Chateaux and Gateaux
Quite a funny night, depending on your sense of humour. The street outside was a little one way street but very noisy. Cars and motorcycles seemed to take on the challenge of seeing what speed they could achieve whilst still being able to stop at the end. Before entering the hotel the previous evening, we had witnessed one such attempt from a car as two children on electric scooters hurtled down the street the wrong way towards it. They stayed in the middle of the street until moving over to one side was absolutely necessary if a blood bath was to be avoided. We have seen wonderful sites on electric scooters. A man in a suit with his brief case wedged between his legs, two people sharing a scooter and, perhaps best of all, a Grandma, zooming along complete with a handbag and a set expression.
The night 'ended' at about 5am, when there was a sudden and lengthy frenzy of street cleaning. We didn't look out of the window but knew one of those road sweeper lorries with the brushes and water etc plied the street because the orange flashing light lit the room up beautifully with each visitation. This was supplemented by people with those blowers, ensuring that all dirt, debris and detritus was whisked away.
We had breakfast at the hotel. We are getting lazy and the price was good. Muesli! What joy. Second only to 'Golden Grahams' in the breakfast cereal world. I hope they had more supplies because we demolished it.
We loaded up, now a well rehearsed routine, and set off through the now quiet streets of Saumur reaching the Loire and turning north west as the river does at this point. What amazing scenery. Chateaux, wine caves, mushroom caves, very grand houses trying to be chateaux, and the Loire accompanying us for the first twenty miles. As ever, there were challenges. There were many miles of quite loose gravel paths today. These are a pain, especially on a tandem. Corners have to be taken carefully. We hit one area of loose gravel and I could see water ahead on the sat nav. I assumed there would be a bridge. But no. This was a totally deserted area with a small barge on a chain which you had to pull yourself across the river with.
There was a French family there at the same time as us. They were competent and quite slick. We looked like Brits abroad. It was like a Michael MacIntyre sketch. The little French girl handed the chain to Kate as they finished and it was our turn. Kate held the chain but the boat drifted off. "Babe, you're losing the boat!" "It's not me, I'm just holding the chain like you told me to!" French man to the rescue, as he pulls the entire length of the chain so that we can start again. "It iz no problem. 'Ave a good day."
Then there was the loo problem. Whenever a toilet is in the vicinity, the tandem knows to brake and swerve and make a bee line for it. Now there is a bit grotty and then there is what we were presented with on this occasion. I leave you to judge.
The agony of choice...
Things worked particularly well on the eating front. We arrived at Angers, had a coffee (first one for 36 miles) and then cycled into the middle of the town and had a delightful 'plat du jour' of chicken and chips and salad. We followed this up with disgraceful desserts. Kate wants the fact recorded that she also succumbed to a disgraceful dessert. (Empirical evidence below...
From Angers, we went on to the wonderfully named 'Lion d'Angers', known by us as the angry lion. No sign of angry lions, just a very agreeable salon de thé. Today's ride was 55 miles which is relatively short but the remaining rides should be a morceau de gateaux. They are less than fifty miles long. We really have done the hard stuff.
We are having breakfast tomorrow at the lovely chambre d'hote we are staying at and we're not eating it until 8:30! And we won't set off until 9:30! And we'll stop loads of times! And we won't care!
Yay, for cake and alcohol, but maybe not so much for chain pulling - barges/revolting toilets 😐
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to hearing how totally chilled your days ahead are..please God 😃