Fontainebleau is a stunning and unique place. It is a beautiful town in the middle of this forest with a massive chateau in the heart....
Today was going to be around 120-125 miles again. About half way I would hook up with the River Loire in Briare and follow this pretty much to my destination tonight at Nevers.
By the way, please forgive me if these pictures are not in exactly the same order they were taken, they are a bit jumbled up.
The bridge over the Loing at Nemours.
I wanted a natural break (posh term for you know what!) and I also had a glimpse between some houses of the Chateau Musee in Nemours so...kill 2 birds with one stone.
My spidey senses say...stop messing around and get back on the road you idiot !!
Montargis, lovely town.
I stopped at a cafe across the road from this magnificent church, had a lovely meal of ham and cheese baguette although the french bread nearly broke my teeth, and 2 coffees and cake ! yum yum
I decided to try and see less main roads and skirted a few country roads for a while which my map suggested ran kind of parallel to the main D2007 I was going to be on for a while. Nice scenery, things were looking up,
Chateau La Bussiere (closed) but it was nice what I could see through the gates.
The Loire Valley. Stunning....
Briare...
More minor roads to explore...
Beautiful towns, I cannot remember this one but it had ................-sur-Loire on the end
At Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire I decided to follow signs to the Loire Cycle route and I was very glad I did. Simply stunning.
Hey I am 50 but no need to remind me !!!
I got to a lovely canalside place called Ménétréol-sous-Sancerre. It was beautiful in a strange kind of way. It was a very old town which stood in the shadow of a huge viaduct overhead and it had let itself get a bit derelict in places, charming and lovely as it was I would not have wanted to live there. It was a really steep and potholed road up through the town and at the top I was rewarded with a stunning little group of vineyards. This area was very close to the town of Sancerre which I recognised from the wine aisle at Tesco !!
Chateaus everywhere, probably wine related bosses with cellars filled with the stuff !!
The day finished off in gorgeous sunshine. I got to my next airbnb to stay at Valerie's house. It was a lovely large typically French detached house on the outskirts of Nevers. My airbnb room was her daughters loft room which was large and probably as she left it when she moved away ! I think she collected the money and split it with her daughter who had moved out. I smiled at this as I completely got the reasoning behind it.
She was a great host and made me soup with some cheeses and fresh bread and I kind of ate anything she put in front of me, I think if I remember I had 2 apples and 3 pieces of cake too. She insisted this was OK and refused payment even though I had planned on going to nip out for a takeaway.
It is kind of funny that I accept that I can eat any old take away rubbish on these road trips as I burn the calories but I was really thankful that I had some really great food here in France and had as yet not succumbed to the golden arches of death !!
Valerie's meal was lovely and she insisted I did not pay. She spoke perfect English and we chatted for ages. I found out she was a superfan of the British Royal family !!
No wash on the clothes front for me that night though so the next day would be a bit grim. Nearly 123 miles done today. But climbed around 4500 feet. Feeling OK. I really need to get my route planned a bit better though as I was once again thrown off course by a desire to look for better roads and cycle paths. Today however this was a risk worth taking as I loved the route today, the Loire Valley is simply stunning and my favourite ride of the week so far by a million miles.
It was so in line with my idea of a French roadtrip. Lovely quiet roads, chateaus, rivers and lovely small quaint towns. Le Frog was turning out to be better than I had expected, roll on Day 4...
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