Train, Bike & Tours - The End of Day 12

Today's planned destination: Orleans

I decided this morning after a nice long sleep, breakfast and internet search that the thought of trying to ride out of Paris, after the problems I had riding in was not very appealing. Additionally, I searched my new favorite internet resource www.mappy.fr to find a cycle friendly way out of the city and I could not see a great one. So I took the train, and as it just so happened the train on this day did not stop until Orleans. Therefore at approximately noon I had traveled 140km's already and shamefully none of them were done with pedaling. So I made two executive decisions: 1. Ride to Tours. 2. No more Trains unless I am to hurt or to sick to pedal another pedal.

So today's new planned destination: Tours


This route was much more bicycle friendly. I took the 152 along the river the entire way to Blois and little of interest happened actually. It rained, I ate an $8 piece of cake and I almost got killed by a truck pulling a 5th wheel. Be forewarned this is French RV country, which made it feel a little like the US. This route is flat and quite scenic and other than the heavy and wide traffic it is a pleasure to ride through. It is also approaching some of the smaller wine regions on France so if you so desire, you can.

Blois is a very beautiful city and I highly recommend visiting it if you can. I wanted to take many pictures here, but as has been the case, my phone decided to stop working for most of the day so it was not meant to be.

From here it was on to Tours, which did present a slight problem as I had arranged a couchsurf for tomorrow night and I would now be in Tours a day early, due to my cheap little train trip. I was growing ever more concerned as well because for the first time this trip I was starting to really feel tired. This day was short (110 km's) riding, but with the train was also significant travelling. And though this was the case I couldn't seem to shake the heavy legs, which is something I thought would not plague me after my rest. I arrived in Tours at around 6 PM and ate a nice meal. After that I contected my couchsurf and they were amazingly helpful by allowing me to stay the night even though it was such late notice. We had more good food and I indulged in wine from the region and I went to bed early. It was my goal to aim for half the distance to Bordeaux tomorrow and what would ultimately be the longest day in km's of the trip.

Total time on the bike: 6 hours
Total time from arrival to destination: 10 hours (3 hours on the train)