Blois

Blois is a beautiful city and small enough to stroll around.  So when we emerged from the station we cycled through it.  We headed for the Chateau which, like the station, is in a raised position back from the river. The Tourist Information was located near the Chateau.  I was hoping to find a map of Cycle routes through the Loire Valley which I had seen on the internet. Sure enough they had one and it proved to be very useful during our stay. By combining the waymarked cycle ways on this Cycle Map with my detailed Michelin map we managed to avoid travelling on any major roads. Many of our routes were actually off road, like the one which was parallel to the road and the river which took us towards our gite in La Haye, a tiny hamlet about 10 kilometres from Blois.

Having visited the Chateau we pushed our fully laden cycles round a pedestrianised cobbled area in the centre of Blois where we bought our lunch at a Boulanger.  Once across the river we sat on a bench to eat it. We looked out across the vast expanse of the Loire and facing us was stunning view which is pictured above,

Unfortunately when we reached Chailles, which was very close to our destination, we used our new map and cycled off into the forest.  This was a big mistake.  Unknowingly we were to cycle quite a distance out of our way. We were like Hansel and Gretel, as we went deeper into the forest it sucked us in.  Soon we had little idea of where we were and lost our sense of direction. Entering a clearing where about five paths converged, we came across a house and outside it a woman was taking in the sun and reading the newspaper. Fortunately her house was not made of sweets.  Despite living there, she seemed to be as confused as we were, so when a couple arrived en route to Beauregard Chateau we readily accepted their directions. Certainly the path they led us up was in the general direction of where we wanted to be.  We still had a few more difficult conversations with local people before we emerged unexpectedly from the forest in totally the wrong direction to find ourselves looking at a sign which said La Haye.

We still had a fractious few minutes following the directions to the gite. At first it appeared that it might not exist, but when we cycled to the end of the lane bounded by crops like lettuces, tomatoes and celery the directions made sense.  Our cottage was clearly in a small group of buildings further on from  a farm where we were instructed to pick up the keys.  Two massive dogs threw themselves at the iron gates which barred the farmyard and leapt up the wall to look threateningly out over the top.  Veronique and family arrived in a car and welcomed us. We were very tired by the circuitous journey but finally we had arrived.