#3 France Bicycle Tour Eurovelo 6: Chinon – Villandry – Savonnières
I don’t know. That was a crazy market we saw, wasn’t it? Pretty cool. [Music] We woke up that morning in Shinon, packed up, got on our bikes, and started cycling toward Valandry, a distance about 20 miles or 32 km. Not long after we began cycling, we came across a Sunday market on the designated road we were supposed to cycle. So, we walked our bikes through a throng of shoppers. Wait. Oh, mercy. Mercy. Did you turn yours off, Jenny? Yeah. Miss you. You ready? That was not the market of Samur. That was a different thing. He thinks we look Spanish with our big hats. Today’s route would begin in Shinon, circled in the lower left of the screen. Once near the law, we would join the main cycle route Laoir Velure 6 and head toward Valandry. We would cycle two miles past Valandry and stay in the town of Savier. For lunch that day, we found a nice picnic spot along the Lir River. The Lir River is just right there to the right beyond those trees. It’s lunchtime. Uh, so what do what kind of cheeses do we have, Patrick? These are the cheeses from yesterday. We have a pretty mild sheep’s milk cheese. And we have a nice um goats milk called a cotton, a little demise kot from a cheese shop in O. They make it themselves. And um we bought some new salami with noazette hazelnuts. And we have some old salami that’s big chunk of uh mushrooms. Um porchini. We have the lovely aged compe. And I think we got some kind of like rye mixture. Wheat and rye. I’m not exactly sure. Something at the store this morning. Let’s not forget these grapes. They are so good. Oh, I know. And all the um grape uh vines that we’ve been passing on the bike, they’re all they all look like that. They’re all ready to pick. Yeah. So, a few of them harvested. Yeah. Not very many. Oh, yeah. You’re right. [Music] [Music] [Music] We’ve arrived at the town of Sabaner where we’ll be staying for two nights. We stayed in a uh house behind this gate. There was a large yard that led up to the house and we stayed in the first floor of the house. We parked our bikes right outside for the two nights we were there. Okay, here we are at our next place. We’re staying in Salana next really close to Valandry and we come up this little garden path and come into a nice little place to sit outside. Let me enter. And it is very hot today. And when you enter, it is so nice and cool in here. Um, bathroom. Great space. Sitting area. Place to eat. Nice kitchen. kitchenet. Good space and microwave oven. In here is the bed. Everything is awesome. I’m sure we will enjoy it for two nights. The next day, we woke up and headed for the Chateau de Balandry. You can tour both the chateau and the gardens. The gardens are a huge draw and many people skip the chateau and just visit the gardens. Hi Patrick. What stood out for you today about the Landry the chateau and its gardens? Sort of smaller chateau is interesting. more of like a large home and it’s really about the gardens, I guess, as anyone would tell you. Um, and the way it’s owned by this family is really interesting. It’s currently owned by a family. They live here and they um are devoted to just maintaining the gardens and living here and displaying artwork. And so it’s sort of this I just didn’t realize that it’s sort of a a window into how these things operate and how these things keep going. Um you know, we learned earlier that the chateau was almost torn down a little over a century ago because it was in such poor repair and that there really were um there were gardens, but they’d been changed to sort of flowy English gardens. And then when this um family bought it in 1906, they put all of these gardens in place that we see today that are very much French style, very geometric and have all kinds of sort of hidden symbolism about things like love. After we visited the chateau and gardens, it was time for our lunch. We are not the only ones who picnic in France. Picnicking is very popular. Here we are having our lunch after going through the lounry and it’s beautiful picnic spot. There’s just one picnic bench after another and they’re full. It’s a Monday at 1:00 and everybody’s just bringing out their food and eating it after their excursions outdoors. Patrick, are you in join Savanire Savon like Just such a pleasant surprise. It’s so nice. It’s such a sweet little place. Couple shops, couple bakeries. We ended up stopping on these nice lounging um wooden. They’re kind of good for um closing your eyes. Yeah. Great for watching the river because you have to kind of hold your head up. But closing your eyes, they’re kind of nice. Yeah. So we we have an interesting kind of Yeah. alternate bench alternative. Yes. And we’re staying just across the bridge. We ride our bike a bike. It’s very silly. This is why we’re riding our bikes every day, to be able to sit on a bench, have these lovely French desserts, a little espresso, and a lovely view. Oh, and there’s the bell tower, the church bell in the background. This is the lovely river share. This is the river share. And there are a couple of swans out there. And over here is the jeet we are staying at. right below. This is the house and then we’re at the bottom level. So, um you can’t see it. It’s below it’s a hill down there, but this is the end of a bridge. And then we’re going to walk over the bridge and go to dinner on the other side. That building right there, Patrick’s walking toward it. That’s where we’re going to have dinner. And we get to look at this lovely river as we walk to dinner. And that is the restaurant we’ll be eating at, Le O Dupont right across the river. So we ordered from the menu. Patrick, what are you having? Um, it’s a goat cheese. It’s a warm goat cheese. sort of baked item and Chinese is chorizo and cauliflower soup. Soup. Yeah. Okay. Bonapati. What are we having here? Having um or this is our main course. We just had our I think it’s monk fish with a rice peop. I’m not sure about the sauce. Um but yeah, monk fish lot and fresh. Great. Bonapet. Bonapet.
In this episode, Jenny and Patrick rejoin the Eurovelo 6 (La Loire à Vélo) and cycle toward Château Villandry with its expansive gardens, beautifully manicured to portray different themes. The cycle route takes them through a busy flea market and to a bucolic picnic site. This leg of the adventure ends in the town of the soap makers, Savonnières, a peaceful town nestled along a beautiful stretch of the Cher river. The episode also includes a visit to the gardens of Villandry. Accommodations and culinary delights are always included.
1 Comment
Lovely!!