events

I wonder which way I'm meant to go?

This looks great, and it was for about 2km and then the tarmac turned to gravel and I wished I'd stayed on the road.  Not that the gravel would have been that problematic had I not had luggage and new tires that I didn't want to puncture.  I needn't have worried, the Marathon Supremes I'd bought gave no trouble at all.

Not sure where this is at all.  The photo is timed at 14.08pm so I should be closer to Gien but the gps in the phone is giving very erratic results and not many photos are tagged with location data; more's the pity.  Anyway, the point of the photo was to show how wide the Loire is and how little water is in it at this point.

By the way if you rollover the photo you get a view point taken after the bridge.

I stopped and had lunch in St Aignan, in Le Routier restaurant called the St Aignan, the menu was adventurous and the food wasn't bad and not too expensive.  The place was decorated with taste but the music they played was horrendous.  Firstly it was Berlioz, then some other martial russian music, when the theme to Star Wars came on, since I was the only diner, I asked that it be changed.  Trying to explain that it wasn't very good for the digestion; the woman was a little offended I fear.  But I was amazed that someone who obviously cared a lot about the food and decor didn't consider the music with the same care.

Briare was very nice and couldn't come too soon.  For my first day 99km was a bit too far and I'd spent the last 15km with the balls of my feet burning, very painful, and my inner thighs chafed.  However, I finally arrived, got the tent up, did my washing and all was well with the world.  I then cycled back into town for something to eat.

I'd met a few people at the campsite, a french guy doing quite a big ride, he was from Nantes and doing the Eurovelo 6.  He was carrying more luggage than you can imagine.  I'm not sure what a single camper takes to fill four panniers a back rack and a bar-bag when I manage to get by with two panniers and a small rack pack.  I'd passed him earlier since he was only doing about 8km/hr on the flat.

The other guy I met was a very nice mancunian. He was going to Le Puy and then somewhere yet to be decided from there.  We talked bikes, gearing, speeds and tarmac for a while before I went off in search of the chips and salt for which I had an urge.

Briare had a port type thing with boats moored by the side of what appeared to be a canal junction.  Lots of pretty boats and barges, bridges and weeping willow trees.  Unfortunately, the little café just next to this had no chips.  Luckily the person who's bar it was understood my cyclist's need for salt (it's the sweating you know) and gave me a freebee bowl of salty nibbles with what was my first demi-pêche of the holiday, which, by the way, is peach syrop in beer.  Sounds horrible but tastes great.

After the beer I moved on along the canal and found a brasserie and got my'self a table on the terrace in the dying ray's of the sun.  I was slightly worried since I'd told the mancunian guy I'd met about the first bar and vaguely arranged to see him; luckily he found me and had a beer while I ate steak frites with what my notes refer to as ppr (petit pichet de rosé) -a small carafe of rosé.