TOUR DAY 9 (September 16) BLOIS to MEUNG-SUR-LOIRE

TOUR DAY 8 (Sept 16)

Musings from the morning:

• I had VERY crazy dreams, almost movie like.  Just weird stuff.  All centered around New York and JFK airport.
• I can tell how good a French hotel breakfast is going to be by just the first bite of the croissant. 
• For that matter, I can tell how good a French Hotel is going to be just based on the first bite of the croissant at breakfast.
• I understand spoken French the same way a dog understands his masters.  Blah-blah-blah-blah OUTSIDE?  Only for me its: Blah-Blah-Blah-blah CHAMBRE NOMBRE?  Hunh? Oh! the breakfast girl wants my room number. Then I rattle it off back to her, faking my fluency.
• Time to get started.  Its rainy, but not too bad today.  Really worried about my knee, but I'm goign to take it easy.

The day started out fine… I could feel the knee, but it wasn’t painful.  After an hour, I lowered the seat to the height the bike shop recommended (quite a bit lower) and I could feel the geometry better on the knee immediately.  Maybe it was just seat height that was causing a strain?

The bike path to Chambord was well marked, but I missed a turn somewhere (easy to do at 20kph) and found myself on the main surface roads in the middle of the fields. Cars and tour busses fly past me.  I finally made it to the town of Chambord only to find out the most famous of all French chateaus was not actually in the city.  I had to go another 3km to get to the front gates, then another 3km on the designated bike path to reach the structure.  It was quite impressive.

Lookinng back toward Blois

On the bike path to Chambord before I lost the trail

Lost and looking for clues if I'm on the right path, I spot this Chateau in the distance.  Is this it?  No.

What is this thing?  A grain silo?  A water tower?  Rapunzel's new digs?  

On the surface roads in the middle of the fields.

Inside the front gates of Chambord Chateau, I think the bike path is a lot nicer than the  route for autos

View of the Chateau from the bike path

I arrived at the Chateau at 1pm and the tours lasted about 2 hours.  I probably should have just stayed there and spent the night and pressed on to Orleans the next day.  BUT hindsight is 20/20.

I ate lunch at the chateau and pressed on towards Orleans.

Chambord Chateau

made it!

Life is rich at the Chateau, even to go to the bathroom is 0.40 Euro

I was surprised how empty the grounds were

By the time I reached Beaugency (25km past Chambord), my knee was starting to act up again.  Maybe I can make it the last 20km to Orleans?  Mistake.

A mere 5km later and I was walking the bike on the trail with 3km to get to the next town of Baule.  I made it to Baule and found they don’t have any hotels in the town.  It’s pretty industrial and the only open business I found was a Tabac in the center of town; a common type of store that sells draft beer and cigarettes at a counter, and about 300 types of magazines, from children’s to pornographic.  The clientele was pretty rough, most stopping in to buy lotto tickets.

I explained to the bar tender in French I could not ride anymore today and I needed a hotel.  He responded in a kind of French that I was really not familiar with (I’m guessing it would be like a thick country accent back home)   blah-blah-blah-blah Round-about, turn left.  Blah-blah-blah-blah go straight, blah-blah-blah-blah, hotel and restaurant blah the highway blah-blah-blah, blah.  Got it?

I decided to quit.  Enough.  I pushed the loaded bike to the local train station a few blocks away.  I was not in the mood to find some highway motel.  I would just take a train to Orleans and figure out what to do next.

I got to the train station, and I waited for a train.  And waited.  And waited.  A video monitor explained (In French) that the train blah-blah-blah accident blah blah with a person.
 
And that it was definitely the person’s fault, and definitely not SNCF.

My train had apparently been canceled, with the next train coming in an hour and a half.  I imagined how packed a Friday evening train would be after the previous train cancelled.  Packed for sure, and me with my bike and all its bags.

I have heard that if trains are full, bikes are refused… and I wasn’t about to stand around for an hour and a half to have that situation happen to me.

Ok, I’ll go look for the road hotel.  I found it right where he said it would be.  Actually in the next town down in Meung-sur-Loire.  It is the Not-Messing-Around Etap Hotel -a creature like I have never seen before.  You don’t even need to speak with the front desk clerk to get the room… just stick your credit card in the ATM-looking machine in the front pre-lobby.

It will issue you a code that will unlock not only the front door, but also the door to your room.  The rooms are all the same I understand.  With a double bed in the middle, and a single bunk straddling it above.  All rooms come with free WiFi, but SKYPE and other VOIPs are blocked.  Minimum price 42 Euro.  Maximum price 42 Euro.  Any questions?

The ATM-like machine where you can book yourself a room and pay for it during after-hours operations 

No Keys at Etap Hotel... you are given a 6-digit code that lets you in the front door, the front gate, and your room

Waiting for the train that never came

A cool old WWII era jeep parked in the front yard of a house in Tavers

I hope that tomorrow my knee us up for the simple 20km ride to Orleans.  I’m ready to rest up a bit in a bigger city than where I’ve been since Tours.

