On Saturday, May 21st, a large hail/rain storm, dubbed derecho, blew through the Ottawa/Gatineau region. Thousands of households were left without electricity for hours, many for several days. Our travel blog was off-line for a few days while our neighborhood had lost power. Thanks to Sharon and Gang who were caring for our house, we were able to regain access to our travel blog. After almost a week, the Ottawa/Gatineau region was still recovering from this devastating storm. Our thoughts and prayers were with everyone impacted.

The above itinerary map attempted to show the big picture of our travel itinerary completed and planned. The green line showed the completed segment while the grey one showed the remaining route. While the colorful line showed the route covered during this segment. Yes, we still have some ways to go!

2022.05.21 – Tours ==> Blois (77 kms | Total: 1365 kms)

After eating breakfast again at our modest Ibis Budget hotel, we loaded the tandem and rejoined our cycling route. We were somewhat excited knowing that some 30kms later, we would be arriving in the picturesque touristy town of Amboise. Although we had hoped to recreate a photo opportunity scene from our Amboise visit in 2017, the cycling direction entering the town quickly led us into the town center and hence away from our expected photographic location. As we left the town, we saw ourselves cycled up to a plateau of wine fields. The monotonous scenery and the warm sun made the rest of the afternoon less enjoyable. We were relieved to arrive in the bustling town of Blois – unfortunately we had another 4 kms to cover before reaching our hotel. Along the way, we visited a few grocery stores before finding snacks and tomorrow’s breakfast supplies. In the evening, we had an unexpected reward for our longest cycling day by visiting a nearby large Asian buffet restaurant.

2022.05.22 – Blois ==> Orleans (68 kms | Total: 1433 kms)

As our stomachs were still full from our previous night’s meal, we packed some of breakfast staple for eating on the road. After retracing our route and returning to the Loire River, we cycled most of the day along it. The light head winds and our saddle soreness from yesterday’s long ride made us appreciate every km cycled. At the town edge of Blois, we stopped at McDonald’s for a light snack as the nearby supermarket was closed on Sundays. We were delighted to check-in into our hotel for another two night stay. Later we did confirm that all grocery stores in town were closed on Sundays, fortunately many restaurants opened at their usual 7pm time. We had our dinner at an Asian noddle restaurant.

2022.05.23 – Orleans ==> Orleans (0 kms | Total: 1433 kms)

As part of our day of rest, we enjoyed a lazy morning in bed while the sky was cloudy and the ground was wet. I went out and bought some lattes from a nearby McDonald’s in order to help pursue a few more hotel reservations. Later, when the light rain halted, we went to a fast-food Thai restaurant for our lunch. On our way back to the hotel, we bought some snacks and next morning’s breakfast supplies. We spent the afternoon relaxing in our room while working on our itinerary map display. For our dinner, we opted to try some roast chicken – somewhat of a rarity it seemed in France.

2022.05.24 – Orleans ==> Sully-sur-Loire (53 kms | Total: 1486 kms)

We rejoined the Loire River and our cycling route shortly after leaving our hotel. We cycled most of the day on levees on either side of the Loire River. Along the way, we stopped at a bakery for snacks. Near the end of our day, we took a long break while enjoying refreshments. We managed to check-in into our hotel shortly after 2:00pm. Sadly the wifi signal in our room was too weak to be useful. We learned that many restaurants in town were closed on Tuesday. Our evening Chinese meal was sold by weight!

2022.05.25 – Sully-sur-Loire ==> Belleville-sur-Loire (64 kms | Total: 1550 kms)

After leaving our hotel, we struggled a bit to rejoin our cycling path as we were confronted by narrow impassable gate and later by closed bridge. Nonetheless, we found our way across a floating bridge.
The riding condition and scenery were quite varied today – hence not boring at all. Mid-route we stopped at bakery in the town of Gien. Later in Port de Briare, we cycled along a canal-bridge built to allow the water from the canal to cross over the Loire River – a very unique type of bridge. As today’s hotel was in a very small town, we bought our breakfast supplies in the town of Bonny-sur-Loire, some 10 kms before our hotel. Although it was well past 3:00pm when we arrived at our hotel, the registration was still closed and it did not open until 3:40pm. On a positive note, this hotel was probably the most deluxe room we’ve had in France so far. During our walk in the village we encountered a baguette dispensing machine outside a bakery. I was convinced it did not work…I was proven wrong. We had out evening meal at a nearby restaurant-bar.

2022.05.26 – Belleville-sur-Loire ==> La Charité-sur-Loire (51 kms | Total: 1601 kms)

After eating our breakfast staples in our room, we left our luxury hotel and resumed our cycling route. The scenery while riding on top of levees was uneventful. We cycled once again through a few towns. In one of the small towns, we were misled by some signage and had to backtrack our route over 1 km. Upon our arrival in the town of La Charité, the hotel owner kindly greeted us and offered us our room without any fuss even though we showed up by 1:30pm. The town was bustling with folks as there was a festival of some sort (In fact, its was a festival on words … I still didn’t get it). We struggled to find a restaurant that was open or had availability as today was an official holiday in France – Ascension Day. We finally had to fall-back on an expensive hamburger offering.

2022.05.27 – La Charité-sur-Loire ==> Nevers (32 kms | Total: 1633 kms)

We had a relaxing hotel breakfast before leaving town. We were in no hurry as we only had 30kms to cycle to our next stop. We opted to leave our cycling route and detour a bit to the larger city of Nevers in order to secure a hotel room on a Friday evening. As we entered the town, we stopped at Decathlon sport/outdoor store for some clothes and accessory shopping. In case anyone was tired to continually see my same wardrobe, you’ll be pleased to see me model brand new colors shortly. Jenny will be trying out a new saddle cushion over the next few days. We checked into our comfortable Ibis hotel at 1:30pm. After a good shower, we stepped out for some grocery supplies while checking out restaurant options along the way. We dropped by an Italian restaurant for our evening meal.