September 25, 2019
Montargis
Trying to beat the rain
The least said about last nights hotel the better but I know what Steve Miller would have said about breakfast - a glass of orange juice, a tiny day old croissant and a cup of half cold stewed coffee - and one packet of jam so I suppose it qualifies as a one jammer. I dont think the itches I have are from bed bugs
We were watching the weather carefully and it seemed that it would be heavily overcast until midday when there would be a heavy shower. We needed to get going and arrive at the hotel by then. First I rode the 5om down the road to look at the Chateau and the canal then we were off. The route took us on small roads with almost no traffic at all. We were passing through patches of the Orleans Forest, there was cropping land mostly resown with next years crops, there was some dairying and we saw quite a big flock of sheep who were eating hay rather than grass.
After about 28km we came to a little gem, Lorris. This little town is built around a square with an old covered market, it does not show any signs of massive development but importantly it is not decaying and what we saw as we rode around was a vibrant charming and prosperous looking community. It is interesting that here we were 9km from Sully sur Loire where we had been around 60km ago! Although we had been travelling near the canal and seeing pretty pieces of it we hadn’t been on the single track way beside it. At Chailly we crossed it again and decided to try the track for a while. Actually it was a lovely tranquil route and although only one wheel width wide was remarkably good to ride
Back on the road we speed along but things came to a stop when we found ourselves riding on the hard shoulder of the motorway, it didn’t seem particularly dangerous but clearly we shouldn’t have been there and we cou;d see a small road running beside it. But how to get to it, there was a high bund separating the two so with a Herculean effort we got the bikes over and I set my phone for here At twenty to twelve the rain came - we didn’t have far to go but I didn’t want my phone drowned so our navigation was rather strange - at 3minutes to 12 we arrived at the hotel and the rain stopped.
Montargis is a fascinating town with a lovey centre where a myriad of canals meet. The Briar Canal that we have previously crossed riding up the Loire finishes here meeting the Canal de Loing which joins the Seine. Canals fascinate me and my mind boggles at the thought of their construction with only primitive tools
Today's ride: 48 km (30 miles)
Total: 2,615 km (1,624 miles)
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4 years ago
4 years ago
Love
Mum and Dad xxx
4 years ago
4 years ago