Nemour to Rogny-les-Sept-Écluses

June 25, 2023 - Nemour to Rogny-les-Sept-Écluses, through Montargis

Leaving our very first campsite, normally I'd write a bad review because of all the issues I had. But even though the experience wasn't great, they were very friendly, so I just won't leave any review. We biked about 35 km today to Montargis. It doesn't sound like too much but it feels like a lot in the hot sun. We were searching for shade for our breaks, and took extra long breaks when there was really nice, solid shade.

Here's some of the highlights of the ride. A super cute little 3-month-old puppy that we encountered, with owner. It was a Jack Russell terrier, the owner wanted to practice his English with us a bit. Lots of old abandoned factories, it kind of reminded me of Atlas Shrugged. I asked one guy what one of the old factories was, and he said they used to make automobile windshields. A second one was an old chemical factory.

Lots of abandoned factories

This next one is not really a highlight but it was a very interesting outhouse that we encountered. Basically, you do your business, and then pump a lever that advances a moving band. And then your waste is processed in a little facility behind the outhouse. It was interesting, but was probably one of those eco projects that cost tens of thousands of dollars.

This section of locks were standardized in the 1880's, and all looked pretty similar

Met a guy with a very cute puppy

We were searching for good shade, this wasn't particularly great

This was originally the house of the canal master builder, then a youth hostel, now?

Another highlight was on one of the locks, seeing a boat go through, and chatting with one of the crew. It turns out they were Swiss, from the Lake Constance area. I find this a little hard to believe, but the lady I was talking to said that they had been traveling for 4 months, just from Lake Constance to there! She also said it was a lot of work, going through the locks. Their boat was very wide and they had to have people on the sides being very alert with bumpers, to prevent it from getting scratched. Very friendly lady.

Some nice, solid shade

An abandoned factory on the way to Montargis

The square in front of the hotel was pretty much completely deserted on Sunday

One of the many "we buy gold" shops that I ran into

The homes for sale receive a "grade" that's supposed to tell how energy efficient it is

I believe these little walkways down to the water were used by washerwomen

This guys sang "chansons" in the park. (Chansons means songs, but is usually used in the sense of the poingant love songs, mostly from the 30's, I think). He had a very appreciative audience

Arriving in Montargis - it's a pretty little town, with lots of canals. So far it's my favorite town, after Fontainebleau. I'm very happy with the hotel (Hotel de France) and tried to book it for another night, but unfortunately it's all booked, so we have to switch hotels, because I want to stay in this town two nights.

This place is dead on Sunday, all of the stores closed. We did walk around town a bit, trying to stay in the shade, and found a little festival happening, so that was nice. But mostly we relaxed in the room. We've had a lot of sun today, and I'm planning on buying some gloves to wear to protect my hands from sun. And we should find Peter a long sleeve shirt too, he's getting a lot of sun.

Had dinner at a sushi restaurant in town, one of the few restaurants that was open. They seemed to be having some kind of problems, absolutely none of the people working there were smiling.

June 26, 2023 - A day in Montargis

Today was a rest day, we stayed in town and just did a little bit of biking to get around. It would have been more restful if we had been able to stay at the same hotel, but unfortunately they were booked and had no room for another night. We packed up our stuff in the morning, and then headed to the tourist office, where I had a long conversation with the friendly staff, and also got lots of brochures and maps. It's actually helpful to look at a real, paper map, instead of always scrolling on a screen. It gives you a better sense of scale.

There's actually a fair number of people begging in town, if I had to guess I would say they're heroin addicts. Very skinny.

The hotel we're staying in now is the Logis, run by a very friendly couple who let us come at 11:00. The room is quaint, clean, and well decorated. No air conditioning but it's not as hot today, and also there's a fan. Our main excursion this afternoon was biking to the E.Leclerc, which is a huge superstore, kind of like a giant Walmart. And when I say huge, I mean HUGE - I think they call these types of stores a Hypermarche.

We were able to buy some spare bike inner tubes there, I also bought some gardening gloves, I snipped off the ends to make some sun protection gloves for myself, because my hands got really burnt yesterday. My hands were the only part of my body exposed to the sun (except for my legs), and they were flat on the handlebars, very exposed.

