Cycling alongside a section of the Loire river was always on today's agenda. But the light rain that fell yesterday evening returned this morning at eight and wasn't due to clear until around one o'clock. So we packed up and left just after nine to drive further along the river to a town where the weather was showing as being sunny and warm.
The drive took us through many pretty and interesting villages, always a slow drive because of the twenty and thirty miles per hour speed limits and lots of traffic calming.
Our early start paid off though, and we arrived at Sully Sir Loire at lunchtime, securing a great spot overlooking the river.
Lunch eaten, yet another healthy salad, we unpacked our Bromptons bicycles, slid on some lycra shorts and set off straight into a headwind, as always. The temperature was now 24c, making the hard cycle more tolerable. After a distance we felt respectable considering this was our first cycle out in five months, we returned to Margery. Used the facilities, (yes our trusty Boxio compost loo is with us), and cycled down past the chateau to the opposite coffee shop.
The last time we visited here was in 2022 when we cycled to Basel on the Swiss border with France. Tired, but also elated, we returned to the van. Our buttocks, knees and someone's 'quinny', were a little uncomfortable, but more cycling would cure that.
Our neighbors for the night were German. We struck up conversation with them, and soon Trump, or 'the orange one', as he's commonly known became the topic.
This evening, the first of hopefully many warm evenings to come, we walked back into town in search of rosemary for John's omelette, to accompany the chives he'd foraged earlier whilst out cycling.
By now, we were tired from our early start, cycling and walking. But also felt elated. Being by the river Loire is one of our happy places.
Cuckoo Pint or Lords and Ladies, an interesting plant to find, but never try eating.
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