Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire to Bloise, through Orlean

June 30, 2023 - Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire to Orlean

It was an easy biking day today. We really enjoyed last night's stay in the little tiny village of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, very tranquil. In the past few days we've definitely seen far more bikers than earlier. The first few days coming down from Paris we saw zero tourists on bikes, just some locals. Now they're everywhere.

As a matter of fact we met a guy from Portland, he's headed all the way to Istanbul on his bike. I only discovered he was from Portland because the path forked, and I didn't know which path Peter had taken, so I asked him in French and he replied in English. We chatted a bit. He also helped me out with my bike seat, which has been very painful. I think his adjustment helped quite a bit, it never got as bad as it was the day before. He's camping the whole way, says it's very easy and cheap.

We stopped in the little village of Jargeau, had a coffee and a brioche. AND I left my backpack on the seat next to me again! Luckily I realized it within less than 5 minutes, so we didn't have to go far back.

On the way to Orleans

I took a lot of pictures of houses that I thought looked interesting, or well-kept

The old church (900's!) in Germigny-des-Prés. Instead of the standard images you get in the old churches, there was an arc of the covenant, very interesting

This shows the flood level in 1856

Cement processing plant along the Loire

Ruins of the Chateau de l'Isle

Just outside of Orleans, there was a very nice park type area, along the Loire. Very spread out.

It was very easy to bike around Orleans

Arriving in Orleans, we had to wait until 5:00 to get into the apartment that we booked. It turns out there is a piano festival in Orleans this weekend! Lots of pianos were available in public places, for people to play. What a coincidence, because Peter has really been wishing for a piano to play. He played quite a bit at the public piano at the museum next to the cathedral.

The little apartment that we're in, booked on booking.com, looked a lot better in the pictures online that it actually does in person. That seems to always be the case. It just seems a little bit grungy and unloved right now, probably after years of being rented out. The one positive is that it's extremely central. Peter likes the apartment rentals because they usually have Netflix, and so he gets to watch his favorite show now, Avatar.

Saw this in a grocery store - this sugary cereal is listed as an "A" grade food. Probably because it's organic, and uses some whole grain. But it's still sugary trash.

Peter went to a concert downtown, I hung out at the bookstore which was close by. Bookstores seem to be far more popular here than they are in the US. Even little tiny towns have them. I got a kick looking at the cooking section, I really have a desire to do some cooking, something hands-on, creating something.

July 1, 2023 - A rest day in Orlean

We're having a rest day here in town, mostly to take advantage of being in a relatively large city. I bought some groceries nearby, hopefully we can avoid eating in restaurants for a few meals, it would be nice to do some home cooking. So far just scrambled eggs, but that was great.

Also a big project was to find sunglasses. I thought I had brought them with me but turns out I didn't have them. And with the amount of bugs that are around, biking along the river, I really need them. I was getting bugs in my eyes a couple times a day, that's no fun. There's a Carrefour very close by that we went to, and were able to get some sunglasses. The stores here have lots and lots of security. Even smaller stores will have a security guy at the front, usually either black or of Arab heritage.I'm guessing that shoplifting is not tolerated, unlike it is in the US in many places.

I've been really inspired by the way that some French women dress. Some of my favorite looks are a white blouses, colorful long pants, or also mid-calf length jeans, often folded over nicely, with nice looking sandals, etc. If I lived here in France I would definitely up my game in terms of wardrobe.

I'm for sure getting REALLY tired of wearing the same clothing all the time. I'm actually wearing only 2 of the 5 tops that I have - I've decided that I just don't like the others. So, I'm constantly wearing 1 top for biking, and 1 for around town. That means I'm washing them out quite a bit, too. Everything washes and dries really quickly, of course, but I miss some variety.

We basically walked around town quite a bit, and checked out the cathedral. Also we found another one of the public pianos that are available now, for the piano festival. Peter played on it quite a bit, then he gave way to another kid who was also quite good.

Also - went to a Thai restaurant (Pitaya) that we've since seen quite a bit, it's a chain. The food wasn't good at all, though. I've found it to be the case that unless you really spend time asking around and researching restaurants, you just end up with luck of the draw, which will not be that great. I'm usually not willing to do the research, so we get whatever's available. Except that I'm really not a fan of kebabs, pizzas, and burgers, so I try to skip them. (Which eliminates about 70% of the choices).

This library also had a public piano, but these guys played the whole time, to Peter's dismay.