We had dinner at a pretty decent Indian restaurant that was just steps away from our hotel. Also, I've decided to try to book hotels two days in advance instead of one. It's a little less stressful, and presumably I'll be able to get rooms more easily.

Benches made of concrete, made to look like wood.

At the Logis hotel

Around town

Lots of shut down businesses, even right downtown

My biking gloves - cut-off garden gloves

June 27, 2023 - From Montargis to Rogny-les-Sept-Écluses

Breakfast this morning at the Logis hotel was only sweet items so there wasn't really much I was interested in eating. But overall they were very friendly and I was happy with the hotel. I left them a nice review on Google maps and they immediately responded.

The first 15 minutes of biking is always the best, you're moving, you're outside, the scenery is flying by, you're in town so there's a lot of people to say hello to. Peter had to use the toilet in an area where there were no facilities, so we went to a nearby cafe and I ordered a little expresso, and Peter used the toilet. But then about 10 minutes later we had to return, because I had left my day pack on the chair next to me! That was stressful, wondering if it was still going to be there when we got back.

Also, when I remembered that I had left it there, we were just about to walk into the Roman amphitheater (closed but you could get over the fence easily). By the time we biked back, picked up my day pack, and got to the same location, we didn't feel like going in anymore. There's lots of flour mills and wheat processing happening here, and also of course the wheat harvest is in full gear.

An old mill, just out of Montargis

The new mill

Scenes from along the canal

The very unused bridge to the ampitheater

The Montbouy Roman ampitheater.

We had lunch at the town of Montbouy (just some bread, cheese, and tomato as usual) on a bench next to the church. I chatted with a Canadian couple on a boat for quite a bit. We had passed them three times, because of going back to fetch the day pack that I left behind. Apparently they come over every summer and do long tours of the canals. They have to travel very slowly, maximum 7 km an hour, and going through the locks takes a lot of time as well.

Around Montbouy

I think the different colored rocks here are supposed to represent the French flag (red, white, blue). This is a war dead memorial from "The Great War" (World War I)

Wheat processing

At one of the locks, a little cafe was operating. It turns out it was a British couple, that were doing something like a joint venture with the French government canal company. In any case, they didn't own the building at the lock, they were renting it from the government. We got some food there (stuffed savory pastries), and tea, and had some good conversation with him.

Good thing we spoke English because I don't think he spoke much French at all, the first thing he said was, in French, "do you speak English". He said it's extremely bureaucratic in France, the shed attached to the house had a leak, and what with all the paperwork required by the French bureaucracy, it took two years to fix it. And this shed was the lavatory/shower for the tiny campground he had there, so the campers had to go inside their house to use the facilities.

I'm glad we were able to stop there, we actually bought a few extra pastries (a homemade meat pie and one with cheese) to have in case there wasn't much food in the town we are headed to (Rogny-les-Sept-Écluses). (Turns out that was a good idea, because there actually wasn't very much food in Rogney. No open restaurants, no groceries)

For quite a while before the campground there was no developed bike path, and we were on a small side road - up hills, too. It wasn't very busy though, mostly just farm vehicles.

Kenny was interested to see the cell towers in France.

The weather was superb today, not too hot at all. The bike path was very well marked, overall everything worked well, except in Rogny-les-Sept-Écluses there's almost no services except for this campground. Good thing we brought some food with. We had a little picnic - bread, sardines, apples, tomatoes, pistachios - at the seven locks, which is a really interesting canal structure that was built in the 1600s. Amazing.

It took us a little while to find the campsite. It's actually quite nice, not as fancy as the previous one in terms of facilities, but very friendly, with some shade, and the "camp tent" that we're in is much nicer than the pod we were in at the previous campsite. Plus, there's power. There's also supposed to be Wi-Fi, but I can't get it.

Peter and I played ping pong here a couple times, once he played with the husband of the lady that showed us around at the very beginning, he was very friendly.

It's amazing how late it stays light here, it's almost 10 pm and it's still very very bright.

We hung out under this awning until we could actually get into our tent

These plums were everywhere

Our tent

Picnic at the locks