Day 38: Montsoreau to Savonierres, France: Fairy Tales

June 26, 2012

Since the setup at the campsite was so pleasant, what with the shelter just adjacent to our tent, we decided on a slow start. We have been unable to find instant oatmeal in the stores here, so we broke our hearts and actually cooked some oats. We are going to need some sugar or something, because it was super bland.

Fortified by the oatmeal, I gathered enough strength to cycle 400 meters to the boulangerie. It was 7:30 a.m. and not a moment too soon. Starving hoards were snapping up the “vienoisseries” and I got the last two “pain aux raisins”. Together with a baguette and one “briochette”, the total bill was 4 euros.

The bakery also had a tourist brochure for this region, and aha, our slow discoveries of yesterday were here emblazoned in glossy colour. Apparently our research is incomplete, because apart from the wineries, caves, mushrooms, and back through history cycle touring, there is apparently also a large Chateau from the 15th century, made famous by Alexander Dumas, and an architecturally significant college built on the site of the death of Martin, the bishop of Tours in the 12th century. There is also a whole maritime history along the Loire that we know nothing about.

More about the wines, since we somehow don’t drink we don’t know much about wine culture. But we do know that this is a famous region, with an official “Appellation”. The wine types found here are Cabernet d’Anjou, Rose d’Anjou, Rose de Loire, Cabernet de Saumur, Saumur, Saumur Champigny, Saumur Blanc, Coteaux de Saumur, Touraine, Chinon, and Bourgueil. Does that mean something to somebody?

No sooner had we left Monsoreau but we were in Candes-St Martin. You can accuse me of crying "best ever" every day, but Candes really is a step back hundreds of years. I took lots of photos, and every one is a winner. I am burning expensive internet to post this, so there are just a few, but I hope you will agree.

The priest stepped out to get his lame iPhone antenna to work, while standing beside his Mercedes van.

Our route goes through a seemingly endless string of towns, each highly picturesque and with easily cyclable flat smooth roads. Occasionally the planners of the Loire a Velo take us along a dike or through a forest, with also flat and smooth pavement or fine gravel. Looking back at the six linear feet of river and towns on the Loire a Velo Map 2, I find it incredible that we are passing through this cyclists' playland. Increasingly, other cyclists are joining us. In the campsite tonight there are at least ten - some French, some Australian, some Spanish, and little old us!

There is only one store in Savigny. Fortunately, it's a bakery!

Brown french cousins of Shaun the Sheep.

Often along the way there are information poster boards put up either by local towns or by the region. At one of these by the river the subject was the Chateau at Rigny-Usse. This is styled the Sleeping Beauty castle, because it inspired Perrault to write his famous stories and it remains a symbol of the medieval fairy tale castle inhabited by brave lords, beautiful ladies, and poets. we could sort of see it in the distance, but to go there seemed like a 5 km detour. Hmmm, I thought, maybe the readers would believe we did the pedalling if I put up a copy of the photo from the poster board. This is what you would have seen:

My fake photo of the Chateau de La Belle au Bois Dormant (Sleeping Beauty)

Of course, the Grampies is a high quality operation so off we cycled on a detour that we would have to exactly reverse to keep on target.

The admission fee at the castle was 14 euros each, so we would not go so far as to take the actual tour, but here is the actual photo:

Even better, we had fun talking to tourists around the castle, and we did spot one real "princess".

A real princess was getting married at the Chateau

Avi, Violet, Amelia, how about these stickers?

I liked this Tea Towel, but it was too heavy to carry

Another shot of the Princess (actually she's from Vancouver)

I did get this sticker, really happy with it!

We went back to where we had started our detour, and headed for Savonierres, where we knew we would find camping. Shortly, from behind someone sang out "Hey Grampies!". We love it when this happens. Sometimes it's someone who has been following the blog. Other times, it's someone we met (younger and/or stronger - everyone fits that bill) who we have somehow snuck ahead of, and now they are re-passing us. This time it was Pierre and Sophie from Belgium.

They had decided to wild camp by the river, and for a while we considered sites with them. But the lure of a shower drove us to Savonnieres. 10 Euros and we were in shower heaven. They have a clothes dryer too, wow!

Pierre and Sophie showed up behind us near Savonnieres at the end of the day

Camping at Savonnieres. This toilet style is a new one on us.

The camping is just outside the tiny town, so a 5 minute ride back in bought me nectarines and a baguette. It was hot (the baguette!) too.

However there is a bakery down the street and the baguettes are hot for supper time!

So ends another day in fairy tale land. Tomorrow it's Tours, said to be the birthplace of the French language. That's great, but we will be looking for farmers' markets!

Today's ride: 62 km (39 miles)
Total: 1,261 km (783 miles)

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