Savonniere - Amboise: A bungled rendez-vous - Brittany - Loire Valley - Burgundy - CycleBlaze

June 25, 2010

Savonniere - Amboise: A bungled rendez-vous

Another sunny and hot day. From here on in we only have hot days, often with temperatures well over 30°C/86°F.

Again today Janos and I don't agree on which is the better route - more direct with more traffic or the more round-about bike path. Before Janos continues on the D7 and I head for the river path, we agree on a meeting place on the Loire bike path before entering Tours.

Red poppies have infiltrated the fields of grain.
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Charmaine RuppoltI love seeing poppies!
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1 year ago
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Tours is a larger city and there are several bike paths leading to the center, but the Loire bike path is no longer signposted. My route was longer and I know Janos must be waiting for me somewhere, but where? My Garmin isn't helping me now, I've lost the bike path and have no idea where we planned to meet. But we cyclists also benefit from the digital revolution. In addition to our GPS's, we also have cell phones. I don't know how we would have found each other without them.

We spend a couple of hours in Tours. The streets and open-air restaurants in the well-preserved old town are inviting and its cathedral merits a visit.

Old town, Tours
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Tours Cathedral: 15th century Flamboyant Gothic with Renaissance pinnacles, completed 1547
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Charmaine RuppoltWow.....that's a great Cathedral!
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1 year ago
Tours Cathedral
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Tours Cathedral
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Leaving Tours, we have a pleasant bike path for ten kilometers along the river. In Montlouis-s-Loire you can either join the traffic on the D751 which hugs the river bank or you can follow the Loire bike path on quiet country roads, a pretty route through hilly countryside to Amboise.

Countryside approaching Amboise
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We're in for a heat wave until the end of the trip.
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Trusty Garmin shows us where the campground is located. When we don't follow Garmin's proposed route, it calculates a new route from our present location while we're riding. I think this is pretty cool. It's no fun getting lost in a city at the end of the day. In this case, the campground is on an island in the Loire and we have no problem finding it.

No cooking tonight. The campground has a nice little restaurant and serves good pizza.

The castle of Amboise overlooks the town and river.
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Charmaine RuppoltNice that the campground had a restaurant!!
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1 year ago

Today's ride: 51 km (32 miles)
Total: 893 km (555 miles)

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