(Temporary Backup) Day 6 - Cepoy to La Charite -sir- Loire 139 kms

Today was a big day of riding so early on the trip. We covered nearly 140 kms and climbed about 1200 metres..... no wonder I am feeling a little tired.....

We started with an early ride at 6.00am at Cepoy and were the first up at the Youth Hostel 

As per usual the start was delayed as I had troubles downloading the amended course on my Garmin....to be frank the Garmin is really giving me the irritations as we spent about 2 hours trying to get the map downloads for the other Europe countries other than France and the latest situation regarding the course download was almost the last straw..... I have tried to call Garmin but it would be fair to say the response was underwhelming. They ended by saying I should contact the French Garmin office and good luck with my French speaking 

Anyway it was off and riding at about 7.00am... we decided to have breakfast on the road after riding about 20 kms

After the breakfast.... 2 crossionts and a coffee for me and a cherry cake and a pain chocolade for Chris 

It was off to ride the Burgandy country with rolling hills . We had a 75 km ride approx to visit a medieval castle that is being built in the traditional way with artisans.... seems everyone in the region had the same idea as when we arrived there was a queue to get tickets and any food was not available outside the entrance gates. So the idea of eating lunch was lost and we rode on. After a stop to have a snack on the side of the road we managed to find a great restaurant in a town called Bitry who served us Botha sandwich and cool lime cordial drink. The timing of lunch coincided with the last quarter fade out by the Dees against the Crows in Darwin... as had often been said bad kicking is bad football 

The break for lunch was much needed as the day was becoming very hot with temperatures in the high 20’s

After lunch we moved on to the Loire valley and as we travelled the prevalence of vineyards started to get more intense 

We had to stop several time to ask farmers if they could fill our water bottles as we were using water heavily in the heat

We finally made it to the Loire at Poully and then travelled along the bike pass to La Charite where we are staying in an Airbnb which is a first for me

The house is owned by Alison and is very pretty with lots of keep sakes in each room

The good thing is that we have fresh towels rather than the camping towels and we are having our washing done!!!

Despite the hardness of the ride, I was pleased to get through it and am looking forward to a good dinner downtown and an early night 

Now for the photos....

 Dinner last night... savoury pancakes...quite nice

A view of the Burgandy country 



I liked the shot as you could almost smell the wheat growing


Lunch... and was it needed!!!!

Wine tasting at Poully Fume... it was closed unfortunately 


Details of today’s ride


Our home for the night and towels!!!!