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The Loire Valley

A trip from Angers to Paris via Orleans

I basically did this trip on my own because everyone else was too busy to come along. I got the idea for the trip from a book that a friend had given me for a birthday present, the author, Robin Neillands stopped his trip at either Orleans of Bourges, but I wanted to end up in Paris to meet up with a school friend.

The start of the trip was to get the ferry to St Malo and then catch a train to Angers via Rennes and Le Mans. The train to Rennes was no problem and I was able to take the bike onto the train without any issues. To get the bike onto the TGV to Angers I had to use a bike bag but there was plenty of luggage space so it wasn’t too difficult. My main problem was that I didn’t manage to get any food or drink and ended up feeling pretty rough by the time I got into Angers at about 10:00 pm. I cycled to a campsite about 5 km out of Angers which was closed so I tried to set up where I could at which point I got accosted by a very drunk Frenchman who was rambling on incoherently. I tried to explain that I had been travelling since 6:00am and was tired but couldn’t get through, eventually he shuffled off and I tried to get to sleep.

I woke very early having slept fitfully and tried to find out what time the office opened, it turned out to be about 11:00 am so I decide that I would pack up and then try to find someone in charge. After hunting around for a while I gave up and decided to do a flit, and head off up the road. I felt a little guilty about not paying but decided that I wouldn’t have got much for my money anyway, basically a piece of ground for about 6 hours.

The early part of the first day proper was a little cold to start off with but it started to brighten up as the sun came up. I purchased some breakfast and had a bit of a picnic, later in the morning I met up with a randonnee and rode with them for a while before they dropped me on a hill. A little later I was overtaken by two lads on mountain bikes I stepped up my pace a bit and started chatting to one of them who spoke good English, it turned out they were both called Jerome and were kayakers who were going to paddle back to Angers. As we seemed to have a lot in common, Jerome #1 invited me to stop for coffee in the next village with them, when we stopped it wasn’t at a café but at a private house, he woke up the occupants and we went around the back to sit outside and eat some bread and drink coffee. The house was built in what would have been the front garden of the original house, which was a cave house, these are very common on the Loire.

After watching them paddle off I set off towards Saumur where I hoped to find a campsite, after passing through Saumur I found a nice little site just off the river at Montsoreau, it was a bit early so I hung around a while in the shade before checking in and getting a good shower. As a treat I decided to eat out and found a nice little creperie near the river. The early start to the day on day one turned out to be a good move as I missed the hottest part of the day, so I started a routine; I would pack most of my kit up the night before, leaving only sleeping bag, mat and tent for the morning. Then in the morning I would load up on water, filling a drink bag and making up isostar for the drinks bottle, then I would finish off the bottled water, maybe 0.5l or so. In this way I would have two 1.5l bottles of water either on the bike or inside me, this kept me pretty well hydrated on all but the hottest days. Then I would pack up the last few bits and head off about 6:00am to find a patisserie for some breakfast. Riding through the Loire Valley early in the morning was fantastic and I enjoyed passing the mist-covered rivers with the sun shining coolly through the trees. 

The second day saw me head towards Tours I started by turning away from the river for a while in the direction of Chinon. Then I headed for Azay-le-rideau to visit the chateau there, the highlight of the tour was being shown a painting of some French kings mistress in the nude (the painting not me!). The next 22km were along pleasant roads to Montbazon, which had a pleasant municipal campsite with a café on site with live music, from a youth jazz band from the UK! 

The next day I was heading for Chenonceaux, reputed to be the most beautiful chateaux in France. The chateau straddles a small tributary of the Loire and is indeed very beautiful with delightful formal gardens and some interesting features on the house itself. After visiting Chenonceaux I headed back down towards the Loire proper for lunch by the river, there I met with some English tourists travelling in a VW combi we had a leisurely lunch and I spent too much time in their company and ended up cycling through the hottest part of the day. Eventually I got to Blois and found a campsite a little way up the River, I was fairly tired so I sat by the river and read my book before having an early night.

On the Third day I wanted to visit Chambord, this is the largest chateaux in the loire and stands in grounds that are surrounded by a wall 25 miles long with only 4 gates in it, you could fit Guernsey in the grounds! Inside the chateaux is spectacular, it is reputed to have a fireplace for every day of the year and has an amazing double helix stairway. The grounds themselves are not on the Loire and so a river was diverted to provide the obligatory waterfront. After a photo stop I set off through the grounds towards Orleans for my last night on the Loire proper. Someone I had met at Blois had recommended that I avoid the first campsite at Orleans and continue on to another a bit along the river. Shortly after I arrived a heavily loaded cyclist came in on a mountain bike with a large rucksack on his back, he sort of collapsed on his back and I offered him a coffee to perk him up. He seemed amazed at the gear I was carrying, he didn’t have any cooking gear for example and was even more amazed at the distance I had managed, and when I said I had to be in Paris in two days he started to get incredulous. 

It turned out it had taken him over five days to come down from Paris and he had struggled all the way. We spoke about gear and bikes and I asked what tyres he was using, they proved to be huge agricultural knobblies run at about 30psi, I suggested that he make a few modifications to his kit; basically I recommended that he ditch the knobblies and get some slicks and run them hard, then make a pile of gear he hadn’t used in the last week and put it in his rucksack and post it home. Then he should get some panniers and maybe some low-riders and set his bike up with the weight on the bike, he would then find he could breath a bit easier and the bike would ride better. He took all this on board and asked if I would give him a hand in the morning, to which I agreed, it would mean a late start but he needed help! Next day I loaded up and we set off for the city centre, he left his gear in his tent and came on an empty bike, even so he had trouble keeping up with me, those knobblies practically sucked the tar off the road.

My late start meant I was cycling during the hottest part of the day and I tried to find some shade in a small village. I was running low on water and nowhere was open when I noticed that the locals were filling up from a sort of fountain on the side of a building, so I thought I would try that, it was ice cold and sweet, and just what I needed. Later I tried to find the campsite at Monnerville, it proved to be in a clump of trees about 2km from the road, it was here that I got my only puncture on the rough gravel track. The campsite itself was very pleasant but there was no food available in Monnerville itself so I headed off to nearby Pussay to get something to eat and for my tea. I spent a pleasant hour or so reading in the shade of a garden and eating patisseries before heading back to the site.

The next day I started out for Paris, my plan was to spend the night at Versailles and head into Paris the following day to find Roland my friend. This day proved to be the hardest, it was very hot and humid and I seemed to spend a lot of time dropping into river valleys so that I could climb out again. When I finally got to Versailles I found I had exactly the right amount of money left for the site and so had a very frugal supper of plain pasta. That night it rained non-stop until the morning and everything was damp as I packed up to head into Paris, when I found Roland's flat his wife explained to me that he was helping a friend to move house so we went off to help Sylvienne was very amused when I put my seatbelt on so I took it off again, but felt very exposed until we stopped.

I had a pleasant time with Roland and drank far too much, I can’t handle beer and wine for breakfast anymore but the French seem to take it in their stride. When he put me on the train to St Malo I was mildly drunk and so ended up getting onto the ferry with a hangover!