St. Somebody sur la Loire

After too much time in a campground filled with too many people, some of whom weren’t afraid to get liquored and get rambunctious at 2 am and start pitching each other into the pool, our exhausted and hot kids are hoping that there will be more sleep tonight -

With only one missed turn to start the day, we got our first chance to push the bikes up a purpose built staircase with wheel troughs-

Yes, possible, but it did partially tear off the trailer and nearly removed a fender, which is another in a long line of those things that are just part of the day.

After that, it was just a lovely wander through the countryside into the wind, with temperatures in the low 90s. It is becoming rarer, but occasionally we still get steered wrong by our loyal map machines when we haven’t been following the bike route signs with sufficient vigilance. I believe Lyle expresses that best in the middle of our wheat field excursion today -

Liv wasn’t amused, and Ruby and I eventually took a tumble as we tried to ride in a single tire rut to get to the obvious route on the levy.  Luckily some folks we had met at the campground earlier went ahead and stopped to watch us attempt our buffoonery -

The amount of velo traffic is increasing by the day, and I have had interesting conversations with folks cycling along about the apple and wine varieties that we see.  At least, that was the way I was interpreting the conversations. We could well have actually been discussing the weather.  Best to not get bogged down in the details, I believe. Sounds like cider apples are only grown further north, but many varieties of grapes are grown on the south side of the river, producing some fine wines, including the rose' that we have enjoyed recently.  Chosen using the time-proven method of price point and asking if they are from this region.  Similar to how I buy cheese, I guess.

From the top of the tower of the local 11th century Roman church, our little chunk of the world is quite scenic -

Liv and I took a walk up this evening to see it, and pretend we were some of these lightly packed tourers traveling without the whole family-

I think the major difference between us and them is that they have changes of clothes.

Tomorrow we will get to Saumur where we will spend a day before I train back to Nantes to pick up our rental van and drive it to Switzerland with all our stuff and the family on board.  Should be VERY interesting to see what happens when I show up at the counter to pick it up, as the negotiation on the phone was in excess of an hour to set it up, and I am still not strictly certain what it will be.  Assured that it will have at least 2.5 meters of storage in back, though, and after that it is just details. With my grasp of the language, we will not be surprised to find a wagon filled with live squirrels or who knows what.

That will allow us to drive on the day that is supposed to be over 100 degrees, and hopefully get to some alpine coolness.  Time will tell.

If trains in Germany turn out to be as challenging as French trains, we may rethink our route significantly, and visit Denmark without bikes and ride across more of a Belgian/Dutch route after Germany.  Staying flexible is key to all of this, and we aren’t worried.

In the spirit of Starsky’s motto of “Middle Aged Man Don’t Care," below is an image that Liv dared me to put in, and which you probably don’t want to see.  Nothing like a nice spigot bath after a day on the road, and an ill timed photo -

-Dave