Day 7: Orleans - Sancerre

Today has been a very nice day. First, the wind has changed and given me a nice push southwards (121 kilometres in four hours and 44 minutes, with no long stops). Consequently, I arrived early in Sancerre. Second, the temperature has dropped - I've measured a maximum of 32 degrees on the handlebar today.

But best of all was my stop for lunch in Sully-sur-Loire. I had some bread from an earlier stop, and stopped by a charcuterie (deli) for some ham. I chose some Italian ham, before we started talking about bicycling - the guy who run the place turned out a big fan of downhill bicycling, and even showed me his bike. So, we had a long conversation about bicycling, me telling about this tour, he telling about his dream to go bicycling for a year (not quite certain about the duration, but basically "bicycling for a very long time"). Eventually, some other customers came in, and I was about to leave when he took out some meat, cut off a few pieces, wrapped it all up and gave it to me. He really liked my project of bicycling on my own for a long time. With bread and ham, along with the meat I got as a gift to eat every kilometer, I sat down on a bench in the park outside the castle, sharing it with another guy who was already there. The coversation we had was interesting not only by content, but also by language. He knew english, a little more than I know french. However, when I spoke in english, I was too fast for him, and when he spoke in french, he was too fast for me. Thus, he spoke mostly in english, and I mostly in french. And among the things he told me, was that the castle we were looking at was the first to be built in the whole Loire valley (which I've been bicycling for four and a half day now, with one day to go).

Coming to Sancerre was a mixed experience. Not because of the climb to get up here, but because the room I got at the hotel was just very bad - it was dark and small, and smelled of cigarettes. Upon noting the smell, I got another room that was both bigger, brighter, and without the odor of cigarettes. I guess I've learned a thing or two from sharing hotel rooms with Kaj in numerous regattas.

Sancerre itself is a village of wine. If you come here and don't just pass by, you cannot miss out on that fact. So, after climbing the tower for a view of the area, I ended up participating in tasting an endless number of wines - I simply lost count. In an attempt to have a taste on the sweet white wines that the dutch traveller told me about two days ago, I stopped by another place. But, it turns out the dutch was wrong; they only make dry white wine here. However, they also make both rosé and red wine, both of which I tasted.

One last word about taste that may surprise you: just south of Sancerre, they produce a white goat cheese named Chavignol. It comes in various flavours, and what make them interesting is that they match perfectly with a dry white Sancerre - some wines probably match better than others, but to me the interesting thing is that a dry Sancerre actually can go well with cheese (keep in mind that a wine should always be "sweeter" than the food it is served with).

Bon apetit!