Author: Brian Burger

Short and fairly straightforward ride up the Loire today to Sully-sur-Loire.

Enroute we had a quick look at another chateau at Saint Brisson sur Loire, this one with a collection of replica medieval trebuchets on the grounds that they apparently fire into a nearby lake on special occasions!

Sully is home to one of the really famous chateaux on the Loire, entirely surrounded by a moat and with classic pointy tower tops.

Lodging for the night was another gym floor, but this was improved by the fact that the property backed right onto the back end of the moat around Sully chateau, so we had a good spot for picnic dinner.

After yesterday’s heat, it was a bit of a surprise to wake up to rain and a solid overcast in the morning.

Checkout time at the camping bungalows wasn’t until 1000, so Martin and I left our bags behind for a quick trip up the hill to see Sancerre proper in the drizzle.

Great views of the Loire and the hills south of it from the top of Sancerre, but the chateau wasn’t open yet.

By the time we got back to the campsite and loaded the bikes up for the forty-five or fifty klick ride to Briare it was raining properly and solidly, and it kept that up all the way to Briare. Mild temperatures, at least, so it wasn’t too unpleasant.

Briare has the longest canal bridge in Europe, carrying the Loire Lateral Canal across the Loire itself. It’s a spectacular piece of 1890s engineering, in which M. Eiffel of Tower fame played a role.

Staying in a salle municipale tonight, which basically means camping in a big hall with forty+ other cyclists. Lots of room, at least!

A really short day tomorrow, not even forty klicks to Sully-sur-Loire, so hopefully the weather improves and we can do a bit more sightseeing.

Left the Espace Bernadette Catholic hostel just before eight for a good, smooth ride of just over fifty kilometres, mostly along paved bike trails parallel to the Loire.

We had one mid-morning coffee stop at La Charité-sur-Loire, which has a big ramshackle old Cluniac abbey church in the middle of town which was established in the ninth C, then collapsed, rebuilt, burnt, rebuilt, and modified since. The front courtyard used to be part of the interior nave, some of the walls have extra buttresses thrown up over the centuries, and it’s generally an interesting mess.

We’re staying at another campsite with bungalows, which are common and a great option for our group.

There were plans to bike up the hill to Sancerre proper and see the town, which is apparently lovely, but we’re back to afternoon temperatures over 30 C, so all ambitions evaporated in favour of hanging out in the shade at the campground.

Short day tomorrow as well, so we’re planning a sightseeing ride up to Sancerre in the morning then heading further down the Loire to Briare. A post-dinner tour might also happen, if food and evening cool restores some ambition…

Easier ride today than yesterday’s 100+km, 45km or so mostly along the Loire canal, except where work crews had the canal path blocked for resurfacing, where we got to watch them create new Eurovelo 6 surface as we watched.

One of the other riders told me this afternoon than he had broken 2000km since Vienna during today’s riding, which fe els about right – my bike computer having quit way back in Austria on the first week of this ride…

Staying tonight at a Catholic hostel called Espace Bernadette on the edge of Nevers’ very nice old town. Twin rooms with nice beds and really good food at dinner again, just like the Catholic places we stayed at in Germany. No WiFi, but the tourist office in town took care of that modern necessity after lunch, during our sightseeing afternoon in central Nevers.

Off to a place near Sancerre tomorrow, 60km or so. Supposed to be getting hot tomorrow, so we’re planning on leaving early, right after breakfast.