Our final Loire Valley castle visit, Château de Villandry, was right across the quiet road from our glamping site. Unfortunately, the gate there was the back service entrance, with the public entrance all the way down the hill and on the opposite side of town. So that meant packing up and taking our bikes down… Read more…

Three nights in Amboise left us with one thing on Rett’s list remaining to see: Château de Chenonceau. But it’s only “in Amboise” from a driver’s perspective; it’s actually 9 miles southeast of the town, on a whole other river (the Cher). So rather than the original idea of burning an “off day” by riding… Read more…

Another short-distance day, but we were out early so that we could make it to a winery before their lunchtime closure. We were too early to take much advantage of today’s even-stronger tailwind, but the 55°F temperature and the shade of the south side of the river bank kept us operating efficiently in the coolness.… Read more…

We finally had a tailwind today, and with another short-mileage (and no castle visits), we were able to do some extra recovery from the previous days and dally in our nice AirBNB until 10:30. Still, the town was in quiet-waking mode, vs. yesterday afternoon’s bustling around the castle, so we took the opportunity to be… Read more…

It’s a good thing I made a last-minute decision last night to throw the rainfly on our tent, even though no rain was in the forecast (continuing a weeks-long period of complete dryness). Because the forecast was wrong. Not in terms of precipitation, but temperature. Instead of the predicted 55°F low, it dropped to 45°F,… Read more…

We’re riding to the legendary Loire Valley. There’s a EuroVelo route (#3) that heads southeast from Paris, hits the Loire, and then turns back northwest to follow it downstream. We ain’t got time for all that though, so between yesterday and today, we’re cutting off that corner and taking as straight a line as possible,… Read more…