July 14, 2021
Day 1 : Nevers to Sancerre
Wet Wet Wet
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First days are always stressful for me, and this one was no exception. We were up at a reasonable hour, had breakfast in the hotel, and walked over to the garage to set up the bike. My new scheme of breaking it in two for car travel worked great - only 4 bolts to cinch down, 3 cables to connect, and we were ready to go. No rubbing brakes. Everything looked perfect.
We went back to the hotel and changed into riding clothes. Did I mention it was raining? Not too badly, but still…
We checked out, walked back to the car, and shuffled all the bags around. Put the panniers on the bike and we were ready!
The rain was kind of a heavy mist, but we were wearing our rain gear - jackets and helmet covers. And it wasn’t too cold. So it was actually kind of pleasant cycling. We dropped down through Nevers to cross the Loire river.
We rode across the river, which is impressively wide even this far from the ocean. Then rode south out of town along the Canal Laterale de la Loire. There were a few hardy joggers and riders out on this rainy Bastille Day morning.
In Guetin, the canal crosses the Allier river just before it flows into the Loire. The canal bridge was spectacular and since no one was out this morning, we ignored the signs and rode across instead of walking our bikes.
At the end of the bridge was an impressively high double lock that lifts boats up onto the bridge from the west side. The locks were really deep!
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Then on to some great riverside riding on impressively maintained bike paths. Lots of cool houses and gardens to ooh and aah over. Including one that looked like a displaced windmill.
Probably because I was looking at the houses too much, we managed to get off course and found ourselves tiptoeing through the mud in the middle of a logging site. Ooops. Luckily the Wahoo ELEMNT has a “route me back to my route” feature that bailed us out. The only ill effects were mud kind of everywhere on us and the bike.
At this point, the rain got vicious. We had planned to eat lunch to dodge the worst of it, but due to our little detour through the mud, we were running late. So the decision was made to put our heads down and time trial to La-Charité-sur-Loire, our best chance for lunch choices on a holiday. After too long, we got a glimpse of our goal.
By this time we were thoroughly soaked, and started discussing our hopes for lunch options. That got us through the last effort and we finally rolled over the bridge into the beautiful old village.
We applied our first restaurant rule (which we use in serious situations) and wound up in an unpromising looking pub. Surprisingly, the food was great! AND they had Guiness on tap! Good for a cold rainy day!
After lunch we were still cold and wet but we poked around town a bit exploring. La-Charité-sur-Loire was the site of a large abbey that was originally founded in the 12th century. There isn’t much left now, and the beautiful church looks like it’s had quite a bit of restoration. But there are some interesting remnants and the town is beautiful in a run-down old way. Worth exploring more, but we were pretty cold and decided to make a run for Sancerre and the warmth of our hotel.
With newfound purpose in life, we rolled back across the river and headed north. Amazingly, we started to warm up!
We could see Sancerre in the distance, and soon enough we were climbing up to meet it.
Our hotel, Le Panoramic, welcomed us with secure bike parking and warm showers. And great views out over the countryside.
We got cleaned up and went out exploring the pretty town. Lots of cool old buildings. We also scouted dinner options and settled on La Taverne du Connétable.
We did some more poking around and once the restaurant opened, we hopped in. Excellent food, accompanied by glasses of Sancerre wines, first 2 different whites, then 2 different reds. We made our own wine tasting.
We walked off our dinner with some more exploring and then made our way back to the hotel. The setting sun was finally breaking through the clouds. Better weather is coming!
Today's ride: 73 km (45 miles)
Total: 103 km (64 miles)
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Good luck on better weather!
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