No Stamps, No Hills, No Problem

Day 43: Orléans to Gien (57 miles / 910 ft.)

We slept in and enjoyed a simple breakfast in our Airbnb: coffee, our favorite little premade waffles with honey, rice pudding, and the last of the lemon cake Angélique had sent with us. Then came the morning workout of maneuvering two bicycles down three flights of stairs.

Before leaving Orléans, we wrote a few postcards. France may be the easiest country in the world in which to buy a postcard and the hardest place to find an international stamp. We tried several towns and multiple businesses displaying the postal symbol, but no luck. Lisa even stood in line at what she thought was a post office before realizing it might have been a bank. At this rate, we may beat the postcards home and have to hand-deliver them ourselves.

This would be our flattest riding day of the tour as we followed the Loire upstream toward Gien. Enormous clouds filled the sky, looking magnificent and vaguely threatening, while a 10 mph tailwind pushed us along at nearly 19 mph.

We stopped at a large sandbar and wandered along the river looking for glass and other little treasures, finding one small piece of green river glass. Later, as we crossed toward Châteauneuf-sur-Loire, rain was falling behind us and downriver to our left, while our route to the right looked clear. We chose optimism but took shelter beneath the umbrellas of a café that also sold lottery tickets and displayed a postal symbol while, naturally, selling no international stamps. Coffee and a croissant seemed like fair rent for our dry seats.

About thirty minutes later the rain let up, and we continued through small Loire villages, stopping for churches, châteaux, and anything else that caught our attention.

In Germigny-des-Prés, we stopped at a tiny church built in 806, one of the oldest in France. Inside is a rare mosaic from the time of Charlemagne.

At Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire we visited Fleury Abbey. The monastery dates to the seventh century and became an important center of learning during the Carolingian era, although the beautiful Romanesque basilica standing today was built mainly during the 11th and 12th centuries.

Then we reached Sully-sur-Loire and one of the most beautiful châteaux either of us has ever seen. The 14th-century fortress rises directly from its moat, with round towers and a perfect reflection beneath those enormous clouds. We circled through town several times, bought sandwich supplies at Carrefour Express, and found a bench overlooking the château for another memorable picnic.

With about 19 miles remaining, the tailwind continued doing its generous work. We rolled into Gien around 3:30 and stopped at a shop selling local products. The wonderfully helpful young man introduced us to an aged Crottin de Chavignol, a small goat cheese from the nearby Sancerre area. As it matures, it becomes firmer, drier, sharper, and much stronger in flavor but without the smell. This one definitely had personality.

We also selected two locally brewed beers and a jar of raw lavender honey. The honey was produced by an 80-year-old beekeeper who is nearing the end of his honey-making days, so we felt especially fortunate to carry one of his jars away with us.

After groceries and a short tour of Gien, with its old stone bridge, church, and brick château overlooking the Loire, we checked into a house with several rentable bedrooms, shared facilities, and massive lavender plants growing outside in the garden. Just as it happened once in Japan, traveling in the quiet season worked in our favor. Nobody else had booked a room, so we had the entire house to ourselves.

We walked back into town for the sunset and evening lights, then satisfied our craving for Indian food by sharing a dish at Namaste, only a few blocks from our house. Back in our temporary private mansion, we assembled our own French cheese platter with the strong, dry Chavignol, a firm nutty cheese, and a creamy blue, and finished with a little chocolate.

Two rides of more than 60 miles are waiting for us before our next rest day. The forecast looks good, our postcard stamps remain elusive, and the Loire continues to lead us east.Read more