We began our day speaking English with breakfast at the Bray Et Mont.  We were joined by our friends of the previous night, from Canada – and a couple from Australia.  Besides last night, this was our first long conversation with anyone but ourselves in quite a while.  Topics were mostly around comparing our three countries; everything from news reporting to bicycling to healthcare.

 

Our Chateau du Jour was Usse, along our bike route to Saumur.  This is the Chateau which is believed to be the inspiration for “Sleeping Beauty”.  The author had stayed there and possibly wrote the story during his stay.  So the current owners have placed mannequins throughout the chateau to reenact parts of the story.   There was also a staircase to a tunnel which once went all the way underground to a chateau in Chinon, over 10 km away.

 

What was more interesting to us was Usse’s means of making wine.  The caves were in a cliff behind the house, under the vineyards.  So they dug a shaft from the vineyards above into the cave, placed the crusher under the shaft and simply dropped the grapes down the shaft for crushing.

 

Sadly, we were also the inadvertent cause of another accident today.  On the road near Saumur we came across a couple in a two-wheeled cart being pulled by a donkey with a second donkey in tow behind the carriage.  We approached from behind slowly and stayed as far to the other side of the road as possible.  Despite there being several other bicycles on the same road, apparently our size and the trailer were still enough to frighten the donkey being towed.  It veered into the ditch, pulling the cart and the leading donkey over.  It looked like no one was injured and the carriage was ok, but it became apparent that we needed to move on, so that the second donkey would calm down.

 

The ride finished in grand style, as we entered the parking lot at our hotel, the Anne d’Anjou, in Saumur.  The lot was filled with 14 Bentleys, apparently part of an organized tour of Bentley owners.