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Wednesday 24th August 2016 Gien to Orleans Today was blisteringly, blazing hot, windless and for the most part shade-less too. We were sweaty, hot and done-in by the time (15:30) that we eventually rolled into Orleans. Also hungry because for some reason there was nowhere open. We rode around Jargeau and found nothing so we crossed the river to the neighbouring town of St Denis de l’Hotel and found another nothing – this was just after 1:00 pm, and at this point the camera expired so today’s quota of photos is a bit short.
We had left the Hotel du Rivage by 9:30 that morning, hoping to avoid the worst of the afternoon heat, and had followed the route along the southern side of the river through St Gondon and on to Sully sur Loire with its beautiful chateau, where we paused for a cup of tea and I had a pastry thing. We crossed the river at this point and 2½ miles further on we cut a corner by leaving the Loire á Velo trail briefly and going directly to St Benoit sur Loire.
We didn’t stop there though, just pressed on as far as Chateauneuf sur Loire where we re-crossed the river to the south side and then carried on to Jargeau and St Denis de l’Hotel as mentioned above. There we remained lunch-less, managing to get a cup of tea at a Tabac in Jargeau but nothing to eat.
After that it was a long drag in the heat, riding mostly atop exposed and shade-less levées, till we reached Orleans. We entered Orleans at the seedy end of town, where people were sitting in doorways with cans of beer, and we passed a hotel called the Hotel Sauvage which I quickly pedalled past before Andrew could yell ‘this is the one!’ Actually he was too knackered to be doing much yelling by this time. Before finding a hotel we sat down at a bar and had an ice-cream each. I had an orange juice as well – total for that was 14.30 euros, 4.30 of which was for the orange juice (freshly squeezed… wow.). The waiter (Patrick) spoke good English and told us where to find a hotel. Following his directions we obtained a room at the Grand Hotel (60 euros for the room; with petit dejeuner & city taxes it came to €81.20). The very quirky girl behind reception did make us a free pot of tea each though.
In the evening we strolled into town, past the Joan of Arc statue and the cathedral, and ended up in the Rue de Bourgogne which is the main bars and restaurants street. Very lively, some music and people dancing in a small square, every other building a bar, lots of young folk… and us. We couldn’t find an Italian restaurant, which is what I wanted, so ended up in the Rajistan, an Indian restaurant (although the chef was an African). We both had the veg set meal for 12 euros and it was ok. Afterwards we walked along the Rue de Bourgogne a short way then sat outside a bar watching the world go by, guzzling and playing crib until about 12:20. Blois tomorrow. Average speed: 9.7 mph Miles today: 50.1 Total miles: 136.3 Orleans elevation: 285 ft | |||||||||||
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