We had been following the bike path but decided to give up on it here. It looked like it was going to cross the river, a 5K detour. So we continued on using a red road for a brief while. 4 Ks on the red road saved 5Ks, worthwhile. Also it is Monday morning so there's hardly anyone about anyway. Then we had a nice short run of white roads before crossing the bridge then a small yellow road for a couple of Ks and before going onto a white road and back on to the path. Then we had a rather nice ride along what is effectively a dyke. This brought us to the town of St. Hillaire St. Mesmin, from here it was a mixture of bike paths and road riding and then we were in Orleans.
Orleans has an enormous Cathedral so of course we made our way directly there. Paul minded the bike while I went in and then vice versa. The Cathedral is large with a recently cleaned exterior. Unfortunately we're both getting a bit blaise about amazing 13th century churches and while we both had a nice walk around we hardly took any pictures and were in and out in five minutes each. Of more interest was lunch!
There was a bistro directly opposite the church but unfortunately, for them, there was noisy road works going on so we rode around a bit and found a very reasonable Italian. I had steak with chips and then an apple tart and Paul, misinterpreting the menu, managed to order an entree size goats cheese salad as well as the steak and then dessert. He enjoyed the salad, he has been trying to train his palette and thinks it is beginning to work! The steak was medium so a bit over done, the salad and chips were nice, as was the tart. We left around 1.30, me nicely full, Paul bloated!
The plan now was to get out of Orleans by riding east and then north through some forests to the area around the Chateau Chamerolles. Getting out of town went reasonably well and the route north was quite pleasant too. However at the town of Trainou we somehow managed to get on the wrong road and after (a rather nice) short ride ended up on a red road. Hmmm. We decided to go on rather than back tracking. The road was only mildly busy and as it turned out most of the traffic was coming from the north. We had to stop after a couple of Ks because of rain, fortunately right next to a picnic area! Once it cleared we hammered along to the turn off towards the Chateau. I was actually getting rather tired at this point, already 80Ks and no camp site in sight.
The road past the Chateau was nice, we did stop at the Chateau but we didn't want to spend the time there as it was getting late in the afternoon. So instead we continued on and, due to a lack of any accommodation, we ended up heading towards the larger town of Pithiviers. I was getting pretty stuffed by now, on down hills and the flats following them I was fine, as soon as we hit a hill I had nothing left. Paul's solution to this was to go to the front and ride even faster than I had been before. For some reason this didn't work too well on the hills :) At least Paul is feeling better now! In no time at all we did finally get to the town and we made no attempt what so ever to look for the camping ground. Instead straight to the Logis. Paul didn't even ask the price, shocking!
We cleaned up, including all of our washing. It is a bit risky with the washing because there is not that long for it to dry but neither of us have anything clean so we might as well. Then down for dinner around 8 pm. The Logis is a two pot restaurant (rating) and it shows. I had a smoked trout entree which was really delicious, it had asparagus in it and even a poached egg on top. For the main I had Merlan which we assume is Marlin, very tender, and with a delicious sauce. The town is famous for a Tarte Pithiviers so we had to have that. It is pretty much the same as a Dutch almond ring just in tarte form. Oh yes a Kir too!
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