Our threat to change the name of the tour seems to have paid off! Despite the weather forecast, we had no rain today, the warmest day so far (Jon was down to his lightest clothes part of the day), and we only had to ride through 3″ of flooded path for 25 meters. Fortunately, we had confirmation it was no deeper – from cyclists who had come through before us. With our tiny wheels, 3″ is about our limit.
Actually it was almost one of those days people think all French touring should be (at least, what MC has been waiting for): we rode 10k then stopped for quiche and eclairs, then another 10k with a stop for a view of Chinon Chateau and hot chocolate.
But to throw a wrench into it, we then had to climb (walk) up several very steep hills, but past some cool troglodyte ruins.
And this was then followed by a bit of a mistake in our route. The Loire Velo does not offer a route directly from Chinon to Azay. Jon thought he was clever and found a GPS track someone had posted. Big mistake! We believe whoever posted it had to have been riding a mountain bike with no gear. We ended up on stair cases, sand, and washed out roads.
We finally managed to work our way over to the main highway, which had no shoulder – but it was straight and we made excellent time, only delayed by an hour due to Jon’s folly.
We were then able to resume our idyllic day, concluding with a tour of the local Chateau.
