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Sunday 14th June 2015 Thorigné Sur Dué to Tours Light rain was forecast for today so I got ready quickly and set off for Tours as soon as possible. Breakfast at the St Jacques was the usual French thing, strong on chocolate and jam. Still there was an egg-boiler there so I had a boiled egg, a croissant and a bit of cheese to go with my choco-pop with granula cereal, paid the exorbitant bill for the room, breakfast and last night's attempt at a veggy meal - 125 euros! It wasn't the last time I was to be ripped off today though. Anyway I got the bike out of the shed (the 'gymnasium') and rode south under darkening skies at 8.44 - a good start time. The first 20 miles went by very quickly for there were barely any hills along the route. The road then became more of a rolling switchback up, down, up but happily the ups were all easily do-able.
The roads here generally have less steep climbs, at least on my route, and with a moment of stunning insight I realised that this must be due to the French penchant for eating horses. Obviously in the old days when roads were first being laid out, the main transport would be by foot or by horse. And as steep hills would make the horses tough as old boots and therefore harder to chew when the time came, the French thoughtfully put in a few extra loops or zigzags to ensure the gradient was kept nice and gentle. Possibly. Apart from a quick stop at a boulangerie for a fruit tart I just kept on, had a light sprinkling of rain but that passed, and I reached Tours just after midday. At about 13.00 in fact but it took me half an hour to get to the city centre and another half an hour to get fixed up with a hotel.
To start with I couldn't find a hotel anywhere and rode up and down in vain - Tours is a huge place and I must have been in the non-hotel area. Then when I finally found the Hotel Mirabeau the charming receptionist there ripped me off shamelessly. 67 euros for 1 person for a night became 87 euros for me, the excuse being there was only one room left and it was a 'grande' room, for 3 people, so I was charged the 3 person amount. As I said, ripped off although this didn't register at the time, it just slowly percolated through and occurred to me later.
Anyway I paid up, stored the bike in the lockup garage and after doing the usual chores I walked into the city centre and had an Indian meal - at least Indian restaurants always have a vegetarian option. It was ok but not up to the standard of good British ones. Afterwards I had a look inside the cathedral. Huge and fitted with lots of painted glass, some of it dating from the 13th century. The amount of work, effort and money that it must have taken to build these mammoth stone temples is absolutely incredible - and all without powered tools and reinforced concrete. Bike computer: 54.6 miles GPS: 55.7 miles 11.1 mph avg 29.4 mph max 2437 ft ascent English miles: 117.8 French miles: 361.2 | |||||
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