Ellen's knee has been complaining, so today was an easy day. Only about 40 km, with plenty of breaks.
We've been traveling through mostly agricultural areas, primarily row crops like corn, rapeseed, and (I think) wheat. There are also occasional small herds of cattle and goats. When we stopped at one point to take a photo of some goats in a field right next to the path, their canine shepherd barked if we approached the fence but stayed quiet as long as were on the other side of the path.
The path today was almost all paved, and very easy riding. Lots of other cycle tourists; it is clear that the Loire is a very popular route.
Passing the village of Bannay, we stopped to look at a lock on the canal. First time I've seen one that is self-operated: there is a control right at the side of the lock that looks reachable from inside a boat.
In Saint Thibault we stopped at a lovely little park where the canal meets the Loire. Many other cyclists were there also: we met tourists from Austria and Germany. The park had a nice self-cleaning bathroom, a repair stand loaded with tools and a charging station. Bought some little quiches at a nearby bakery for our snack.
We arrived in Pouilly mid-afternoon. We'd reserved a little apartment (La Bananeraie) in the center of town. Stefan, our very kind host, speaks no English. We had fun using Google Translate and passing the phones back and forth. Dinner turned out to be a bit of problem. Today is a Catholic holiday, Ascension Day, and pretty much everything is closed. We ended up walking about 25 minutes to a little pizza kiosk at the end of town. After we ate the excellent pizza, we spent quite a while chatting with the delightful young woman who owns the place. When we left she gifted us a bottle of local wine from her boyfriend's winery. It's at Total Wines in the US; check it out.
