Biking at last, and what a glorious day. We had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, loaded up the bike, said our goodbyes to the very helpful Erika, and headed out. Pretty easy navigating through the city to the river, then very soon our route took us over a bridge (bikes and pedestrians only) to the south bank of the Loire. The path was a mix of hard pack and pavement, with occasional brief sections of mud or cobblestones just to keep things interesting.
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| Looking back at Orleans |
The route was mostly very well marked and easy to follow. I had downloaded GPX tracks for the route from Bikeline, and this proved useful in the few tricky spots.
At one point there was a sign for an old chateau, built in the early 1500s, just a short distance off the path. Not too much left to see.
We took a brief rest stop in Chateauneuf-sur-Loire.
A little further, near the tiny hamlet of Le Mesnil, and in a small community of a few bungalows by the river, we came upon this amazing "maternity ward of biodiversity." The small garden is cultivating all sorts of borderline-extinct plant species. Too cool.
We arrived at our destination of Sully-sur-Loire a little after 3 pm (53 km for the day). After cleaning up in the small, old and cute Hotel La Closeraie we walked a short distance through the village to the Chateau, former home of the Duke of Sully. This is a large chateau, with multiple turrets and surrounded by an impressive moat. It was initially constructed around 1395 to incorporate several buildings dating from around 1218, and expanded over the following centuries.
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| King's bedroom |
We followed a self-guided tour through the chateau. The garrison quarters under this timber roof were quite impressive. It's about 50 feet high, and almost all the oak and chestnut timbers are original (about 20 percent were damaged during the war and subsequently replaced).
When we came out into the courtyard at the end of the tour, there was a photo shoot going on for a couple of custom vehicles: a rat rod based on the running gear from a Citroen 2CV, and a very cool custom motor bike by the same builder. Check out the 2CV logo made of tiny wrenches.
