France by Bicycle | PART 6: THE LOIRE A VELO: SAUMUR

France by Bicycle | PART 6: THE LOIRE A VELO: SAUMUR

Some of the most fascinating and surprising days of bike touring we’ve ever experienced! Leaving Villandry, we follow the Loire A Velo and Eurovelo 6 to the Chateau Ussé, Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, a must-see Loire chateau. From there, we enjoy a Saturday market in Avoine before stumbling upon the troglodyte caves of Saumur, and an utterly enchanting ride through a wine cave, and the exquisite town of Saumur where we stay in an old theater converted to a BnB. From there we head to the city of Angers, a bustling and vibrant city just off the Loire River. Truly magical!

Music:

Accordion and Glockenspiel Comedy – JK Productions
Pond Five
081716572-accordion-and-glockenspiel-com
a href=”https://www.pond5.com/royalty-free-music/item/81716572-accordion-and-glockenspiel-comedy-short-version”Stock Music/a provided by JK_Production, from a href=“https://www.pond5.com/”Pond5/a

Bridges of Paris – Trabant 33
Epidemic Sound

Something’s Afoot – Experia
Epidemic Sound

A Healing Component – Spectacles Wallet and Watch
Epidemic Sound

A Cloudly Flight – Mica Emory
Epidemic Sound

From Another Universe – Christian Andersen
Epidemic Sound

Wake Up With Me – David Celeste
Epidemic Sound

Stuck In The Moment – Alexa Capelli
Epidemic Sound

Silent Way – Candelion
Epidemic Sound

Thank you Smooth sailing So I had to stop along the way that rough road those stones turned on my electric shaver yes I carry an electric shaver and so down the bottom of a bag in the bottom of another bag in the bottom of another bag was my electric razor which had been turned on it was

Just buzzing like crazy little things you gotta stop for well it’s a beautiful morning out here in the Loire Valley Breezy but probably not as bad as yesterday temperatures are gorgeous you feel brisk Autumn hinge in the air birds are out and about not a beautiful bird Melodies through here

Really really sweet a lot of swans egrets and just a very very lovely fresh feel to everything on our way to somewhere along the Loire develo we’re following the D roads here which I’m told as long as you’re on the D roads in France you’re good so it seems

To be we’re on D16 the roads aren’t really wide enough for two oncoming cars to pass each other comfortably so everyone’s kind of on guard to go slowly and to drive carefully so it feels extremely safe foreign Through Lush Landscapes along the ever widening Loire until we reached free malt where we stopped at a bike shop to have them get another look at Juliana’s rear wheel pretty day lots of greenery views of the river gorgeous somebody had heard about a castle just off the main trail known

As Sleeping Beauty’s castle so named because it supposedly inspired the story pinned by Charles Perrault in the late 1600s heading for Sleeping Beauty’s castle it’s actually the Chateau USA little side trip its real name is the Chateau de USA and it’s indeed a structure worthy of inspiration foreign Just flying my drone up to this Castle this Sleeping Beauty Castle got it caught up in some trees down it came I thought I could pull it out of it but I smashed into a bunch of different pieces and now it’s just dead weight unbelievable I can’t believe I did that

It was totally avoidable it wasn’t the wind it wasn’t the conditions it was just me being thoughtless and it was completely my fault and I’m really pissed at myself after I had boughten the Drone I found that I was scared to use it scared that

As soon as I got it up in the air I would lose it or crash it ironically I’d finally gotten over the fear and found myself really excited about everything you can do that I can’t I guess I got overconfident oh well if that’s the worst thing that happens in two months

On the road I can live with that Foreign Stuck in that gut right It wasn’t until we reached the village of Avalon that we realized it was Saturday in Europe Saturday means Street Markets and we always have time for Street Markets checking out a little Saturday afternoon Market here in suntown yeah foreign we grabbed a quick bite and a 50 Cent cup of local wine

And then Juliana made a beeline for the stall that sells the honey Juliana loves her honey you can see some eggs and cheese yeah oh I love that where’s the queen she’s bigger yeah yeah she’s got the long body new Queen yeah is that actual wax yeah wow it’s so hard yeah amazing

