Have baguette will travel.

Food.  That's what a lot of people think of when they think of France.  I had been planning this trip on a shoestring budget, but had several friends tell me that I needed to splurge and go out to eat a few times.  Well, I did and I'll never be the same.  The meal I had was in Savonnières (just west of Tours).  It was at little restaurant very near the closed campground.  I went in and asked for my bottles to be filled with water, to throw away some trash, and for a glass of Chinon.  After sitting for a bit, I decided to go ahead and do it.  The lady was so nice.  She brought over the menu (a hand written chalkboard that sits outside on the eisle), set it up in the chair across the table from me, and proceeded to explain everything on it in English.  Did I mention how much I love this country?  So, I ordered the bone marrow, the steak tartar, and the crème brûlée.  The portion sizes were huge....perfect, I was starving.  She gave me a bottle of Tabasco to use with my steak tartar and warned me repeatedly that it was very hot and to be very careful with it.  ;)

The french breakfast consists of a baguette with butter and jam.  So, I've been eating and entire baguette with butter and jam, and that's still hasn't been enough.  So, I've been buying eggs and frying them up and putting them on my baguette.  Much better.  I bought a bottle of cooking oil to fry my eggs in but found that after I filled a small Nalgene bottle, I didn't need all the was left and that it was much too heavy to continue to carry around with me.  I stopped at a random place along the road and an older lady was working in her garden.  I wondered how I would offer her the cooking oil without speaking any French.  Well, it turned out she spoke perfect English!  We visited for a while and she thanked me for the random offering of cooking oil.

I ALWAYS have a baguette in my pack.  I often stop to snack on one with some Nutella.  I stop often for coffee, and my new favorite delight: a pastry called a religioussomething.  It sort of looks like a church steeple.  I like the coffee flavored one.

Another note, it only took me a few days before I'd completely taken for granted that most everyone here can pull a decent shot of espresso and that there's a total lack of Dodge pickups spewing diesel fumes at you because you're wearing lycra.  The drivers are SO PATIENT with cyclists!

At one point earlier in the trip I was lost and looking at a map.  A guy walked up to me and asked if he could help.  After we visited for a while, it came out that he did the same trip that I was planning on doing, only he did it in reverse and rode from Norway instead of Sweden!  I met a German named Matthias who was riding in the opposite direction but who also had a B.o.b. trailer.  We visited for a bit and talked about how we might cross paths again in Belgium as he is turning north and heading up through Normandy and back through Belgium.  I met a Philosophy professor that helped me find my way in Saumur, an Australian couple (Bill and Sylvia) that was fun to compare notes with at a traffic circle in Blois, a Canadian couple along the Loire that is living in Cannes and out biking around France when the weather is nice.

The weather is nice!  The last several days have been cool and sunny.  There's a bit of a headwind that I had to battle, but that's to be expected.

Sully sur Loire

Matthias and I (and our B.o.b.s)

sunset in  Savonnières , after an amazing dinner.

Cooking eggs in the morning!

and yes, I stopped to have a glass.

Chambord, just before the sun went down.

pasta and wine

Look how much room they give cyclists!

Maybe this means that I'm halfway across France?

Greg and Joyce (Australians touring on their Bike Fridays) in Gien.

The castles that I've seen are breathtaking.  The work that must have gone into these structures is mind boggling considering the building methods of the period.  Castles are just plane fun to take pictures of too.

Gien and the Loire at sunset.