May 22nd

May 22^nd  Montsoreau to Ballan Mire  58 kms

Although there was a weak sun at dawn the day started frustratingly when we realized that the mobile phone had been in my trouser pocket in the washing machine all night! A support vehicle is great but useless without a mobile phone. So the first job was to drive to Chinon to buy another one which, in effect, took all morning.

But I was away by midday and after stopping to take a look at the beautiful church of St Martin with its astonishing porch supported by a single slender pillar, and, eschewing the scenic route by Savigny en Veron, I thought to make up a bit of time by taking the ugly route via the (to me) horrific Chinon nuclear power station. I don’t think the man just inside the perimeter fence with his big, black, ugly dog was simply taking it for a walk. Still wanting to make progress and thinking that the advised route down by the river might be a repeat of yesterday’s mud bath I kept on the surprisingly pleasant D7 to Rigny-Usse where we shared our lunch spot with a very convivial bunch of proudly troisieme age cyclists and their “vehicule d’assistance”. They were no sluggards though, covering well over 100 kilometers each day.   

One of the cyclists said that the Chateau of Rigny-Ussy was used by Disney for his illustration of The Sleeping Beauty and I can well believe it. I cycled away from the fairy tale castle down to the D16 which hugged the banks of the Loire for well over 12 kilometers through the picturesque village of Brehemont, its traditional boats moored to the quay. But I wasn’t the only person on a bicycle today. Half of Holland seemed to be on the move  on their strange, heavy,  sit-up-and-beg bikes, not to mention a group of French cyclists which I swear was the size of your average Tour de France peleton which bore down on me at the crossroads with the D57, a hundred times more frightening than a truck. They were complete kings of the road,  traffic had to submit to their every whim which at this crossroads seemed to be turning left, right and going straight on. I was glad to retrieve the calm of the last few kilometres of the riverside lane to the chateau of Villardy whose spectacular formal gardens are a wonder.  

The end of the day, though, was painful because tracking down the campsite at Ballan Mire was no joke.  However, Katherine did a great job and beamed me in on our new “portable” . We enjoyed a pleasant conversation with a couple from the Grisons who were camped opposite us and though none of us could understand the others language properly we all agreed that although the Loire Valley is a very beautiful place it doesn’t quite match Switzerland. So, all’s well.

Much better weather today with a blustery at times tail wind. The distance covered, though, was disappointing but not surprising considering the frustrations of the morning and the very agreeable lingerings in the gardens of Villardy in the afternoon.   

58 kms 

Total since Galway  984 kms

Just have to enthuse even more