The day dawned overcast and blustery as predicted. We all met at Roger and Dominique’s to load
the car. At about 8AM, after lots of
laughter and pictures, we were off.
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| The Happy Bikers - David, Tom, Roger, Gerard |
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| The Loaded Car on its Way |
It took about 3-1/2 hours, with a stop for coffee, to reach
Nevers. We quickly found a non-metered
parking place on the street and unloaded the bikes, whereupon it began to rain
lightly. Luckily it soon stopped. We took a shortcut through town to the trail
rather than following the trail around the town as we wanted to get some distance
down the valley that afternoon. We had
learned to book hotels in advance after the ordeal of last year, and we needed
to get to Sancerre by that evening.
It was a bit chill and breezy, but still very scenic as we
wound through town and out into the countryside. After about an hour we reached the small town
of Cours-les-Bains on the banks of the old barge canal that parallels the river
for much of its length. We headed for
the small restaurant across from the church and ordered a restorative carafe of
wine while we pondered our lunch choices.
[It shows how serious Gerard is about his biking, that he, the Frenchman,
often had beer rather than wine. Less
alcohol, more hydration.] For lunch I
had barbeque ribs – I was interested in what they would be like in France. They were good but pretty standard sauce and
preparation – I could have been in the US.
Tom had Tartiflette, sort of a large bruschetta with all kinds of
vegies, and some meat and cheese on it.
Roger and Gerard had turkey skewers which Gerard pronounced as a bit
tough, possibly from a turkey that had been around ‘at the time of Nixon’.
After lunch, we started off again and about 20-30 minutes
later it began to rain – hard. We got
wet, but fortunately it stopped fairly soon and we were able to dry out. We were then able to enjoy the scenery and
the trail, much of which was paved and restricted to bikes, pedestrians, and only
occasionally an official vehicle or nearby resident whose only access to their
farm was along the trail. The trail
often ran along the top of the levee so we had a good view of the river and/or
the canal.
Two hours later, rain again threatened, and we decided to
take shelter. Good idea, as rain came
down in sheets, but only for a few minutes.
Once it stopped, we were off again.
As mentioned, our first night was in Sancerre, a famous old
walled town unfortunately atop a high hill.
Tom and I mostly pushed our bikes up the hill, Gerard and Roger mostly
rode. We stayed at a nice old hotel, the
Hotel des Remparts, which as its name suggests was near the remnants of the old city
walls.
After cleaning up and changing clothes we met in the hotel
bar for a glass of the excellent local Sancerre [white] wine, made with the
Sauvignon Blanc grape. We then repaired
to the hotel restaurant for dinner and two bottles of excellent Sancerre, which
as it turned, out was a bit too much.
[For those who are interested, it was Domaine Bernard Fleuriet et
Fils. For dinner we had the 2012; in the
bar we had the 2011, which I thought was a bit better. Both excellent, however.]
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| View of the Loire From Sancerre |
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| David with Hotel Sign at Right |
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| At Dinner - Hotel des Remparts, Sancerre |
For the day, we covered 62 km – not bad considering the late
start.
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