Day 14 to 17 – Stage 3 completed!
This is the final section before I leave the Loire valley
Day 14 – 2nd June, takes me from Bourbon-Lancy to Nevers. 82 km
Day 15 – Rest day
Day 16 – 4th June, is from Nevers to Sancerre. 78km
Day 17 – 5th June, is to Orléans which was quite a stretch for me at 126km (78 miles).
Day 14: Bourbon-Lancy to Nevers
Today I’m cycling from Bourbon-Lancy to Nevers. A journey of some 75 km.. The route itself is pretty dull as I am travelling on one of those typically French long straight roads. I tried to find the off road velo routes suggested by Google but I got nowhere. Each village I went through was disappointing because there were no cafes or patisseries to enjoy a morning coffee at and you know how I like my coffee stops.
As I have said before, this area is rather typical of a lot of this part of France, (having come away from the Alps) insofar as the villages are almost dead, which is very sad to see. At last I came upon a small village with a patisserie to my left. It looked closed, but since there were two touring bicycles outside I thought I had better stop and have a closer look and indeed it was open.
I went inside to order my coffee and a snack and saw the two cyclists who were seated having their morning coffee. We greeted each other and started to exchange views about the route. The most amazing thing is that the guy of this couple actually comes from the village in Germany where the ancestors of my grandfather lived!! That’s Winnenden, near Stuttgart. How amazing is that? The couple, Margret and Rainer, are cycling all the way from Lake Constance, where the EV6 starts, to the end of the Loire Valley route near Nantes, where the Loire flows into the sea. Wow! Well done them. They were jolly nice and gave me a donation for the Ukrainian cause. Thank you Margret and Rainer! It has now been paid in to the Ukrainian Hearts fund.
At Nevers, at my riverside hotel, I chatted to an old gentleman, Jean, who had a lovely little dog, Happy, his companion since his wife died, and we decided to dine together. We had a an enjoyable evening, talking about all sorts of matters, both around the world and locally in France. He was from Normandy, near Deauville, and was very much in favour of the continuing the D-Day Normandy landings celebrations. He was born in 1942 and so wouldn’t have remembered the landings, but his he said family were so grateful to the Allied soldiers who landed there to free France from tyranny. Many thousands losing their lives to free France, he said.
In part of his career he had been involved in setting up small specialist centres around France for Autistic children before the condition became a fully recognised medical condition.
Day 15 – Nevers
I looked around Nevers, which had once been the seat of the counts, later dukes of Nevers. This is the Ducal Palace:
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The Ducal Palace is very impressive, but sadly the walls to the medieval town are virtually all gone. Nevers is not quite like the chateaux in the lower part of the Loire River, and the town is a little run down in places. However, this stretch of the Loire is quite scenic. In the evening you can hear the frogs croaking in the reeds.
Day 16: Nevers to Sancerre
From here I followed the Euro velo route EV6. It was quite well marked whereas the previous Velo route 71 was not.
Unfortunately I got caught in the rain but I was determined to cycle up to the hilltop town of Sancerre. There was no chance of me getting invited into the chateau, ha ha!, but I did enjoy a glass of wine in the town square. The small town has a commanding view of the surrounding countryside and on its slopes and into the far distance are vineyards which make the Sancerre wine famous.
My hotel near Sancerre was absolutely unique. The old building with its beautiful light blue coloured shutters and ivy clad walls looked charming. Inside, the beamed ceiling seemed to say it was centuries old. It was run by a very lovely old lady. There were fresh cut flowers set out on a bench which she was arranging when I arrived.
I sat down to on a long dark oak carver dining table with just one other guest, Vincent. We had a really super chat. A most enjoyable person to spend the evening with over a glass of wine and a lovely meal. He is a book distributor and travels around this area visiting his clients. Thankfully bookshops in France are still very much treasured. He lives in the Loire Valley.
Day 17: Sancerre to Orléans.
I either cycled along canal paths or ‘levees’ (embankment to prevent flooding). On the way, I met up and cycled with Uli and Wolfgang (from Germany) for a while. Here we are at a viaduct , which was designed by Gustave Eiffel, the same man that designed the Eiffel tower in Paris:
They were another couple doing the EV6 all the way to the atlantic beyond Nantes. They had started from Freiburg in Germany. They were taking whatever accommodation was available to them each night. I’ve got to hand it to them! I prefer a cosy hotel.
On the way to Orléans I passed two chateaux, one of them at Sully where I made a stopover for a cup of coffee at a wonderful old cycle museum.
I also passed through Gien where my brother did fitness exercises while he was in the Army in the 1950s when he was stationed at Fontainebleau as part of the NATO military contingent. He told me a story about a bet which was placed about swimming across the river Loire which he took because he was a good swimmer but he was carried downstream and when he finally got out, without a costume, he had to walk up the riverbank completely naked, watched by the field workers , which were mostly women until he got back to where he had started!
The journey onward was tough and made worse by rainshowers and crosswinds. I arrived at my hotel at 8pm! I was shattered but very pleased that I had completed section 3 of this epic trip. Over 1000 km !!