I may be down, but I’m not out.


 

TOUR DAY 7 (September 14) TOURS to BLOIS

TOUR DAY 6 (SEPT 14) TOURS to BLOIS

Last night while I slept in the train-station-hotel, a sinister plot was formed.  A meeting of the minds, if you will.  Representatives from each of my body parts came together in a secret meeting to discuss what was transpiring over the past week.  

Sure, they agreed that in improvement in heath was good for the overall longevity of their careers, but something had to be done about the unrealistic demands forced on them over the past week- with no end in sight.  

170 kilometers in 2 days?  Seriously?  The left knee drew the straw and became the first wild-cat strike of the body.

With the Blois’s ancient riverfront buildings almost in sight, I could no longer pedal.  What am I going to do?  I tried and tried, but the sharp pain from my left knee was like needles going deep.  So, for the last 2 kilometers I walked.  And walked, and walked.

The first hotel I came to, the Ibis, I didn’t care how much it was.  I was ready to be done.  But they didn’t care how much money I had. 

“I’m sorry sir, we are full.  The whole town is full today for some reason”  After circling the Chateau of the city twice looking for the Office of Tourism, I finally found it.

Another hotel I tried with a view of the Chateau, the lady who ran it was very nice to me.  She reminded me of Brittany’s [deceased]  mom.  I explained my knee was hurt and I couldn’t ride anymore.  I needed a hotel and close.  She was full too, “everyone is“, but explained to me about where the OT (office de Tourisme) was.

“Everything is full.  We don’t know why it is so” the lady at the tourism office tells me.  

“I need something close by.  I’m hurt.  I can’t go very far”

Looking at me over her bi-focals “How much can you pay?”

“For something close, I can pay ANYTHING.  5 Star, 1 Star I don’t care.  So long as its close”

“Anything?!?!”

“ANYTHING” read my lips, lady.  And it was true.  I would have paid anything.  I was in pain and ready to be settled.

She made some calls, and finally “D’accord” she looked up at me.  “I have a room close to here.  They can accept your Velo, but the price is…”  I’m waiting for 375 or 1,300 Euros  “38 Euros, and they take the bicycle too.  Is that okay?”

This leads me to my next topic- in American real estate it’s called “red-lining,” or based on a prejudice, you steer people in a certain direction.  It is illegal now under the Fair Housing laws passed decades ago.  But show up in France in biker shorts and a helmet, and even if you say “I’ll pay ANYTHING!” you still wind up in a 40 Euro/night 2 star hotel where the internet only works in the lobby.  It’s true, I just look cheap.

I had a wonderful dinner at the "Pepper & Salt" restaurant in the center of town tonight... I'm headed to bed now.  Night

At my hotel by the train station this morning in Tours...they let me keep my bike in the courtyard

The courtyard of my hotel in Tours... bright and sunny and 50F!  Burrrr!

Some famous building in the center of Tours... should have gotten the name of it... but no time!

Tours, the city of construction...here the entire boulevard of the city is removed and being worked on

Tours

The bike path leaving Tours... inside the levee.  Was very nice and well-paved

They LOVE their campers here... parks everywhere

Just a house I liked

Great path through wine country

"Where do babies, er, I mean wine come from?"

Harvesting grapes for wine

Sunflowers past their prime, but ready for harvest

It's whats for dinner =)

Most of my day was spent without much of a shoulder on a busy road

The Loire isn't very big now that we're above most of it's contributaries

Riding in the river

DONE WITH PHASE II, ON TO PHASE III!

The view of BLOIS, walking the bike

Its' like the French Halloween here... lots of college kids dressed up

TOUR DAY 6 (September 13) SAUMUR to TOURS

It was only supposed to be 83km today... until I got turned around and pedaled the wrong way for about 30 minuets... in the rain.  Nothing to make you more mad than to add distance to your already longest day.  So, it wound up being just over 100km today.  Most of the day was cold (58F) and rainy.  I was pretty "over it" by the time I got to Tours.

The GOOD NEWS ( I just found out) is that I double tripped the day- meaning I did in one day what I was supposed to do in 2- so despite spending a rest day (Day 4) in Angers, I'm back on schedule.

Sometimes the trail will take you down a really cool part like this one where you actually ride through part of the cave system

Through part of the cave-village

Just south of Saumur they built these houses and castles (Chateaus) into these cave-cliffs.  Interesting

Still sticking to the path, but not for long

Monster of a church built in this tight little village.  This was a stop-snap-&go shot

Huge fields of these yellow flowers.  It was raining in these pics

The trail near Avion

After getting lost and on track again it stopped raining and I took a picture.  It lasted about 20 minuets

About 45 minuets later SOAKING WET with still 30km to go.  Not happy. 

"La Chapelle, Oh NO!"

Lots and lots of swans in the rivers here... these were close enough for me to shoot with 14x zoom

This bridge is one of the prettiest I have seen on this trip... it leads to Tours