Orléans to Sully-sur-Loire
Be careful of rogues and snakes
Jean McKinnon, 2013, as we departed on a cycling trip to Eastern Europe
“Shit!”
(Apologies if the word offends, but I must report accurately.)
We are riding out of Orléans and having a lovely morning in a park reserve. It’s Saturday morning and the locals are out running, riding and enjoying themselves on a beautiful sunny day. After spending most of yesterday off the bikes we’re both feeling well and fit. The bike paths are great and we are making good time. Today is a good day.
I’m on it before I see it and I’m over it before I can stop.
With the first wheel the snake rears up, both head and tail end. I have two thoughts, though the only word that comes out is “shit”. The first thought is are snakes in France poisonous and will this thing flip around and bite me as I go over it? (Most are not.) The second thought, which probably happens as my back wheel goes over the poor creature is the awful feeling of having caused harm to another living creature.
I turn around and see the snake slither off the track, which is a relief. If it were really injured it wouldn’t be able to move, right?
Nonetheless it puts a damper on my day, and I’m still feeling awful.
The park gives way to a road on a levee and we continue bowling along, now passing through farmland. Then it starts raining!
We’ve been in Europe for two weeks now, and the weather has been stable, warm and with no rain. We’re expecting rain today, but lots more than we get. We’ve been warned of storms, but it’s more a light sprinkle of the type that wets your sunglasses than a torrent that wets all of you, and it doesn’t last long.
Before long we’ve hit the village of Saint-Denis-de-l’Hotel and I follow signs to a toilet. We do a loop of the town, but there is nothing to back up what the sign said. Back to the levee we go and I have to make do in the bush.
I’m disappointed. I had thought more of cyclists. The few times I’ve had to stop and go behind a tree I’ve always found I’m not the first, judging by the toilet paper lying around. If you are a cyclist and you are the kind of person who drops toilet paper on the ground – STOP! Get yourself a pee cloth, something like the one I have from Kula cloth and wash it, reuse it and stop throwing paper on the ground! Rant over.
Today we’ve got lunch sorted and we sit by the river enjoying our quiche and cheesecake. Carbs and fats, that’s what we’re living on! The peaceful atmosphere is somewhat spoilt by a looney football fan listening to the last quarter of the Richmond-Freemantle (AFL) match that’s going on in Perth right now and then doing a happy dance to the team song right on the bank of La Loire.
Football excitement over we keep moving. We’ve seen lots of poppies scattered all the way since Saint-Brevin-les-Pins, but in this area they are flaming red fields. I keep thinking of WW1 and the Flanders Fields and the legacy of the poppy.
We cross the river to Chateauneuf-sur-loire (no, not the other one!) and, at 2:30, see people being served in restaurants. Sheesh. It’s hard to the get time right for lunch around here! We decide not to stop for anything but to just keep on going, thinking we have only 9km to go.
Wrong! The Google/EV6 discrepancy has hit us again. We measure the distance for each day using Google maps. The EV6 route can vary quite significantly in distance from the Google distance, even if we ask Google to route via bike routes. The EV6 sign says 19km to Sully-sur-loire, our destination. It’s a bit deflating. We were so nearly there!
The 19km passes quickly and before we know it we’re on the bridge crossing over to Sully-sur-loire. We stop for a photo and I decide to look up the hotel. Ooops. It’s in the town on the other side – Saint Père. Thanks booking.com for tricking us!
It doesn’t matter though. Our hotel, though a bit of a ghost hotel, is bike friendly and pretty soon our bikes are stashed, we’re showered and we are presenting ourselves across the river at Chateau Sully for a look.
The ticket seller tries to talk us out of going in saying we won’t have time to see the place properly (it’s only 50 minutes till it closes) and there’s something like 250 steps which might slow us down. We buy tickets and go in anyway, then realise that she probably thinks old decrepits like us won’t be able to get up and down all those steps! Well, we prove her wrong and whip around in about 35 minutes. To be honest, I really prefer looking at the fairytale outsides of most castles rather than the insides, though it is interesting to look at reconstructions of how life might have been in the great halls and chambers of these places.
We finish up the day in the streets of Sully where there is a summer festival going on with bands (playing English language covers). We are the the restaurant with the castle view, and though the view is great, the food is probably some of the least-best we’ve had in France – right down to nuclear chips (yellow). However, we are near a nuclear power plant, so maybe that makes sense?
One (of many) things they do well in France is café gourmand, and I am pleased to see on this visit, thé gourmand. This dessert offering gives you a coffee (or tea) along with a selection of tiny little desserts. I’m not a great tea drinker, but I do find it more approachable than coffee. And of course I find the little desserts irresistible!
Stats for today:
- Distance: 53.1km
- Climb: 54m
- Average speed: 17.6km/h
- Average temperature: 24C
- Moving time: 3:01:00
- See our ride on Strava
The beer picture
At the end of a day’s ride, our tradition is to enjoy a beer, and to photograph it for posterity. Today’s beer picture was taken at an outdoor table in Sully-sur-Loire with an unlabelled beer purchased from a local brewer. There’s a summer festival on here (though it isn’t yet summer) with live music and people out enjoying themselves. As are we!
Along the way today:
