Biking around the Loire
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My last afternoon in Tours was made slightly more interesting by the homeless people who I made friends with in the park. I don’t know why I somehow managed to attract all these random people, but I did have a great chat in half English and half French with them but declined their offer to come to the beach….’are we even near the ocean?” Anyway I did a bit of shopping for the trip and actually meet some people in the hostel, a really cool Canadian couple. So we had dinner together and I actually ate salad! And we spent the evening sitting next to the Loire river drinking beer, which was much cheaper than sitting in one of the fancy bars.
My plan of an early start didn’t go down as planned but by 10.30am I was on my bike and biking…where?? I wasn’t sure. You think the bike shop guys would take some interest in this lone female with a tent hiring a bike for 4 days but they didn’t care at all, just gave me a bike and a repair kit (I don’t even know how to use a repair kit) I did manage to get a helmet though, not that I wore it cause that is just so not cool here. I did have about 6 different maps from the tourist info so I figured I’d be fine, if I went one way there were proper bike tracks all laid out but no I wanted to go the other way…there was a magic museum in this town! After getting lost and biking through industrial areas (not exactly the French countryside I was imagining), I finally worked out I was on the right road to this chateau and headed off. I began to wonder what I was actually thinking, I don’t even know how to put a chain back on a bike, I didn’t have first aid kit, I didn’t really know where I was going….Finally I began to bike through some cute little villages and fields and all thoses other thing I was imagining. I stopped under a tree for a lunch break and was invited in for coffee by this lovely French lady. She was really nice, didn’t speak any English but I was surprised how much of a conversation we could have with my little French, I can see how actually living in France and talking french all the time can help!
The chateau I was heading for was called Chenonceau.
go here to see the chateau
Pretty much the entire Loire valley is filled with these châteaux, which are pretty much castles of rich people and kings. This one was very cool, set in these huge grounds with amazing gardens, a maze, forests, and the huge castle building stretching right over the river. Very nice, kind of like a fairy tale castle or something. There was a camping ground right by the chateau so I set up my tent and spent the evening there. Next day was a big bike through some more little villages and fields and finally ended up at a town called Blois, it is pretty crazy hot so was pretty tired by the time I got there, first 2 days I had biked around 100kms, which for me is a lot. I went and checked out the magic museum there which was somehow related to Houdini, very impressive set up, even had a huge theatre (with about 20 of us) where they did a magic show. A bit random but still interesting. Had a look around the chateau there as well, not as impressive as the last one because it was in the middle of town rather than surrounded by amazing gardens, but still impressive. The campsite was 5km out of town and I was definitely over it by the time I arrived. Decided to start the next day a bit later, and headed out to the next chateau on my list called Chambord, I had picked up a biking map which had all the special biking tracks on it but of course I got lost and went my own way, which involves going in the direction which I think it might be and hoping to see some road signs…it worked and I got there.
This chateau was like the first one, very cool. Set in these huge grounds, surrounded by hunting grounds. It was nice to sit in the trees and have lunch before checking out the inside. It was quite cool to think this is where Louis the 16th and Francois the 1st hung out, there are secret doors leading places and the rooms where assassinations took place. I biked back to the campsite, after not a very long day of biking, only about 25km today, getting lazier and only biked about 15kms today back to Blois where I caught the train back in to Tours! On the way back I actually followed the special bike map and it was really cool all these special bike paths through these beautiful fields, all the poppies and wheat made it looked like a Monet painting., maybe following the maps would have been a good idea…So it was a very long journey, and was a cool thing to do. Spent a lot of time by myself reading and hanging out which was all good. And I was impressed with myself being able to bike what I thought was a long way I guess I biked about 150kms overs 4 days which some people probably do in 1 day! But I had fun, luckily I had no punctures or dramas because I would have had no idea what to do. Also fun camping and definitly glad I brought my tent, much cheaper!
At the hostel back in Tours and tomorrow I’m going to pairs then catching an early morning bus to Brussels in Belgium!
Tags: Biking, camping, g.France, Videos
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