The way points of this bicycle route:
After a quick ride across the bridge & thru the roundabout we head down the levee road. I see a bike path down to a secondary road below the levee road & we get on it to get away from traffic.
It is a bit overcast, occasional sun. We know that there is a slight chance of rain increasing as the day goes on but we can't keep that chance from keeping us off the bikes for a day.
Going down this road we see the heavier traffic on the levve wizzing past us.
On our left in the distance the hillside bluff with the heavy treeline forms a dark green line along the south horizon. There are fields of corn in between.
Looks like a good place for a nature break !
Here we come to the busy traffic off of the levee. We wait for a pause in the traffic and then take off towards the levee to continue going southwest along the river.
We meet a British mother & daughter who are biking towards Blois. They say the ride is fine, but I point out that they have been riding with the wind at their back. They say they are used to it; in Britain ther are no hills but always wind.
This is a more relaxed part of the road. Even though we are riding into the wind we can look down on corn fields to our left & catch glimpses of the river to our right. It's similar to the Delta - very flat.
This was an odd kink in the road. The farmhouse must have been here before the road, as there is quite a blindspot as the road goes around the main house. There is a fire out back & we smell woodsmoke.
It's been overcast for most of the ride & the clouds look like they are getting thicker. Looking at the map I can match this turn in the road with the map & decide we should take a break up ahead & figure where we ought to go from here.
This place looked like a spooky abandon amusement park. I think it was some sort of nightclub that looked like a castle. We took a short break on the side of the road. Here I decided that if we wanted to go to L'Herb Roux it needed to be today, that this was too long of a ride to attempt at night after dark. It was around 12:30 when we left this spot.
We zip through this town but soon have some confusion at this intersection due to the triangle-shape property to the left. I know we need to turn right somewhere....
...and for some reason I don't expect the left turn on to this road so soon - but I see the sign for "Route de Valaire" & realize this is the turn.
This looks like a small city park to the right, very well kept....
We're now back into the woods. It's similar to the heavy woods we saw yesterday but we are on a paved road. Also, there are some houses along the roadway.
Up until now the roads have been mostly flat. Now the road is beginning to kick upwards and I realize that I should always equate vineyards with hills, and now I'm wondering how much this hill is going to slow us down from getting to the restaurant. It is a long slow continuous incline...
I can see a light at the end of the tunnel! The trees open up to sky, and I can see vineyards in the distance. We've seen a few distance markers & know that we are getting close, but know that I see vines I know we are close.
I wish we could have enjoyed this short section a bit more - woods on our right side & vineyards on our left - but we were pretty focused on getting to the restaurant.
The road has leveled off &we see Valaire to the left. We are coming up on a small round-about.
Here is L'Herbe Roux - we approach th restaurant from the back side. It is just as described on the wine blog sites but with a different color canopy over the outdoor eating area.
Here were some nice small houses with flowers and grapevines planted in front.
After eating we ride through the town looking at houses. I get separated from Brittney and have no idea which way she went. As a rule I stop at this spot & wait for her to return. A few minutes later she came up the hill from the east.
There is an old Victorian-looking brick Ecole on the north side of the road.
It's a very small round-a-bout planted with flowers. We turn to the right.
We decide to leave Valaire & go west. We'll see how far we can ride, and at the first sign of rain we can head north to one of the towns that has a train station & train back to Blois.
We're now breaking out from the woods into open farm land. This is really nice rural cycling area, but we are beginning to feel very light rain.
By now we realize that rain is iminent & we need to get back ASAP. One of the maps looks as though there may be a cut through on the road to the left that will get us to Chaumont sur Loire. We decide to try it...
Dead end ! We are in the front yard of a farm house & are greeted by a rotwiler-looking dog and it's buddy. After a minute of barking the lady of the house appears & calls off the dogs. We show here our maps and are able to communicate that we want to know if there is a connection to another road. She understands and says there is none. It is a nice farm house with rows of flower gardens in the front yard. We now have to backtrack, and we know we have lost time.
We're now getting off of a small farm road on to a main road.
THe rain is off and on, and so far very light. But in the distance ahead & to the right We can see some dark blue rain clouds low to the ground. They are in the direction that the wind is blowing.
I thought this area looked most like areas I've biked in Tennessee or Mississippi - coming down a minor road with crops planted on both sides, approaching a busier county highway knowing that I'm going to have to pick up the pace on the busier road...
And from here we are getting off of the country road on to a busier highway. We'll be pushing hard to get down this road, and we are headed back into the wind.
Since we left the restaurant it has been overcast with some misting the whole way. However,now to our left - the north west - I can see the grey streaks of rain falling from the clouds to the gorund
These roads are much like riding in the county in our part of the country.
We're booking along as fast as we can go, Brittney is drafting right on my rear tire. I'm beginning to look for places along the way that we could stop in case there is a down pour & we need to pull over.
Once again, because we were in such a rush to beat the rain this section was a real blur. I had an idea that we needed to turn here, and there may have been some signs to the Chateau.
It was a relief to see the road end just ahead. We knew that whatever happened with the rain we could at least find a restaurant or bar to go to & stay dry.
Now that we are in town and can at least take cover in a restaurant we take a break and sit out across from one of the entrances to the chateaux gardens. We really had not thought about touring the gardens, and since it was about to rain and also a 15 euro admision fee per person we decided to pass on the gardens. Since I had a train schedule I could see that a train would be stopping in the next 30 minutes and that we ought to go on over to the train station so as not to miss it.
Looking at the map I knew the train staion was ahead somewhere. We then see the tracks, and a sign that points to the right.
However, once we get to this point we see that the statoin is on the other side of the tracks. I see a below-track cross over & we go under the tracks to get t the station.
About 10 minutes after arriving at the station it starts raining. Good thing we didn't take our time back across the river. We get our tickets & wait for the train. We saw a train going the opposite direction that was sleek & new with a clearly defined place to load the bikes in the center area of the middle car. However when our train arrived it was one of the older ones, and since we were near the end of the train we just jumped on & held the bikes in the luggage area at the end of a car. I think there was a bike area but it was on one of the lead cars, and I didn't want to be going up & down the quay looking for it & have the train leave us.
Welcome to Bikely, take a step by step tour of this path:
Press Start Tour - then use the navigation buttons below to move along the path.
This is not your typical route map. This is a trip that we did in September 2008 & have made notes of incidental things along the route so that years from now we can scroll through the aerial view & recall the towns, fields, & details of our trip to the Loire area. Enjoy !