The association of horses is behind and they have a lot of kids oh look at this little Triumph nice I used to have a Triumph Spitfire But being a bicycle tourist means that you’re always moving and it wasn’t long before we were on our way riding into the golden afternoon The signage on The loara Velo always excellent pointed us to a sharp uphill climb where it’s more Pottery now you calling it a deviation route we decided to try it and found a steep but gorgeous Ride Along Cliff walls lined with Artisan stalls and a carnival era what

Is that a local artist exhibition ah she’s doing raccoon metal smithing it’s a dying Art thank you for keeping it alive look at him there we go here we go At some point we realized we were passing by a troglodyte cave site there’s some homes just carved into the side of the hill this is all old troglodyte territory people came from these caves here in France along the Valar and people still live here to Be Wild

So just an impossible climb up these up to these cliffs [Applause] I had to stop my writing give these guys a chance to catch up with their walking oh my God it’s a cycling deviation route not the main eurovelo route apparently like that or something that was a 13

Grade what is it yeah I don’t even think on a road bike I could get up that damn thing no but it feels good when you’re done you know you’re just done it’s like oh I would be done I would be toast and then came the downhill Thank you foreign S grow happy girl but today’s fortunes weren’t yet over this Trail this root deviation still had some surprises in store for us Whoa of course yes we just went through a cave that was beautiful wow so cool oh my gosh they store wine here yeah yeah yeah that perfect temperature oh I’m saying it’s so cool that around here that you can easily start your wine Interesting how they shored this up so they build these walls but then they they use the existing Limestone cave and took that to build the churches Oh Foreign T through the forest here on our way into samua oftentimes when touring it’s not the destinations that make it all worth it but the unexpected discoveries on the way we had no inkling of the troglodyte caves or the name or the purpose of the church that our Trail led us under and

The experience was all the more Rich for it We entered salmur as the afternoon grew late reaching the Charming santrove at dinner time hello Frank’s dinner time God I love the energy in this place so awesome just look at this But we needed to cross the river and head towards the outskirts of the Town hey Nadia hey that’s great I have the address awesome what a room it turned out to be once a theater it had been converted into a bed and breakfast during covid by its lovely and beautiful owner

What a day of surprises We are just packed up we’re leaving Samir we stayed in a wonderful place last night it was actually a theater that had been converted after covid to a Airbnb there was a bed up on stage and then there were a couple single beds the woman that owned the place her husband

Passed away about 15 years ago and she had his artwork everywhere and it was just magnificent and we are just waiting to get going and just having a great time I love France Leaving cellular and heading for orange air Village of the village Foreign [Applause] [Applause] It was another in a long string of beautiful days we rode East mostly along the river through Villages Until We Came Upon La Tour de Trev a beautiful medieval compound with a tower and a church that was full of Romanesque arches and statues and echoing with the mystery of ancient religion foreign [Applause]

Foreign [Applause] [Applause] chestnuts look at how they come oh wow there’s two in here there’s one twins beautiful beautiful afternoon leaving Jean zhen Jen’s so nice and cool in the shadows it’s very warm in the Sun it’s light Breeze got the Loire to our right he might be able to see it through

Those trees once in a while we get a nice glimpse Riding along the loara Velo or eurovilo 6 is a cyclist’s stream it’s a rolling Museum of architecture and culture and history a paradise of fairy tale woodlands riverdales and canals sweeping sun-drenched fields of corn and wheat and sunflowers and grapevines every time we cross the Loire it felt

Like seeing an old friend one who was always there alone for the ride in a different mood every time you greet it but also always the same cycling the Loire is magnificent Right Coming into Angeles France foreign Way too nice for us us filthy smelly salty Americans yes here’s our view looking down over orange air doesn’t look too angry to me so that’s the kitchen and uh look at this dining room fancy fancy living room this is not an Airbnb this is uh somebody’s home got a

Nice little Terrace out here we want to dry clothes goes around for a long ways and look down over a beautiful beautiful little Courtyards down there only steps from the center part of town I mean literally probably half a block from tons of Outdoors Overcoming This is the scene oh about 30 steps outside of our hotel right in the center of the of that very nice I had a 40 mile day ready for a wonderful dinner and it’s gonna be good we’ve earned it we’ve earned it After a delightful dinner in the Town Square we wondered about the Old Town Angier is a city of remarkable and complicated history it was once the Throne of the plantagenets a family who also ruled England at the time like I say it’s a complicated history Foreign