycling the Loire a Velo is to get one of the dedicated map books. Here are two that I spotted. Pierre and sophie are using the second one. The route on this differs subtly from the route shown in the six map set.

One of the two complete guides (maps and some text)

The other complete guide. Then there is the six map only set.

An Aussie bus tourist that we spoke to near the Chateau at Ussy referred to the "ABC" phenomenon - "another bloody cathedral". We violently oppose this way of thinking. So while the cathedral at Tours was indeed ABC, it was another beautiful cathedral.

Somehow it was the stained glass that caught our attention most at Tours:

Much as I adore the amazing, irreproducible baguettes here, I was starting to get a bit carbohydrated out, and longing for a "steak - frites". Sitting down for such a thing seemed like it would be a waste of valuable gawking at cathedrals time, so we settled on a semi fast food shot of Lebanese. It was very good, but still lacked something. Ah yes, a tarte aux abricots from the boulangerie next door!

As we sat at the Lebanese place on the super quaint street, someone sang out in English "how do you like your Bike Fridays?". Here was Keir and Robin, with little Zoe in the middle on a BF triple! They had ordered it from the plant at Eugene, Oregon and had it delivered to Keir's parents in Wisconsin. I think they said it fits in two suitcases!

What you don't see in the photo is the two wheeled trailer they are pulling. That is for Zoe when she get tired of pedalling. All in all it was quite a train to sneak through the narrow Tours street.

Keir, Zoe, and Robin with their Bike Friday triple.

The street with our Lebanese cafe in Tours

Leaving Tours, we now again proceeded along the Loire, methodically pedalling away on the dedicated bikeway. Trailside poster boards highlighted various aspects of the Loire cycle way, and in this region again, wineries are the major thing. Up in the hills on both sides of the river, our maps show one after another after another. The poster boards particularly recommended the co-op wine cave at Montlouis, which has a (brief self-guided) tour and free tasting.

With all the hype, even though we don't drink, how could we miss checking it out?

We used up enough time in the wine cave, that now it was time to begin looking for a camping spot. There had been one a while back, but it uncharacteristically was a RV slum:

This camping is shown on our map but is an RV slum

We had passed a nice one too, but then it was too early. The next one shown on our map did not materialize, and we could not locate the one that had been recommended by Michel in the guestbook.

So we plodded on a bit, and just outside Amboise there was an enigmatic sign for one on "Isle d'Or". That was the last sign for it we saw, but as we cruised in front of Amboise and looked over to an island in the river, we saw it. We crossed a bridge, and there got a great view of the Chateau of Amboise:

Rules in the campsite window. At least, unlike with a typical EULA, the window is big.

So here we are in Amboise, in the shadow of the Chateau, and beside the Loire (sounds romantic until you fight off the mosquitoes!). Leonardo da Vinci is buried in that chateau! However, he worked in another one in town, and tomorrow we will go check that out.

If you are like me when reading other people's blogs, you only have a vague notion of where the events described are happening, even if the blog has lots of Google maps included. There may be no remedy for this, you kind of have to live through it to have a feel for where or what all these places are. However, maybe this will help, just for today and tomorrow:

Today's ride: 52 km (32 miles)
Total: 1,313 km (815 miles)

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