Didn’t it Rain,Oh My Lord

That smug theory about prevailing weather -ditch that. Three days ago we hit a strong headwind coming from the [? NE? ] that threatened to blow us back to the Atlantic. It’s been a slog riding in the wind and then yesterday the driving rain joined the wind to soak us through and make us really cold and miserable. (I can hear my sister Fiona saying “ and why exactly are you doing this?”)

Fortunately, the last two days have been relatively short rides at under 50 km so we’ve turned on the extra power to get to our destination hotels faster. As I remind Mike and Helen - who are more careful with their power usage- there is no special prize for the person who arrives with the most battery power!

On Monday we saw the Capo di tutti capo of chateaux when we visited Chambord- wow, wow!
King Francis 1 had so much wealth, and was very motivated to show off his power, so he built Chambord as a hunting lodge! Weekend getaway, that kind of thing. It was built with all the moats and towers but was never intended to be used defensively. He brought in the world’s leading designers of the time, including Leonardo da Vinci so it has lots of towers and other ornate stuff (that Helen has fancy names for but I forget) Meanwhile , his rival in England - Henry the 8th- was busy chopping off the heads of his wives and building smaller, drafty structures like Holyrood Palace.

Speaking of old and drafty, we stayed the night in a repurposed abbey at Beaugency. It was actually fairly comfy and there were no monks chanting. Dinner was served to guests in an enormous hall with a huge fireplace. Certainly one of the best meals we’ve had on this trip. Lovely local red wine.

We arrived in Orleans yesterday and gave back our rental bikes ( covered in mud) . Fortunately, it was planned as a laundromat day and we hustled all our muddy clothes to the Lavi Lux and retreated across the road to JM’s bar for a rose. The proprietor asked us to please watch the bar for 10 minutes while he collected his children from school. Now in my view that’s a bit like leaving the foxes in charge of the chickens but we behaved given how helpful everyone has been to us.
Today we are travelling to Lyon where we will collect new bikes for our second week. This time we head south from Lyon towards the Med.
Looks like cooler weather in the next week but hopefully we’ll see the sun and taste some of the excellent wines of the Rhone Valley.

More from there,
Love Heather ( Mom/ Grandma) xRead more