There were several sprints again today, of course. I got sprint 1 and 2, but 3 was up hill which Paul won of course, 4 was downhill and not contested. I stuffed up the 5th sprint, I did the salute too early and Paul got past me! I got 6, it was a surprise town that neither of expected. There was no contest for 7 as Paul was way ahead and by the time we got to the final sprint, 8, I was so stuffed I gave it to Paul, just too tired :)
Anyway, back to the day itself. We had a lovely start to the day, there was a bike path for over 10 K's that ran parallel to the Loire. We had a nice ride along there, a very good warm up, in fact, as it was a bit cold when we first set off amongst the trees. We then crossed, and said good bye to, the Loire at Diou. We immediately started in to rolling country side. Paul immediately started to drop me! Oh well. As I said I tried to keep up for as long as I could on all of the climbs, the best way to improve. We came to a lovely chateau at Saligny-sur-Roudon, got some photo's as well. Alas the chateau is not open to the public, which seems to be the rule in this part of France.
From there we continued south to St. Leon where we bought a patisserie and a drink which we didn't eat. First we had a look at the nice 17th century church, and then we rode up a hill to the Puy St. Ambroise which has a monastery on top of it. Of course it was closed to the public, however it had stunning views and it was a great place for our snack.
Then there was a lovely descent back down to the town of St Leon and from there we had another lumpy ride to our lunch spot, Jaligny-sur-Besbre. There was even a market on when we got here, so we got some fruit but no cheese as it is too hot. Paul is dead keen to get some cheese but wants to get it when we will actually be able to eat it fairly quickly, so no cheese. However it was time for lunch, we had a quick check of the options and then decided on the Logis de France hotel which is right next to the market.
We sat outside right beside the bikes, a long way from the other patrons, i.e. no smokers! The waitress asked if we wanted the Menu du Jour, we didn't know what it was but got it anyway :) Good choice! There was a self serve cold buffet which you can see in the photo. Then for the main there was a 5 meat kebab (bacon, sausage, pork, lamb, beef), very tasty. Then there was a serve of cheese, two types, which we had with bread. Well Paul had, I ate one but not the other. Finally we both had a Prune tart for dessert which was very nice. Paul also, of course, ordered a 500 ml carafe of Rose, only 2.50 Euro! All up the 2 four course meals, with wine and a coffee for Paul was only 24.50 Euro. Unbelievable.
After lunch we had a lovely section of tree covered roads, even another (closed) chateau. At one point the map showed us going straight ahead, there was a road but it didn't have any signs, we risked it anyway. An excellent choice, it gently followed the river with a slight incline for about half the distance, then a short climb before descending down towards our target town of Lapalisse.
It was bloody hot by now, in town it said 32 – 34 C. The camp store was shut so we couldn't get a place so I just went and had a shower while I waited. So nice! If I haven't already mentioned it I was pretty stuffed by now, so after checking in we washed our clothes (as it was bloody hot) then walked into town. There is a really nice chateau here which we walked up to. Alas it was 5.30 pm and it shuts at 6, so we thought we would see it in the morning before we leave.
We had a good walk around town but there is no open super market as the Casino has shut down for a month for the summer holidays (of course there was another but we didn't find it until the next day), so we checked out the restaurants and then stopped at a bar for a while and had a drink, Coke for me and Orangina for Paul, to cool down.
Paul picked what we think is the second best restaurant in town. Frankly we are too full to finish the meal from the best restaurant. We were only going to get a main but of course for only 3 or 4 Euro more we could have a three course meal, so we did. Paul got a charcuterie plate as an entree, absolutely massive, more than enough for a meal on its own. Then he had frogs legs, at least 15, with chips, and fromage blanc for the dessert. I had the cold buffet for the entree which had some very nice ham on it, cru and smoked, plus some salads. For my main I had grilled ham with a green salad, thankfully not too large. Paul also gave me one of his frog legs, boney, almost fish like. For dessert I had a Tart Basque, which I haven't had since the Raid in '98.
All in all it has been a very successful day when you think about it, 2 hrs for lunch, 2 hrs for dinner and 4 hrs riding !!!
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