Gennes-Val de Loire

Another 70 km. Another manoir. Ho-hum..😏. Tho with a little bit of adventure.

Great variety on our ride today and all good paths. Still lots of farmland, forest patches. The Euro-velo took us thru lots of small towns today... very cool riding thru their narrow winding streets. Riding up along the dykes for a good part of the time. And of course along la Loire or a side channel.

Late getaway after chatting to our hostess Mlyne who's an artist. She wants to spend more time in her craft but the manor keeps her pretty busy. And we think there's always stuff to do around our place! It's for sale...I have her card if you're interested 😊.

Late coffee with a sampling of the local fromage. It's lunchtime for the workers...their usual 2-1/2 hours for une biere (ou deux), dejeuner-midi, et le nap. A different pace of life.

Picnic lunch - with wine and more cheese - beside la Loire. Then...what's this?...Get out the lunettes de soleil 🌞! Sun at the back feels great! Pass through the town of Savonnieres, that produces some of the best dry white wine in the world. Duly noted 🤔.

All going according to plan. Reach the town of St Mathurin Sur Loire at 4:30 pm, stock up at the epicerie and find a chambre. Well...not so fast. Only 2 (small) places right in the town and both full. Phone from the tourist info to others in the area...tout complet or get an answering machine which of course I can't understand. Uh-oh...here it comes 😯. The biker's fear come true!

Now 5:30 pm and still time to get to the larger town of Saumur - 35 km away - but need to boot it to arrive before dark. So boot it we do, keeping our eyes open for chambres-d'hotes along the way.

See a sign and take the road a la droite. Can't see any place, so why not ask the locals? Oh yah...we don't speak their language 🙄. (A bit surprised at how little English is spoken in what is a pretty major tourist area). Back to the main road. See another sign a ways ahead and turn a la droite aussi. But just how far up this road is this chambre....no idea. Back to the main road. A little more time wasted 😯.

45 minutes later - Voila! La Boussiniere chambres-d'hotes. In the middle of nowhere (tho not much is too far around here...just lots farther on a bike!). Another very cool manor up on the hill, built in 1626. Just one other set of guests...c'est tout. So lots of places to stay...you just have to know where to find them 🙄. We now have places booked for the next 4 nights 🤣.Read more