Day 75: Beaugency to Cour Cheverny: Steve, move that hairy ass!

October 4, 2015

Today was kind of transitional. In recent days the story has involved cycling along the river or dike, to get from one village to another, where those villages have normally been of the narrow street, crumbly white variety. We love those villages and we also like cycling along the river, but today really did inject a new, double fun aspect.

What was new was that we left the river and cycled through a delightful countryside, on bike paths and on very small roads with no traffic. The countryside included parts of the Chambord Park and the Domaine de Boulogne Forest, and the sights included old farm buildings that may have been crumbly, but were not white, and newer houses that were akin to English country cottages. Smack in the middle of this new countryside was Chambord chateau, the most insanely unique castle imaginable.

But let's go back to the river, and crumbly white Beaugency. On leaving the hotel, we had a small map of the town, and determined to do a quick loop to see the towers, churches, and chateau that derive from an age just before the bulk of the other buildings. That is, things from the 11th to 16th centuries. Like in all these towns, the streets are arranged in random fashion, making it a little hard to navigate effectively. Dodie clutched the map and did a fair bit of backing and forthing. Still, we did manage to spot the clock tower, the St. Etienne church, the Caesar Tower, the chateau, the Notre Dame church, and so forth. Pretty good!

Here are a few photos from Beaugency and the bit of the ride just after that:

Joan of Arc - yes she was the heroine here too

The Caesar tower - a remnant of Roman military architecture

The Notre Dame Chruch. Here the council that annulled the marriage of Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine met. Eleanor later married the future king of England, Henry Plantagenet.

We've heard of Share the Road, but this pedestrian seems surprised that it has gone this far.

In this version of Share the Road, both driver and rider have given up, dumped their vehicles at random and are at the cafe.

today must have begun hunting season, as many people were out in the fields and there was a lot of shooting going on. One hunter told me they were after pheasant, pigeon, and rabbit, but he admitted thata he had seen nothing all day.

A possible Santiago pilgrim. This area is on the main pilgrim line to Spain.

From Beaugency we followed along the north side of the river, until we crossed at Muides sur Loire. The bridge, so unlike those on the Po, had a bike path and clear marking about how to get on it. On the other side we followed bike paths or quiet roads to Saint Dye. Saint Dye proper probably qualifies in the crumbly white category, but there are bits of the French country cottage category around as well. We began by checking out the church, the church of St Dye.

The church and the town started in the 5th century when a monastery was established here by Deodatus, a former hermit. In the 9th century the chapel was destroyed by Normans, but a new church was built during the time of Charles the Bold, in the 15th century. In the time of Chambord (16th century) this must have been improved, because Chambord itself caused a jump in business and population, and there were as well lots of pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostella.

That's where things stayed until 1962, when a sandstone sarcophagus was discovered, which is purported to contain the remains of Deodatus. The sarcophagus is visible below the floor at the front of the church.

For the past year or so the church has been hosting an extensive exhibition of paintings by 78 year old French painter Hubert Damon. He seems to be quite famous, though we have never heard of him. We did not like the paintings at all!

St Dye by the Loire - our gateway to French countryside playland

St Dye - the whole town has turned out for a river side junk sale.

The St Dye church, with the sarcophagus cutout in the foreground floor

In St Dye - the bakery came up with this pistachio-raspberry eclair!

From St Dye we dove down through that lovely countryside toward Chambord. Here are some impressions of that countryside. The photos are not necessarily in the order of when we came upon the scenes, but I hope they will give the general impression well.

The area around Chambord - really pleasant cycling throughout. There are many set out cycling routes here, and lots of government support for them

A courtyard beind Loire House, which serves as a museum

The cycle way passed between these walls

We do not seem to remember quite a few things from when we passed along the Loire four years ago, but one thing one can never forget is Chambord. Chambord is not at all coy. It is set out in the open, and you come to it along a broad roadway. It is set in the middle of a hunting preserve, surrounded by more than 30 km of stone wall. Inside the wall, deer and wild pigs were maintained for the hunting pleasure of royalty. That makes it kind of like ranches we saw in Texas!

But it is the architecture that makes Chambord unforgettable. It is totally symmetrical, but you can only see that when you look at it square on. Otherwise, it appears as a welter of towers and turrets. There are lots of towers and turrets on something like the cathedral at Milan, but these at Chambord are very different. Have a look:

The long wall that encloses the Chambord preserve

Really great Chambord cookies - there were several dozen types.

Madelaines. We have a friend in Montreal who loves to make these.

After reabsorbing the splendour of Chambord (but without using the time and 11 euros each to go inside), we moved over to another delightful aspect of the site. This is the presence of a hotel, a restaurant, a small craft/food fair, and shop selling souvenirs but also a fabulous selection of biscuits. For hungry cyclists, the biscuit display was the best, because each of the many varieties featured a dish of free samples. They were all actually very very good, and we would have bought several boxes, but for the weight. We did go for a bag, though.

The gift shop offered post cards, of course, but also lots of colourful (not academic) books on French history and culture. I got one, intended for kids, on Francis I (1494-1547)- the founder of Chambord. I have already learned a lot from this book, and from our Chamina cycling guide book. So Chambord marked the importation of Italian Renaissance ideas to France, and it plus other new construction (Chenonceau, Azay-le-Rideau) were in the elegant Italian style. At the same time, former medieval castles, like at Blois and Amboise, got tarted up to Renaissance standards.

Francis I invited Leonardo da Vinci to Amboise in 1516, and Da Vinci decided to spend the rest of his life by the Loire (at Clos Luce - a small chateau near Ambroise). Da Vinci was there only four years, dying in 1519.

I had expected to find great crowds at Chambord, but was pleasantly surprised. The place is active, but in no sense crowded. When we went to buy our biscuits and souvenirs, it was just a matter of going to the cashier. No 30 minute line like to buy Lindt chocolate at Expo 2015.

We briefly had the notion of staying in the hotel, right in the shadow of the chateau. Surprisingly it was (sort of) affordable, but we decided we have other chateau to fry, and took off.

We headed out along a paved cycle way through the forest, remembering to keep an eye open for stags or sangliers (wild boars). But very quickly we hit another chateau - Villesavin. Dodie spotted it by saying "Hey, why are all these cars parked here?" It was rather amazing, almost a Walmart parking lot. What was this minor chateau doing that Chambord was not?

We looked at each other, knowing that the afternoon was almost over and we had kms to cover. So naturally we pulled in and asked the guys with the safety vests who were directing traffic what all the excitement was about. It was a pottery fair, but a major one, covering the whole region. The traffic control guys said go on in, free admission, and they offered to keep an eye on the bikes.

The pottery was a revelation. There were dozens of potters with stands on the chateau grounds, and so many of them had innovative stuff in styles we had never seen before. If not for the impossibility of carrying pottery on a bike, we would have come away with many pieces.

One other thing on the grounds of the chateau: furry donkeys, or as we have termed them, hairy asses. We must have had some special affinity, because they really liked me!

Kids got to have a try with making pottery

So we continued on our way to Chenonceau, and have fetched up in Cour Cheverny. If you are at all lost about where we are, it's just that we have dropped down about 20 km south of the east-west Loire river, and are proceeding west that way, to pick up Chambord and Chenonceau. After that we will bounce back up to the Loire for Amboise.

We have a place booked for tomorrow in Chenonceau town. It is not too far, which could be good because our run of fine weather luck is about to end.

Our hotel - le St Hubert in Cour Cheverny (we selected the smallest room, on the road side - 55 euros. Bigger, courtyard side was 70 euros.)

Today's ride: 52 km (32 miles)
Total: 3,669 km (2,278 miles)

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