We set off, briefly back the way we had come, there was a little bit of a head wind this morning so I guess we probably did have a tail wind in the morning yesterday. Of course we are also going up river this morning as well. The ride back the way we came was only about 8 K's and then we turned away from the Cher, over the low hills in between and towards the Loire. The area was very pleasant. It was Sunday morning, a white road, and so there was barely a car around. After a short climb we had a long section of rolling hills, very easy riding. We stopped at Chaumont sur Loire and ate our pain au raison from breakfast.
We then joined a part of the Loire bike route and followed the Loire for a bit. After a while the route turned to gravel which we did until the end of the bike path. In the end we were glad to get off it and back onto a real road. We decided to ignore the bike signs as they were a bit confusing in this area although we somehow rejoined the bike route a bit later on. Then came to the Foret de Russy. I have seen the Foret's on the Michelin maps before and so I was quite interested to see what they were like. Very pleasant, but gravel. Paul however didn't enjoy it at first, he definitely isn't himself he dropped right off when we first hit the gravel.
We came out of the Foret and stopped at the town of Cellettes, near Chateau Beauregard, we went past the Chateau but not into it. It would have been nice but today we are targeting a three star Chateau, Chsteau Chambord, so we continued on. Unfortunately I think we needed to go into the grounds of the Chateau to join the bike path because we ended up on a very rough gravel road. And then this turned into single track, rather nice actually. Even Paul seemed to enjoy it! And then it got very rough. So I took a photo. (There you go Lynda, a cycling photo for a change.)
Some how we eventually ended up back on a road near the town of Mont-pres-Chambord. It was getting pretty warm and I think Paul was knackered. From here we followed a white road and in no time we entered the grounds themselves, however there was still 3 K's to the chateau itself. We parked the bikes near the shopping area, not realising that everyone else just rode them to trees just next to the Chateau entrance. It was 9.50 Euro to get in, cheaper than yesterday. The main differences between today and yesterday are that today the Chateau is enormous, ostentatious, but yesterdays had the gardens to walk around in. The Chateau has 472 rooms of which 90 are open for inspection, including access to the enormous roof. The design is very repetitive so you get a feel for the entire chateau just from the sections that are open. Very little of the furnishings are original as in the days of Francis the 1st he brought everything with him, he had an entourage of 8000 people and the caravan was 30 K's long! The Chateau took 150 years to build up to its current state (it's not finished) it has only ever been lived in for 50 years. Francis the 1st only visited it for 72 days in the 32 years he was king. There is a stunning double spiral staircase in the centre of the Chateau and everything is built around that centre. There are also loads of towers and other spiral stair cases, all very fantastical with a Renaissance flavour.
We eventually left the Chateau around 6 pm, after 4 hours. We had another nice ride through the grounds before getting onto the road out, about 5 K's to leave the castle grounds! From there it was down to the Loire and into the town of Muides sur Loire which, naturally has a (cheap) camping ground. The ground is packed with cyclists! We showered but could not launder, too late. So we then walked into town in search of food. Oh oh. We walked all over, we'd almost given up when we eventually found an open bar.
I had a Salade Mixte, Pizza Hawaiian (Mushies and Pineapple) nice but I was so hungry it didn't touch the sides, 3 cheeses (two soft, one swiss) and a Tarte Normandie (apple with custard). Paul, claiming he is still sick, only had a pizza. Definitely not himself.
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