In the morning at the hotel in Paris we all gathered for the first time in the lobby and our local contact arranged for vans to take us to the Gare d'Austerlitz where we boarded the train for the Loire. It pulled into the station at Orleans, and after a brief stop started back again along the same route, but, not to worry, it soon turned west toward the Loire valley, and we got off at Beaugency where we met our guides for the week, Pierre and Alain, who we were soon to learn were both first-rate. A couple of vans then shuttled us to our hotel La Tonnellerie in Tavers, the next town. It was a charming and comfortable country inn, not as posh as some we stayed in, but probably the most congenial of all. After settling in we had our warm-up ride around Tavers and over to Beaugency, where we stopped to do some sightseeing, including the obligatory Jeanne d'Arc statue. Cycling back to the hotel we passed a quicksand pool, then had our welcoming get-together and dinner. The following beautiful morning was the route review for our first ride to the château at Chambord. But first we rode back to Beaugency for the Saturday market, where I picked up some Papillon Roquefort and mailed some postcards. From Beaugency it was on to Chambord along the Loire and past a nuclear plant in one of the two best rides of the week. After reaching the château, Pierre and Alain were laying out the food for our picnic, to which I added the Roquefort. After lunch we toured the estate and admired the many-spired château. The route back to the hotel was a little different from the route out, but just as nice, and the day being warm, a dip in the pool was indicated and done. Dinner that night was in Beaugency, where I accompanied Paul and Sharon to a restaurant they had discovered on the morning visit. We came back and had a good night's sleep.
The weather had changed by morning and it had become overcast. Our next expedition was a bus ride to Blois, and by the time we got there it had not only started raining, but was coming down pretty steadily. The tour around the town was mercifully changed to a tour of the castle, which was as interesting as a town tour would have been, and then we went to lunch at a restaurant next to the river. By the time we finished eating, the rain had let up, so I took off my rain gear, packed it in the rear bag of my bike which was parked next to the bridge, and started the next leg of cycling. I had just crossed the river and gone a few hundred feet more when the rain started up again, so I redonned my rain gear, and continued. The rain became heavy—Après Blois, le déluge, as Louis XV might have said—and in fairly short order, my cue sheet became pretty much papier maché. Somewhere along the route Alain stopped us and wanted us to come by one at a time so he could photograph us braving the elements as we rode, so we backtracked a little, then came on as he said. By this time we were probably as wet as we were going to get, so why not. Eventually we made it to Chaumont, about halfway to Amboise, and just about everybody, Terry and Mike being the only exceptions, had decided that enough was enough, and to shuttle the rest of the way. Arriving in Amboise we came to our hotel, Le Manoir les Minimes. By this time the rain had stopped and the sun was out. After cleaning up and making a quick run into town to hit the ATM, we had a tour of a local winery where I picked up a bottle. A delicious dinner at a restaurant in Amboise that night found me with Alain and the Canadians, who didn't talk hockey, and who were some of the nicest people on the tour. The following morning it was cloudy again, but mercifully not raining, and the ride was to the château at Chenonceau. It was a harder ride than it might have been because of the wind, but we all made it—I was first!—and spent some time touring the château that sat over the Cher river. After grabbing some lunch, Some of us rode back to Amboise by a different route than we had taken in the morning, stopping on the outskirts of Amboise at Clos-Luce, an estate where Francois I had lured Leonardo da Vinci to spend what were to be his final years. Then it was back to Le Manoir to freshen up, a visit to a local wine store to pick up some Coteau du Layon as Mike had recommended before leaving for France, some chocolate bonbons (about which more later,) a final ATM visit, and dinner in town with Steve, Nancy, Gary, and Ann.
In the morning it was on a bus again to the Château de Villandry whose amazing formal gardens were a delight to explore. Following the garden visit, we had our first ride of the day where we picked up some light rain again along the Loire and Indre to Azay-le-Rideau. The rain had let up in Azay, and I briefly explored the town and had lunch. There was choice of riding or shuttling on to our next hotel; I chose to ride, which meant forgoing a visit to the château. Once on the road again it began to rain, and I cut out the detour to the troglodyte houses and proceeded to Noyant de Touraine and our final hotel in the Loire the Château de Brou. There was a gate at the edge of the estate that opened on saying the magic words ("VBT") and there followed a looong approach road that eventually got you to the château in a garden setting far from the madding crowd. The rooms had somewhat precious names like Balzac or Madamoiselle, but it was the perhaps the most elegant of the places we stayed. Dinner that night at the hotel was again delicious. We were rewarded with perfect weather for the final day's ride to Chinon, the other of the two best rides on the tour. It was overland for most of the time past vineyards and sunflower fields and through small towns, as was usual for the entire tour, but the perfect weather made everything more delightful. Eventually we reached the Vienne river and Chinon, a lovely town, and did our usual exploring of the town. I had lunch shortly after arriving, and was thankful that I did, as it became obvious that yes, indeed, everything does close at midday in France. After taking the usual set of pictures and paying the required obeisance to the local Jeanne d'Arc statue, it was back on the bike for the final ride back to the hotel. It was again by a different route than we had done in the morning, and I was ahead of everyone for most of the trip until I missed one of the last turns and ended up going maybe 4-5 km. too far. Finally realizing I had screwed up, I doubled back, tried to engage a local couple to regain my bearings with my almost non-existent French and their fully non-existent English—futile, but fun—and kept doubling back until I came across Karen and Marjorie who had made the right turn, and continued with them back to the hotel. It was tiring, but rewarding. That night after freshening up, we all had a sit-down outside where Pierre quizzed us on the French history and culture we should have picked up during the week, and we all did pretty well. Then we had our final dinner in the hotel, again delicious. After dinner as we were about to break up, I prolonged the affair by standing, saying that while it was a delight to have been in everyone's company, it was especially nice for me to have three single women on the tour to hang around with, and then made Karen, Marjorie, and Mary Grace stand and serenaded them with a couple choruses of Cole Porter's You're the Top, after which I gave each of them one of the chocolate bonbons I'd picked up in Amboise to recompense them for the embarrassment I'd just inflicted. Everyone else got a kick out of it, and Jean even said, graciously but inaccurately, that I had a good voice. Then off to bed on our final night in the Loire valley.
Thanks to our guide Alain Pfeffer for numerous additional photos.