Day 5: Fontevraud l’Abbaye to Parthenay

September 5, 2022

The thunderstorm started at 5 am, just like the forecasts indicated. Rain was coming in the open windows, so I dashed around and closed up our room. Then back to sleep for a couple more hours. It rained on and off throughout the wee morning hours, but tapered off as we ate our petit déjeuner (emphasis on petit today). When we rolled out of the chambre d’hôtes the skies were dark, but all weather apps indicated the rain was over. The road had dried enough, too, so no wet spray to contend with.

We forgot to take a photo of the town sign today. Oh well!

The route is described as relatively flat with the first 22 kilometers being dead straight - I guess the Romans liked to build things in a straight line.

Yesterday we rode through vineyards; today we rode through farm fields. Sunflower fields of various stages of maturity, corn fields, sarrasin fields, sorghum fields, fallow fields, and ‘it’s already been cut’ fields.

However, our destination village is the show stopper of the day: PARTHENAY.

The view to the right out our window after the early morning squall

And the view to the left (and the entrance to the abbaye)

Our first stretch of road as we left Fontevraud

The temperature was lovely and the roads were dry enough. The birds were chirping away. Beautiful morning!

As I said, we saw many sunflower fields like this, as well as, fields in full bloom. Shortly after seeing these, 2 fighter jets flew over. We were close to a military training ground.

A patch of cyclamen stopped us for a photo shoot.

These cyclamens were all over a small chateau’s grounds. So sweet looking!

I trespassed up someone’s driveway to see this ancient tower.

Yes, lots of ag fields today.

This donjon was built in the 11th century and used to defend the area from the English invaders during the 12th-16th centuries. Sadly, it was destroyed in 1940 by a German bomb.

Unfortunately the doors were locked, so it stopped us from exploring further.

Current day tandem resting against yesteryear’s wall

Monument in Moncontour honoring their lost soldiers during the World Wars.

It’s Monday and it’s becoming a bit worrisome about finding an open boulangerie for our picnic lunch. We’ve decided that since it’s becoming more rural, we need to be proactive before leaving town in the mornings.

Our next village - St Jouin des Marnes with an abbey on the hilltop

The intricate carvings on the face are quite unusual

Chuck had an audience in this place who appreciated his beautiful voice. They pushed us with our French, and were an interesting couple to talk with. How long is it going to take us to get the hang of this language?!!!

We did find a boulangerie in this village and had a passable lunch. And I forgot to take a photo of the beautiful park where we ate our sandwich and pastries. Well, we’ll survive now to continue pedaling through the various fields as the wind picks up.

We’ve been playing cat & mouse with these 4 Brits for 3 days now.

And then we found our chambre d’hôtes for the night. Oh wow!!

This place exceeds all expectations and more than makes up for last night’s lackings! It’s full of cyclists tonight. The other group is riding from Saint Malo to Toulouse. They’ve ridden in 3 days what we’ve done in 5. Ha! We’ve seen and done more, I’m sure! 😉 Our host told us we must walk the main road of the Medieval Cité … so off we went.

Kilometer marker for the Santiago de Compostela - 1,492.2 km

View of the Main Street in the cité from on top of the tower

Climbing up these stairs we realized we have tired legs!

Buildings are currently lived in and very little commercial use

A statue honoring the pilgrims walking the Santiago de Compostela

Outside the walled village - this is where all the tanners used to work

Apparently it took the tanners a full year to tan a hide using their plant based process. It was very smelly so they had to stay outside of the walled city.

No, we didn’t eat dinner at this establishment.

The book described today as a flat day. The elevation profile doesn’t indicate that! But it was a great day on the road, except for the last 20km where we had a strong headwind. Oh well, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?

Stats: 78 kilometers 647 meters elevation

Today's ride: 78 km (48 miles)
Total: 683 km (424 miles)

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