Tour de Loire Valley - Wednesday

It was a much more friendly day, with only 35 kms to ride on mostly flat terrain. A few small hills earlier on, but a few regular stops. I think Jan had a belly ache and a couple of extra stops seemed to be thrown in.

The first village of Bonny on Loire was very quaint, a very old section and a nice Boulanger.  I'm getting better at asking for deu croissants si vous plai (spelling ?). 

Jan leads us to the tourism office where we can get a map and do a walking tour around these villages. He sits with the bikes and has coffee (or in today's case, used the tourism office computer to book his flight home on Sunday to Sweden). Some of the villages have a coloured line to follow with numbers highlighting features (sometimes in English)

Russell is pointing to the water level of the Loire River 2 months ago. The river flows away very quickly

Our lunch stop, riverside.

A ride onto the town of Briare.  The Cathederal, which is quite young, 1920s, was rebuilt after serious damage during the war.  The coloured decoration is mosaics.  Even the floor of the Cathederal.  This town has a tile factory, and mosaic decoration is very common. 

Only small cannons required to protect this town.

After a ride around town, it was back to the barge about 2.30. Bikes were loaded on as we had to make a river crossing. This was quite spectacular as we were on the Pont Canal, a bridge canal. The barge travelled across the bridge to cross water.

Entering the bridge.

The Pont is 663m long, 2.2 m in depth and built in 1893.

The other side into the Marina.

Florence is our cook, cleaner, wife of our Captain, boat assistant. A very capable lady, and very pleasant too.

As we were preparing to moor, somebody had moored in our spot.  This barge uses this spot every week and pays £85 every time for the privilege.  Florence had a very polite, but determined discussion with the other person.  She was always going to win this battle.  So the other boat had to pack up and move.

A pretty town, which is very popular for amateur boaters.  A relaxing walk around town, with a visit to the mosaic museum.  Photos not allowed for some reason.  Everything was in French, so we had to try  to interpret.  We are getting better at working some things out.

A beautiful meal on board, leek soup, beef burgiongon cooked by Stefan, and chocolate mousse. Yum.

A walk down to the Pont canal, just after sunset.  Some beautiful views. Photos will have to wait till tomorrow.

A big day of 52kms tomorrow.