Day 9 - Chartres to Le Mans - 140 kms

23 Jun

After a great nights sleep in our guest house in Chartres we wake at about 6.30 pm to a cloudy morning which cleared throughout the day to temps in the mid 20’s

Our host left a lovely breakfast of cakes which together with tea was a great start to “fuel up” for the day

I was taking the role of tour guide for the day with Chris’s Garmin and as per usual we tok our normal hour to navigate our way out of the town. For some reason we seem to get send through the industrial sectors on each city and can see factories that have been closed and left to rust....I guess all the jobs have gone to Western Europe or Asia

After exiting Evreux our next objective was to find a cafe and bakery/Boulangarie for morning tea....well trying to get a shop in small towns has got to be one of life’s great mysteries.... finally we found one in a town called Combray

Good croissants but no coffee unfortunately....what is it about France and coffee in bakeries....could be a good opening for a business

Then on for lunch.... well again trying to find a cafe for a sandwich ( read baguette) was another of our great mysteries.

After traveling over 100 kms with our stomachs hitting our spines we found a shop in Lamney.... thank god!!!

Those reading this blog mark the shop down as a must see for lunch

The next 40 kms in to Le Mans was through undulating country with a few uphills and luckily a few downhills. With the wind behind us we made really good time to be in Le Mans ahead of our self imposed 6.00 pm curfew!

As per usual we had a bit of a SNAFU trying to navigate our way through a private road and were summarily ticked off by a French resident... not sure what he said but it did not sound nice!

Arriving at the youth hostel it would be safe to say we were both “cooked “ and looked forward to a shower and rest

But..... it was music night to celebrate the summer solstice so Chris and a ventured out to investigate the music and there were thousands in the centre of town!!!

Wow what a great night

Off to bed now after a tough day of riding but a good night of celebrating the middle of the year

Morning tea