June 29 - Thursday
Tours to Rigney Usse
We left a little later than planned but still made good time with packing up. After the last of our Italian food was gone: Wasa crackers, peanuts, and jam we headed out for the bike path to Villandry. It was cool and the path was nicely paved, it was a smooth ride past fields of sunflowers on the verge of blooming, wheat, corn, and hay on one side of us and the Loire. We stopped here and there for the obligatory picture by the hay barn and along the Loire. We stopped in a village and had the most amazing strawberry preserve filled beignets. Heavier than a raised donut but lighter than a cake donut - in other words - perfect. And the filling wasn't all gloppy like it is at the bakeries at home so you don't have to worry about it gooping all over you. Jon had to have his quiche - salmon. You could tell it was made with all the real stuff: butter, full fat cream, real eggs. After that light snack we continued on to the chateau. We arrived in
Villandry in the late morning. It was just starting to heat up. We were one of the few bikes parked in the bike lot. There was some bikes with bike bags I had not seen before, two side bags connected by the bag crossing over the top of the rack and good use of space. Then there was the bike with the baguette bungee corded to the top of the rack! How do people eat a whole baguette? What do they eat it with? The sandwiches we had the other day were way too much and were more bread than anything else. I'll have to do some research into this...
We arrived right at the same time a group of junior high school kids did and waited while they got situated and paid for - ah the youthful enthusiasm of teenagers on a field trip! We started in the gardens which were perfection. Talk about manicured, I've never seen anything more intricate or artistic. It was very imaginative. You could see how one could spend hours and days just wandering the grounds. We spent most of our time in the gardens. The chateau itself was also beautiful, it's age reflected in the way the stone steps been worn from use. Jon really enjoyed the architecture and tapestries. I was enjoyed the garden. This would be a hard chateau to beat and we were just getting started.
After a little snack we continued along the Loire Velo Route to our next chateau in Rigney-Usse. It was an easy ride. We passed the campgrounds we would stay at for the night and rode through the very small town stopping at the town market for some food. The Chateaux did not have the grand gardens of Villandry but the period clothing they had collected and displayed was impressive and the turrets and chateau itself were a maze that you could easily get lost in - it reminded my of the Winchester Mystery House. A couple hours later we called it a day, stopped by the market again to by perishables and produce trying to pronounce all the names of the fruits and veggies for the patient clerk, Kristine, but doing a really poor job of it. I think she appreciated our efforts. We pulled into the camp and the office was closed but the prices were posted along with other fliers which we couldn't read. If we read the tariff list correctly it was going to be around €6 to spend the night it was almost too good to be true! We set up camp, did some laundry, ate some dinner, I was pooped. We had ridden hard for a while along the path. Jon had decided he wanted to blow past this guy. I agreed - what the heck. Well, Jon lead the way and as soon as Jon passed this guy I could see him start to pedal faster. I was able to draft behind Jon for a while - longer than I thought I could but he kept up the pace (28-30 kilometers/hour) for quite a few kilometers. Believe it or not our two fully loaded bikes dusted that guy on the road bike! It was pretty interesting because you could tell there were three stubborn, competetive people pedalling at that time! The day hit me by the time we ate dinner and I crawled into bed right after dinner.