There was strange cardboard furniture in the lobby. Interesting idea, but it's pretty much disposable.

This one is for Eric

In the cathedral

There were lots of these half-timbered houses in Orleans

Some kind of waterfront festival, with dancing

The main avenue in Orleans. Note all the Ukrainian flags.

July 2, 2023 - Orleans to Blois

We had an early morning today, the plan was to be on the bikes at 8:00 a.m., and we did that. Some corn flakes and milk for breakfast, it was good not to have the standard breakfast, which is bread with jam and honey and croissants. It sounds wonderful but day after day it gets old, plus it's not very healthy. Not that corn flakes are all that healthy either.

By the way, they're doing that crazy food ranking thing here, where a cereal like Cocoa Puffs gets an "A", where the Camembert cheese that we have almost every day for lunch gets a "D". So, the highly processed sugary trash breakfast cereal is ranked as an "A", the traditional cheese that's been around hundreds (thousands?) of years gets a "D". Crazy. People in France are still thinner than Americans right now, but if they keep this up, pushing the highly processed foods, that will change. Actually I noticed a difference already, from previous times I visited, there's a lot more young kids that are heavy now.

Anyway, on the bikes early, and it was nice to be up early, very little traffic, and good light for photos.That really makes a huge difference, taking photos in the morning. It was a 66 km ride today, our previous max was 42 km, I think. That's the main reason we started so early.

Some of the highlights of the day were:

How pretty the light was in the early morning.
Stopping at what looked like a hippie encampment, for coffee and hot chocolate.
Coming across that market in Beaugency, kind of like a neighborhood garage sale, like they had in Geneva. If we weren't on our bikes, I could have bought a lot.
Having a long conversation with that older gentleman that we met at the reconstructed wash house,who was doing a long bike trip with his grandson, and his grandson's friend. He was very friendly, gave us some apricots, gave hints on where we could find good bed and breakfasts, told us about the nuclear power plant that we just passed, which apparently was operational, contrary to what another guy said (the one we met while he was raking in his yard). He was retired, but had been an electrical engineer, traveling all around the globe working on power plants. We talked a little bit about the riots that are engulfing some of the larger cities in France. He lives about 35 km outside of Paris, and said that very close to his house, six cars had been burned up. Crazy.

Also we were trying to decide whether we should make the detour to that famous really huge chateau, Chambord (decided not to, too much distance and uphill, and we've seen plenty of castles).

La Croix De Micy. It was constructed in the 1850's from the remnants of a very old abby (from the 6th century)

I saw lots of these old stones, with numbers that incremented. I asked at a tourist office, the lady there said it had something to do with navigation and avoiding the sandbars, back when they actually had boat traffic on the Loire - or maybe on a canal to the side of the Loire. The D stands for "decendante" (decending). In other words, going downstream.

We stopped to have a coffee at this...hard to describe, kind of like a hippy restaurant, all volunteer (?)

Their outhouse. It actually didn't smell bad.

I love these old stone picnic tables. Not at all comfortable looking, but how cool...

In Beaugency

First time I've seen this ultra-small car

market in Beaugency

The old tower in Beaugency

Real estate does not always appreciate in value

The nuclear power plant at Saint-Laurent

At the wash house

The ruins of an old train bridge (viaduc des Noëls)

Our hotel in Blois

There was one very long straight boring stretch of road, also with a bit of a headwind, which was a drag. But then luckily we hit a more interesting stretch, and also met the guy at the wash house. In French it's called lavoir, it's a reconstructed one from the 1800s.

We got to the hotel here in Blois around 2:00 or 3:00. It's nice, but not as nice as the other Logis hotels have been. We walked around town a bit and got some dinner, it's really beautiful but unfortunately I left my phone in the room, so no photos. We had dinner in the main plaza. This area is so touristy that restaurants are open on Sunday, which is not normal in a most places in France. There were three women sitting next to us in the restaurant that were somehow involved in the movie business - one of them a director, maybe? Anyway, they seemed VERY chic and international.

It was a beautiful plaza with huge trees, but the negative about huge trees above you is that tons of bugs are dropping down on you the whole time. Peter has inherited Eric's phobia about bugs so it really "bugged" him. Peter accidentally ordered a cheese plate, instead of pasta with cheese, which he thought he was getting. Good thing I got pizza, he had a lot of it.

On the plus side about bugs, the sunglasses that we got yesterday were super helpful, no bugs in our eyes at all today. What a relief!