An even later start today, there’s just no point in rushing
today so I left around 9:40.
I had a nice lie in, read some more of my book, then around
9 I started to pack and get ready to go. After paying I went to a Patisserie
across the road and got a couple of delicacies. I wasn’t particularly hungry so
I thought I’d ride for a while first before eating them.
The initial route is a little side road out of the side of
the town which I needed Google Maps to help me find. Interestingly last night
I’d had to delete an offline map because I’d reached the limit! The route was
as usual very quiet and had a pinch point, granny gear time. As it turned out
the entire day turned out to be pretty much up or down; although I think this
was the only granny gear time before the end.
I saw a fox! And then a deer!
It was a bit cool again this morning so I wore the thermal,
all day as it happens as the wind was quite cold again. The route had
quite a few exposed hill tops although rarely, thankfully, any full on head
winds. I did have a few nice tails winds along the way. I stopped after about
an hour and a half on a bench in s small town and ate the goodies for
breakfast.
From there it was back to the rolling hills and the quiet
back lanes. I had another stop just before 1pm at Rebais, the first major town
I’d been through and, probably the last chance to buy anything before I got to
my destination. I had a quick snack of a coke and an éclair chocolate and got
one of my water bottles filled up.
From there I had a long straight road heading pretty much
due north and a great tail wind to go with it. At the end of that road I turned
left and I was already into the group of little towns and villages near my
destination. I had to check the map a few times to not get lost but made my way
to the destination town just after 2. I had a bit of a look around the town and
then decided I’d head up to the hotel.
The hotel is actually a Chateau and on my way in I’d seen a
few chateau looking buildings on the big hill behind the village and I was
thinking knowing my luck it will be one of the ones at the top. I was of course
wrong. It was at the top of a long climb, just not any one of the one’s I could
see on the way in! After a bit of a slog I reached the grounds which were
closed, but then while I was reading the signs a car came out so I went in.
The Chateau appears to have been built around the time of
Napoleon and was owned by a local Baron up until 1870 when it was bought by a 'famous' French author. It was later owned by a shipping magnate and was the local HQ
for the French and then German armies during WWII. Apparently Churchill and de
Gaul have both stayed here at some point. It became a hotel in 1991 and had the
restaurant added in 2001.
The grounds are quite nice, after showering and shaving I
went for a walk around the property. It has 7 hectares of landscaped gardens
and it’s a funny thing, there is a camping ground here, so if I’d known in
advance I could have camped! Bum J
After the walk I went and had a read for a while and then a nap J
Dinner was at 7:30 so I wandered down just after that and… I
was the only one there! I’d heard other guests so that was a bit of a surprise…
anyway on to the menu. What I hadn’t realised was that being the weekend the
appealing looking 30 Euro menu was not on offer so I was going to have to go a
la carte. Oh no. Hmmm, nothing for it I guess. I then had a really delicious
meal of, you guessed it, Foie Gras, Margret de Canard a l'Orange and a Strawberry Melba.
More (equally?) importantly I had a really nice bottle of St Emillion Grand
Cru. The wine menu didn’t have the years on the bottles so I was a bit
concerned but at 27 Euro what can you expect? So I was very surprised that the
bottle was 2006! The wine was delicious of course, very smooth, full bodied
with good length. It didn’t really need any food to give with it.
Feeling a tad sloshed, because I’d had a Kir first, I went
for another wander around the grounds. Which reminds me, pretty much all day
riding today and also here at the Chateau, you can see and hear planes coming
in for CDG Airport, not overly loud but a background noise. So I’m definitely
almost there now.
I read for a while and was thinking about bed when two cars came in, around 10 pm. There was an ancient Mercedes 500 convertible and a Porsche. There seemed to be two couples in their 70’s although for some reason the wife of the Mercedes owner was squished into the back of the Porsche; it took her ages to get out. They then proceeded to wash both cars which took them about an hour! While they were doing that a young couple arrived and looked like they may have been at a wedding I saw in town this afternoon. They took some photos with the Chateau bathed in yellow lights and went inside. And then around 4 in the morning a van came in with a group of people and I noticed that there were 2 more cars parked outside. So maybe that is why the restaurant was empty, everyone was at the wedding?
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