A Roll Down the River: Paris to the Loire Valley

(creative drying techniques)

Once we hit France we took the train from Lille down to Versailles and met up with Lance's sister Trina and her boyfriend, Paul. (Disclaimer: sorry about the funky font changes, its late, and the font just won't behave and is doing its own thing, and I'm annoyed, so I'm just going to publish this anyway)

The Palace of Versailles, of course the main attraction, is incredible - opulence plus. This was the opulence that toppled the french monarchy with the exploits of the likes of Marie-Antoinette ("let them eat cake"). So, yeah, what can you say?Opulent chapel....

Opulent Hall of Mirrors...

Opulent bedroom....Jul listening hard to her audioguide (completely unaware Lance is beside her) in the opulent gallery....

Opulent gardens....

We then took the train into Paris (sans bikes) to catch the end of the Tour de France and Alberto Contador's victory.

I'm pretty sure the whole of Paris was out for the event (quite some feat considering how busy Paris usually is), the streets were lined with people, and the atmosphere was electric.

As well, we did the typical tourist itinerary - the Eiffel tour, the boat cruise down the Seine, eating foie gras and copious amounts of pastries, being charged too much for everything (5 euro for coffee, 8 for beer), that kind of thing. Paul was even kind enough to explain the recession to us.

Our hotel was nearby the Arc...

Us getting charged too much for beer...

The view from the Eiffel Tower…

The Seine, at dusk....Trina, holding the baguette Jul cleverly bought in a state of starvation that needed baking, problem solved by Paul charming the hot baguette stand lady... voila, hot baguette.

Can't remember where or what this is...

The Loire Valley
The Loire Valley ride followed the Loire river from Orleans out west to the Atlantic, ending in Angers. It started out somewhat rocky - catching the train from Paris to Orleans, with one minute to go (Lance found a quicker train at the last moment), the downside of traveling with bikes definitely came into play - picture us sprinting down the platform, tickets in mouth, frantically asking “C'est quelle voiture pour velos” (which is the carriage for the bicycles), throwing panniers on, hefting bikes up stairs, only for jul to get stuck behind lance who is wedged into the small entrance and can't move, the train whistle blowing, Jul still stuck on the stairs, train moving, thankfully kind fellow cycle tourist coming to rescue.

Some of the French scenery...

Then when we reach Orleans (which is quite lovely) finding every campground within riding distance is inexplicably closed for summer, and being helped (hmmm) by a drunk old frenchman who can’t speak a word of English, but gets us to follow him in his car to the nearest campground, which is also closed. Then being invited home to stay at his house (according to a kind passing french couple who weren't quite sure exactly what he was saying), being completely unable to get him to accept our no, and finally being rescued by the campground manger who has been alerted to our predicament by all the noise, and who lets us camp on his tiny front yard, and serves us coffee and plums in the morning. Whoever said the French weren’t all that!

Jul setting up at our free campsite....

So, a mixed start to the Loire. From there though, it just gets blissful.

The Loire Valley area is a UNESCO heritage site…”noteworthy for the quality of its architectural heritage, in its historic towns such as Blois, Chinon, Orléans, Saumur, and Tours, but in particular in its world-famous castles, such as the Château de Chambord. … illustrate to an exceptional degree the ideals of the Renaissance and the Age of the Enlightenment on western European thought and design.” (thank you UNESCO heritage website). And they really are lovely little towns. Crumbling and charming, with an abundance of the all important patisseries.

Amboise, where we spent a pleasant few days camping on an island in the Seine, where this picture was taken...

And the Château are beautiful, particularly the Château de Chambord, which is a lovely, graceful monster of a hunting lodge.

It had a funky double helix staircase....

Following a river is fantastic. It’s all flat, and you can’t really get too lost. Well admittedly the river path we followed a lot of the time did have an annoying habit of slowly dwindling to dead ends, leaving you with no option but backtracking. We did a lot of off-roading, way more than our bikes were ever designed for. The French signage for the Loire Cycling route was, lets say, sporadic. But you can’t go too far wrong.

At this point the trail utilised a little barge which you pull from each side by a chain.... Lance kindly took photos.

The campgrounds are the cheapest we had in all of Europe (thank you municipal campgrounds – 8 euros for both of us), and usually riverside and peaceful if you don’t end up with a van load of gypsies and their dog beside you.

The weather was just lovely, sunny, warm, but not too hot. The cheese and wine abundant and ridiculously cheap. We meandered along at a lovely lazy pace. All in all, great cycling.

Consuming the aforementioned cheese and wine....The view from Leonardo da Vinci's window in Amboise, where he lived out his later years.

Da Vinci's home housed a very cool museum which had reconstructed his inventions, some to life size, such as this tank.

Sampling some of the local cooking...

And finally, who could write a blog on France without some vineyards....