June 2010

Sunday, 13 June, 2010 We were warned that northern France would be a boring succession of wheat fields and I suppose in a way that is the case but on a bicycle you are so much a part of the landscape and things are different all the time on a smaller scale that we never […]

Saturday, June 12, 2010 On a bit of a dreary and overcast morning we first went to see the sights in town we had read about the night before in the tourist pamphlets. Never mind that most everything was closed, I still got some inspirational woodwork pictures and some others of some major crumblies of

Friday, 11 June, 2010 We said our farewells to the group of volunteers, quite touching actually how welcoming they have been and how apologetic about the plumbing hassles of the night before. So encouraging to see this dedicated and idealistic bunch of young people trying to make a difference. We had a quick spin around

Thursday, June 10, 2010 Well, we were very snug in our tent within a tent although we didn’t sleep that well, a combination of bumpy soil, a heavy downpour in the middle of the night and a donkey telling the world at 3 in the morning that it was still alive. That animal must have

Wednesday, June 09, 2010 Rain, rain, buckets of rain. Fortunately we had finished cooking our sumptuous supper which needed a lot of time on the Trangia and had set the tent up. First showers throughout the night and then almost continuous for the whole day. We decided this is no weather for cycling, the big

Tuesday, 8 June, 2010 It rained a little during the night and there were some spits and spats as we went looking through town for the advertised tourist attractions, well, the chateau was closed and the botanical garden non-existing so we set out to cover the remaining 25 kilometers to Fontainebleau. We had little choice

Monday, 7 July, 2010 Our worm on the map turned northwards today, it suddenly felt like the end of our trip is near, I suppose that is the case to some extent for the cycle trip in France but there are plenty days left in our holiday. This was the last bit of the Loire

Sunday, 06 June, 2010 The rest day started off very well with a sumptuous breakfast served by our French lady starting of with a large piece of Italian cake! We then retreated to our room for a while to make use of the free wifi to Skype some family and get updated on world events

Saturday, 05 June, 2010 The last leg of our section of the VeloRoute of the Loire Valley was upon us today. Thanks to yesterdays extra bit it was only forty kilometers of flat path along the Loire. We met an Australian couple at the camp who were doing a very similar route to us except

Friday, 4 June, 2010 Another beautiful day in France, we were lucky to have pitched in the shade so it was still nice and cool for breakfast. A quick stop to take a pic of the chateau i had missed the day before in the heat of the moment when we had our first flat