skip to main |
skip to sidebar
The wind has been blowing my way today, and I rolled 165 kilometres in five hours and 50 minutes! (Pauses not included.) At that speed, I totally forgot to stop and take a picture of my last sight of the Loire river - that was 12 kilometers back, and I'm not returning for that stupid picture (I have other stupid things to tend to, like doing an additional 120 kilometers after my arrival in Strasbourg).
During today's stage, only one event occured: it started raining. A lot. It started at about 100 km, and lasted 10 km.
The city Paray le Monial is another story. It is quite small, and my search for a charger to recharge my camera ended quite fast - without any luck. Thus, I looked for places to eat, but didn't really find anywhere tempting - I'd been told that the local speciality is snails and beef - at least that's what they produce in this area (passing through Digoin I recall a sign indicating snails as a regional speciality). The end of the story was a manifestation of a thought I got on my way from Sancerre: I ended up having dinner at the hotel's restaurant (note that I'm staying at the Grand Hotel, as that was what I found on the internet back home - at a fair price). And here they don't only have snails and beef, but also frogs legs as shown in the picture. I actually asked for frogs legs in the restaurant where I had dinner in Orleans, but the waitress there didn't understand the question ("avez-vous des grenouilles?")... So, today's dinner is a mix of Bourgonge and Alsace, as frogs legs apparently is of Alsacian origin (they also have foie gras de canard on their list of regional food - and I'm going there...)
Closing words: americans certainly knows how to talk out loud...
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!
Looks like a nice place. But I'm going to Sancerre.
Did not enter, but had a wonderful lunch in the park outside.
I'm halfway through! Both by distance and by daycount (starting to have problems counting the latter...). Thus, it's time to celebrate - and as I can't bring anything, I do it with a massive dinner. :-)
Today has also been a day of "hypertourism", but a late yesterday and headwind today reduced marching speed to 25 km/h. The heat, however, has remained high; maximum reading on the handlebar has been 39 degrees both days. Today has also challenged my patience a little, with seriously bumpy roads for about 10 kilometres of the last 20: imagine someone stretching the asphalt so that it breaks every five metres, and the tires bre so hard that you feel every little piece of gravel that you roll over... You just don't want to go there, especially not after eight hours of bicycling and sightseeing castles...
Speaking of castles, or chateaux as I belive even the English put it, it has been an amazing experience to visit all those castles! Each and every one can easily take up a whole day, so it's obvious that I've just skimmed the surface. Nevertheless, I dear to promote a couple of favourites: first and topmost comes Chambord - a massive and impressive castle with large exhibitions as well as other cultural events, surrounded by an enormous property (read: forest). Chambord was by far the chateaux with the most tourists, and I even think I heard some other Norwegians there - a rare event this late in summer. Second, Chaumont was surprisingly pleasing despite it's very anonymous location - both in terms of exteriour and interior, but also as a place with a lot of other cultural events (in which I did not take part). Then comes the chateaux in Saumur and the castle in Angers. Both fortresses, though Angers more than Saumur, and impressive by the vastness of the property thus contained within the castle walls. Saumur has the finer castle, whereas Angers has the more impressive defense - not to mention it's insanely large tapestry. After those, the gardens in Villandry are impressive. I didn' get there in time to see the interior, but going through the gardens alone would take days. Then comes Rigny Usse, with it's incredible openness - you could walk around almost everywhere, although they had closed off certain areas. What made it even cooler, was that it is actually in use - I suppose that applies to the parts not open to the public. Ambois did not make it beyond average in this setting, and blois is not in this scoring as I didn't find it worth spending time (and money) there when Chambord was next on my list. That concludes my short and slightly left-handed evaluation of the eight castles I've visited the last two days.
Time to get some sleep and recover before I continue with the last half - starting with a visit to Sancerre...
Did not enter.
Starting with a visit to the massive castle in Angers and continuing with visits at the castles in Saumur, Rigny Usse and Villandry, today has been a day of hypertourism. It's also been a "hyper" day on the road, with 123 kilometres at 4 hours and 42 minutes - marching speed has been around 30 km/h, even though I've had a light headwind all day. Combined with all the stops for visiting castles, its been a long day - I can't just roll past them when I'm here, can I?
Foodwise, today has been a slightly boring day with on local specialities, at least that I know. However, for the first time, I was annoyed by being served slowly next to the castle in Saumur. Normally, it's the other way around; I get a little annoyed because the food comes in before I'm ready. Not so at the restaurant in Saumur... It made for a nice, long rest, but wasn't exactly what I wanted at the moment.
Having said that, I've actually been in Tours before - two years ago when Jan worked here - and so, I wasn't in a rush to get here, as I've already seen the city. Whether that was the reason I ended up in an Italian restaurant, or simply the fact that I was hungry had me eating Italian, I don't know. What I do know, however, is that I'm very glad that I'm not sharing the room I have at the youth hostel - in Nantes, some French youngsters woke me up in the middle of the night.
And tomorrow features more castles...
I just had to do some gardening...
Thus, a late start today...
It's getting hot! Today, I registered 40 degrees (celsius) on my bike's handlebar, and tomorrow's forecast says 30 degrees in the shadows... I know I shouldn't complain, but when my body produces energy enough to keep me comfortably warm at 15-20 degrees, 30 becomes a lot.
Anyway, today has been the first day in wineland, and I've passed numerous vinyards and wineries on a rather short stage. I stopped by one of them, and wine labelled Anjou is a hot tip. Whether it is a grape or district, or both, is still unclear (the winefarmer claimed grape, while the place I had dinner claimed district/appelation) but it is absolutely something to investigate. Btw, I had lunch with a Dutch traveller today, and although Anjou wasn't among the things he mentioned, he introduced me to a strange concept; namely that Sancerre is known for its sweet white wines! I guess I have to check it out myself when I get there... ;-)
Foodwise, the speciality of Angers is a fish from the river, but only available upstream I skipped it in favour of some real meat - grilled on open fire as shown on the picture.
Angers is btw a nice place, and from my brief introductions I prefer Angers over Nantes. Nantes is just a little too big and noisy, whereas Angers has a more relaxed atmosphere - kind of like Vannes (yet Vannes benefit from the fresh air coming in from the sea). Lots of nice buildings here too, and even though I haven't really seen it (yet), the castle in Angers appeals more to me than the one in Nantes. Having said that, tomorrow may change my idea of castles, as I enter the "castleside" tomorrow...
The entrance to the castle in Angers closed 15 minutes before I got there. Merde.
After 104 kilometres in four hours and 20 minutes, pauses not included, I'm in Angers. Cool detail: the hotel has a separate parking space for bicycles, including a small set of tools. Don't need them, though. ;-)
