Bow-john-c and Blew-ah

The first day of our bike ride was a bit of a tiddler. 28km. We enjoyed a single digit tempurature mid morning, so layers were required. The route mostly followed the Loire along paved stop banks and rural paths. You hardly needed to pedal. It was quite zen. Points of interest were a town called Meung-sur-loire which has a bit of history so we wandered around for quite a while and boosted its GDP by purchasing a Banana and a Pear.

We were in Beaugency before we knew it and had two hours to fill before we could check in to our hotel. We circled the town numerous times before 15:00 rolled around. 

Joan of Arc is revered in this part of the Loire. There are references to her everywhere, and statues like this in most towns it seems.

This is Kieran's fourth visit to Beaugency which is disproportionate. The first visit was with Kay and Sharon. I think the place we stayed in still exists. Auberge de Juenesse shown on the top of this map

Beaugency is very pretty

A cycling scene

Day 2 to Blois was more challenging. It was twice as far because we chose to visit Chambord Chateau. A royal invitation is no longer required if you rock up with 19 Euro. Amongst other things, the central staircase is impressive and thought to be a Da Vinci design, who lived nearby for a period of time.

The exterior of the Chateau is very elaborate while the interior seems less so. Our obligatory selfie 

This exhibit had no information but we think it's a boy

The forecast for the next half of the ride is a bit warmer which will be welcome. We're noticing more people doing this than eight years ago, and we're very much at the beginning of their season so our conclusion is that it's gaining popularity. It's also much easier than last time where the navigation was with paper maps. We're riding along with a GPS app on the phone that warns us when we're off route. It gives us an audio blurb when we arrive at points of interest along the way.

Blois is worth more that an afternoon visit. Next time maybe.