Day 7
108.77 km
Chaumont Sur Loire --> Villandry
This was the day that I saw FOUR châteaux.
1) Chaumont Sur Loire
The first, of course was in Chaumont Sur Loire where I started. Do I regret not taking pictures? Nah, there are millions on the internet that put my photography skills to shame. château chaumont Hopefully, y'all can believe that I was actually here without seeing me in front of it making a peace sign.
2) Amboise
Just before the city there is a huge hill. Which means that there are scenic stops to look down at the river and the castle. I took this photo while I was eating a Breton Galette. As mentioned earlier, I'm not much of a photographer so here's what it looks like when captured by someone who knows what they are doing Château Ambois Image.
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| Château D'Amboise |
Of all the places that I saw and stopped at on my trip, Tours was the worst. One of my favorite things about my bike adventure was how friendly EVERYBODY was. This stopped as soon as I entered Tours. No joke, I saw the sign for Tours and the next lady that I greeted could barely take a second to give me an evil eye before looking away. This place was dilapidated, industrial, overcrowded with grumpies, and confusing. I got out of here as fast as I could and took my lunch in a place called Lulu park. As you know, if this was the end of the story, it wouldn't be a hotlebug story, so let me tell you about my quadruple tour through Tours.
After my Lulu park lunch I mounted Monty B to pedal onward. I didn't make it far before I noticed that the river was no longer flowing the same direction that I was riding. I'm no expert, but I know that giant rivers don't suddenly change their direction of flow. Luckily, one of France's strengths is convenient tourism offices. Backtracking and going through Tours again didn't exactly please me, but I was given three maps with highlighted routes so I was confident I could find my way. Let me explain what *actually* happened.
- 1) I immediately lost the street signs for Loire a vélo. I asked someone how to find the piste cyclable for the Loire River, he pointed out where it was. I took his advice, and found myself staring at the exact same spot I was before.
- 2) I followed the map a little more carefully this time. Got further into tours, I even found the train station. Tours immediately put a bad taste in my mouth, but the second time through this bad taste blossomed into hatred. The icing on the cake was the bike lanes. In tours, they're shared with Taxis! Nobody was using these taxis, which means I was sharing my lane with a bunch of parked cars. In addition, the lanes weren't big enough for both the bikes and the taxis, c'est a dire I was doing a bike/car weaving act for the second time. At one point I saw people with bike maps going the opposite direction. I stopped them and asked the woman how to get to the path going in the direction of Saumur. She seemed distracted but for some reason I trusted her. And what do you know, she guided me right back to the same spot as before.
- 3) You know how they say that a third time's a charm? It's not. This time I went a different way that seemed logical with my map. The problem with the maps is that only select streets were labeled. Along with that, the end of one map was not the start of the next. Furthermore, each time I stopped to ask for directions, the people would keep flipping the map around trying to figure out which river was which. Next time, I'm bringing a compass. Regardless, I did my best and as it started to rain a woman stopped to give me directions. I WAS ON CLOUD NINE when I found a shopping street that led to a bridge. This HAD to be it. No. After I got to the road next to the river, I went 500 meters and found the same spot as always.
- 4) I know what you're thinking, how could somebody with such a horrible sense of direction make it this far on a bike adventure? The answer is that it's easy to follow a river. It only becomes problematic when you have to go through a town and follow a different river for a bit. After three times through Tours my only goal in life was to leave Tours. And I did. I found Le Cher and followed him to my fourth Château.
4. Villandry
I was so tired by the time I got here but I was out of Tours and that was all that mattered. I was so pleased with my escape that I dropped $100.00 to sleep in a fancy hotel with 2 meals included. The food was good but this forever goes down as the day when I stayed at the "Cheval Rouge" (red horse) and ate horse for the first time. châteaux Villandry
Day 8
89.55 km
Villandry --> Saumur
"Chinon, chinon rien." Of all the châteaux in France, this is the only one of which I know its pun. Laissez- moi expliquer. Chinon sounds very similar to "Si non" which means "if not" and "rien" means "nothing." I first heard this on the Montmartre walking gastronomy tour. It went something like this.
Jean Paul : We'll have a bottle of the Chinon
Server : Chinon, chinon rien
Thanks to this, I decided to take a detour on the trip just to go to Chinon. I really love puns. This was the only châteaux that I paid to go inside of. In case you are curious, I said this word on the upside of 100 times this day.(I even wrote it in the guest book when I signed me name).
I highly recommend Chinon to anyone going to France. There's a medieval city with great wine and the fortress is really cool! The fort has been transformed into a history museum. They even had a dress up room.
Day 9
16.33 km
Saumur --> Nantes
My bike ride came to an abrupt end. I was riding, minding my own business when I noticed that my wheels seemed unbalanced. When I got off to look at my back tire, I immediately found the culprit. The tire had ripped open. At this point the tube was still holding air although sticking out of the tire. 3 . 2 . 1 . BOOOOM! I couldn't hear anything for a minute after the tube exploded in my face. I used my deaf time to think.
What did I have to work with? For starters, it was a Sunday in France. For those of you who don't know, this means EVERYTHING is closed (except for the tabacco shops and the boulangeries, cigarettes and bread are really important in France). Here I was with my really heavy bike sporting a dead back wheel. When my hearing returned, I heard some people having a barbecue outside.
Me: Is there anyway I can get a new tire today?
Them : Nope, it's Sunday.
Me: There's a bus stop here, where does the bus go?
Them : Nowhere, it's Sunday.
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| done gone 'n' worn dem tires out |
In the end, I knew my options were to walk forward 8 kilometers then take a train to Angers where I could camp and find a bike shop the lendemain. My other option was to walk back 6 km to Saumur camp at the same site as the previous night and fix my bike in the morning. All I could think was, "this bites." I didn't want to do either. I took 5 steps forward with poor wounded Monty then stopped. I put my thumb up in the air and waited.
When Martin stopped he originally offered to drive me to Angers. However, the only thing better than completing a challenge, is finding a way to get out of it. So when he mentioned he was going to Nantes I asked if I could go with him. My first time hitchhiking. My heart raced a bit but I felt safe because he had the same Hamsa amulet of protection hanging in his car that I had on my keys. I buckled up, put my window down, played a little ukulele, and for the first time in 9 days, I relaxed.
Nantes was cool. Will I write about it now? No, this is the story of my BIKE ADVENTURE. But here's a picture.
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| Les Machines de l’île |
I have to say that my lesson learned on this trip is to trust my instincts. This is based on the train stop the first day, the jerks who can't read a map but help anyway in Tours, and this woman who WORKS at the train ticket office. She told me that she was absolutely sure that I could take my bike on ANY train. She warned me that I may have to remove the front tire but that's it. When unsure about something ask an expert. However, keep in mind that just because its someone's job to know something, doesn't mean that they do.
When I arrived at my platform I asked the conductors where my car was. They then asked me where I was going with the bike. I thought they were joking around when they told me bikes aren't allowed on this train. My response, "Vous rigolez!" haha I said it twice. Their eyes were like stones when they stared me in the eyes to convince me it wasn't a joke.
I feel horrible that this vacation ends on a sad note. Let me assure you all that this is a comedy and not a tragedy. I learned so much about my capabilities, my limits, and my mind. My french got a bajillion times better and I met some amazing folks. Besides, I'm sure that Monty B is happier in his new home.
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| Monty B's Nantified makeover |
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