Steady Pedals

For the second day in a row, we woke up to clear skies. We decided to stay a third night at the campsite before continuing our journey down the Loire to Angers and then Northward to the coast. As Tim has not been to the Loire before, this gave us a chance to do a short circular ride taking us upstream of Saumur to Fontevraud- L’Abbeye and then following the river to Saumur and back to camp.

But first breakfast, pre ordered at the bar last night and delivered fresh to camp this morning – Pain au Chocolat and Pain au Raisin.

Then out of town, with another view of the Chateau and off on quiet roads towards Fontevraud-l’Abbaye.

Those roads were closed for the last few days and weren’t so quiet as they are a training ground for one of France’s tank regiments, but today the road was open, with just a few reminders of it’s day to day use.

On arriving at Fontevraud-l’Abbaye, it seemed we weren’t the only cyclists going to look around

I had been to Fontevraud-l’Abbaye before, but didn’t pay to go in and look around. This time we decided it was probably worth the €11 entry fee.

For those interested in early English history, the Abbey is a special place as it is where three of the most significant Plantagenets are buried, two Kings of England , Henry 2nd and Richard the Lionheart, and a Queen of England and France, Henry’s wife Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Once we had done with the Abbey, we headed down to the Loire and back to camp via Saumur. Our route only slightly interrupted, by a Triathalon in the town.

Back at the campsite, we were no sooner off the bikes than the sky darkened and thunder approached. Packing all the gear away and changing into swimming trunks, we headed for the covered pool. Hoping that the tents would survive the torrential downpour.

For two hours we sheltered in the pool, the noise of the rain deafening us. We were both very worried as to what we would find when the storm eventually stopped. Another hour passed and eventually the rain eased off, returning to the tent most thing seemed fairly dry, except a couple of the panniers, but then I noticed the floor of the tent was a little wobbly. Turned out it was floating on a lake of water. We bailed that out and went to dinner – hoping things would maybe dry out, or we would be too “tired” to notice.