Hugs and dragons

Today starts with a hug. Now you might not think that unusual, given I am travelling with my partner Neil who hugs heartily and often, but this one is a little different.

I’m standing by La Loire taking a start-of-day photo when there is suddenly a young man on a bicycle beside me giving me an enthusiastic fist pump. He is speaking, but I can’t understand anything he is saying and I think he is maybe congratulating me for cycling this trail. He then hugs me.

I think this is a bit weird and wonder where Neil, my defender, is but give a half-hearted hug back. The boy then grins and picks up my hair which I have in a single plait down my back. He grins and I twig – he is admiring my hair! He hugs me again and when I don’t reciprocate he picks up my arm and drapes it around himself.

I’m laughing now, and try to get him to pose for a picture, but he won’t have any of that! A few hugs and fist pumps later he lets me go and we set off up the river for today’s ride.

”Now will you believe me,” says Neil (the most biased person), “that you have the most beautiful hair in the world?”

Nup. Not today. My hair hates the water in France, and even today, freshly washed, it feels like a combination of straw mixed with oil with a generous handful of dust thrown in.

Today is Sunday and it seems all of France is out for a walk or a ride or a picnic, enjoying the sunshine. On Sundays nearly everything is closed in France: shops, supermarkets, businesses. People must have their day of rest. Unless they own or work in a bakery, restaurant or hotel. Those people don’t get a day of rest; they’re busy making sure everybody else is enjoying the day.

The route takes us on mainly minor roads for the first part of the day and we whizz along. Neil got up this morning and cleaned the dust of the past few days from our chains and both bikes are running beautifully again.

We’re travel on the left bank of the river for 15km or so, then cross over and start heading in a more northerly direction. Angers, our destination for tonight is located on the Maine river, which itself is tributary of La Loire.

At Poissoniere (means fishmonger in English; anyone who knows Neil would know he would want avoid anything to do with a town called “Fishmonger”) there is a lively market going on, with vintage cars lined up and a gathering of people down by a pier, I suspect for some kind of fishing competition? Sunday, appears to be not only a day of rest, but a market and festival kind of day in these parts. It’s an ideal place to stop for a short rest and a cold drink, but we don’t linger as we’re hoping to get to Angers before the afternoon gets too long.

Out of Angers there are a couple of very short and sharp short butt-nutters*, but we’re up and over them and on the last stretch to Angers pretty quickly. The trail to Angers is busy with people cycling, walking, picnicking beside the river and enjoying Sunday lunches at bustling restaurants.

We’re greeted by the imposing Chateau d’Angers as we arrive into town. You simply cannot miss it: it stands high and proud with dark, bulky super-cool towers (17 of them altogether).

We circle our way into town and stop for a late lunch of galettes and a traditional accompanying cider. There’s plenty of time to explore town. The place is busy with tourists and market stalls, though I hold my concerns about the fellow with the meat and smallgoods store sitting right in the direct sun with all his super-perishable wares on display!

It is warm (you could say hot) in this part of France right now. We’ve had days in the high 20s since arriving in Europe. The odd thing is that the peak of the heat can be quite late – around 6 or 7pm and the sun feels as fierce as a midday sun in my part of Australia.

The chateau is beautiful on the inside with lovely manicured gardens, but my favourite part is the Apocalypse tapestry which lives in its own special darkened and climate controlled (and huge) room. The tapestry dates back to the 14th century. It is woven using wool and a technique that makes both side almost the same (my mother, who always insisted that the back of your needlework should be as neat as the front, would approve). It is inspired by the Book of Revelations, so is full of dragons and demons, terror and death, and with what appears to be a happy ending (a stairway to heaven as Neil put it). There’s about 100m of it on display. They say that the front is now faded but the back is as vibrant as ever, though only the front is on display.

At night they light up the chateau so we take up a position on the opposite side of the river where I lie down and promptly fall asleep. Cycle touring is fun, but can be tiring you know, and the days are long even almost a month before the Solstice. It’s still light after 10pm.

* butt-nutter: a sharply rising hill, usually short, but too steep for me ????

Stats for today:

• Distance: 41.47km
• Climb: 122m
• Average speed: 14.9km/h
• Average temperature: 27C
• Moving time: 2:47:28
• 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 actually a cider picture as we celebrated the end of today’s ride with a galette and a cider. Sadly, they didn’t serve the cider in the cute cider cups.

Along the way today: