5th September (cloudy morning, sunny and hot afternoon) 55 km

We knew when we set the tents up last night that the ground was rock hard, so none of us slept well as it was indeed, like a rock.  I don’t know how all the rabbits have managed to burrow their way through it but they are quickly making swiss cheese out of this campground.  Pete got up a couple of times to check Jimmy was OK and he was, but I think we were all quite relieved to get up in the morning and get into the showers.  The facilities were good and when the shop opened, we bought some milk so we could finally make Jimmy a cup of tea.  Unfortunately they had no bread unless you had ordered it the day before.

They had some cool little glamping units and some near us had the sleeping area upstairs with a wooden table and bench seats underneath.  Nobody was using them so we set our breakfast things up on one, which was much nicer than sitting on the ground but didn’t do much to keep the ants away from our food.

Pete thought he saw a tic in the tent this morning when he was sweeping it out, so we’re all on tic alert now. One thing we did see was a scorpion, a nice little black one and he knew exactly what was going on with us and his little stinging tail was twitching. By the time we left at 11.30am, the tents were dry and Dad had recovered somewhat from a very hard night, both physically and emotionally. Most people have no idea how tough at times camping can be. This morning the ants were covering our vestibule area and I mean everywhere and into panniers or anything else with access. Dad was cold in the night, but with one small head torch and feeling disoriented, he couldn’t lay his hands on his warmer stuff.

Rolled out of camp, across the river and after the first five minutes negotiating traffic, that was it for the remainder of the ride. The rest of today’s short cycle was spent on great cycling lanes out in the French countryside, in the heat, which by 1pm had reached twenty eight degrees. That was one reason to stop early, as I want Dad to enjoy the experience, not fry under the French sun.

Rode into Bellevue and set both tents up in the shade – only 14 euros for all of us for the night.  Ju and I left Dad to have a rest and rode into the village searching for lunch.  However, they had closed at 1pm so we cycled 4km to the nearest supermarket in the next town.  Loaded up the panniers with everything we needed for the rest of the day and cycled back to the camp to find Dad waking up from a nap.  We took everything we needed to a sheltered picnic table and tucked into our long awaited lunch at 4pm!

Dad was not keen to cycle the 9km in the sweltering heat to go and see the Chateau Chambord which Ju had earmarked as a must see.  He was happy to do his laundry and potter round camp while we rode off, hoping it wasn’t going to be a hilly route.  We needn’t have worried.  Flat, smooth surface, well sign-posted idyllic riding all the way there and then when we got there…..WOW!!!!

We are so glad we left this trip until later in the day as we arrived about 6pm, long after most of the tourists had gone.  The day was a lot cooler and there were dramatic thunderclouds building in the sky.  

We were thrilled to discover we could cycle all-round the chateau with no big walls or fences to obscure our view and no charge whatsoever!  As you can see from the photos, this was a real beauty! If there’s one thing the French have, it’s style, in abundance and here was an example of the finest. Spent a good hour moving from angle to angle, getting the most from the time we had. It was a fantastic example of beautiful architecture in an art form.

Chambord Chateau

We practically had to drag ourselves away and on the way back deviated to take a lovely ride through the woods and finally finish off a great ride with another spell alongside the Loire, ideal in the light for some great shots.

Dad was asleep again when we got back so Ju and I went and got showers by which time he was awake and we wasted no time getting stuck into dinner, as by now it was 8pm.  We all really enjoyed our beef stew with green beans followed by bread and jam, tea and fruit cake.  Managed to post yesterday’s blog and write up today’s as the sun went down in a fiery ball of red.  This was not without it’s perils.  Ju was wearing a headtorch now so she could see the keyboard, and had a moth continually try and fly into the light – sadly his aim was a bit off and he kept hitting her in the eye.  Dad went off to bed about 9.30pm and Ju and I followed about 10pm.