Loire Valley, France. Part Two.

On April 29 (day 3 cycling)...
 Today was a more restful day with less cycling. After a late start (still jet lagged), we rode into the town of Amboise and explored the chateaux there.  This castle contained the tomb of Leonardo da Vinci, more fancy furniture from King Francois 1, and a fireplace that actually had a warm fire going!  I was cold so I enjoyed standing by the fire.  Most of the castles have oodles of fancy decorated fireplaces, but it was lovely to finally have a warm one with real wood and a real fire.

Amboise Chateaux

Amboise and the narrow bridge we biked across to get to our hotel

We cycled 18km (11miles) and it seemed mostly uphill! We got off track again, but dad figured us out this time.  We arrived at the little town of Chenonceau and went straight to the chateaux. (There's not much here but a castle, some homes/hotels/restaurants).
This castle was a good one! There were some fun extra features: gardens, moats, war history, passageways, and a garden maze. It was my favorite so far, hands down.

Picnic spot en route

Riding in the fields of canola

The grounds/entrace way to Chenonceau castle

One side of amazing gardens at the castle Chenonceau

My favorite kitchen in the bottom archway of the castle

Garden maze

The castle was turned into a military hospital during the world wars

We made it to the hotel in Chenonceau by about 3pm and relaxed.  I went for a very short run around town.
We enjoyed our usual 3 course amazing dinner, and hope we can fall asleep soon.
We've biked 96km (60 miles) so far. Unfortunately, the forecast is calling for lots of rain! I'm glad we have stayed dry so far, and hope we can get an early start and some distance in before the rains come tomorrow.

On April 30 (day 4 cycling)...
We got an early start today, enjoyed our usual breakfast (I have had a chocolate croissant every morning and think it's fantastic!), and off we went, leaving Chenonceau and heading toward the village of Chitenay. We cycled peacefully along the Cher River, seeing locks in the river, for 9km(5.5 miles) before it started drizzling.

Typical breakfast every morning

Cher river lock

Each day I have brought a thermos of hot tea with me, and at any stop I usually snap a picture and have a quick bit of hot, steaming tea to try and keep me warm.  It was definitely a terrific thing to pack!
The cycling seemed easier and flatter today, and we felt strong. We both slept well last night, which helped.
The rain picked up its intensity, so we didn't stop often or for long.
At about 32km(20miles), we stopped at a chateaux but we were wet and cold.  We saw a small pizza place so went in, warmed up, and had lunch. Sadly, when we walked back to the chateaux it was closed for siesta time...
It was too cold and wet to wait around, and it was a smaller castle, so we rode on.
We rode through vineyards, farms, and peaceful country lanes. Quite lovely.

Rainy view of the castle (we didn't go in)

Trying to keep my directions dry enough to read through my map reader

Church in Chitenay

We made it to our hotel in Chitenay at 1pm after cycling 42.2km (26miles) in 2 hrs, 45 min.  Some of the dirt roads were getting mucky, and we hope tomorrow's ride is on more roads/paved paths as the rains is supposed to keep coming.
I can't believe how much clothing I wear to cycle.  Today I wore my socks, shoes, long cycling pants, cycling shorts, short sleeved cycling jersey, fleece, and 2 thin rain jackets, cycling vest, fingerless gloves, bike helmet and buff.  I wish I had full fingered gloves and warmer pants or more waterproof pants.
We had a bath each, hung up our wet stuff, and settled in. I walked around the town but there's really nothing here at all.
We played cards, read our books, and enjoyed quiet time.  I never get quiet time at home.  Ever.  So it was pretty amazing to have some down time to read and reflect.
Eventually, we got pretty hungry and realized that there was a tiny market across the street.  It's about the size of Rachel's bedroom at home and doesn't have much.  Amazingly, my Dad sniffed out one of his favorite junk food items and rejoiced: cheezies!!!
I have been using more and more French each day and have been relatively happy with how it goes.  Most of the time, people break down quickly and use English with me, so I'm always happy when they don't and we get by.  Sometimes we have no idea what we order for supper, though.
The dinner at this place was amazing.  Every course was awesome.

On May 1 (day 5 cycling)...
We are still in the wee village of Chitaney, and it's still raining. It's also Labour Day here so many things are closed.
But things are good: food here is great, hotel room is comfortable, we are both sleeping well, and the temperature outside is increasing.
Today we debated about whether to go out at all, since it's wet, but we went for a small loop of 21km(13 miles) /rode for 1hr, 45 min.
We rode 5km to a castle, rode our bikes inside the grounds in muddy paths around the gardens, rode through some forrest, and then back to our hotel.  The castle was described as a 'hunting lodge'.
The rest of the day we will rest up and prepare for tomorrow.  We have 50 km to ride and Dad is nervous about that long of a ride.  Along the way, there are options to see 4 castles and have a tour of a chocolate factory.  It seems really odd that we would stay in this place for 2 nights and do so little today, and have so much to do tomorrow.  I wish we could have biked some more today and stayed elsewhere tonight, so we didn't have as much to do going forward tomorrow.  Oh well.

Some hunting lodge

To be continued...