Day 9

An early-ish start and another cold morning. I knew the answer to my question of "is this weather normal for the time of year" as soon as our hotel owner smirked. Normally lows of more like 12 degrees she said, not 2.

Still, the Loire was as amazing as yesterday.

Quite cold riding but the suns out.

For the sake of man and machine, we had to detour off the cycle way after a couple of bone-crunching miles. This sections still being worked on and nit quite ready. Quick look at another nuclear power station, and then off for our pilgrimage to Sancerre.

Bit off the track but seemed shame to both of us to miss such a famous town and we'd both drunk enough sancerre in the past to justify it.

The hill up there nearly wiped us out. Had we known it was so high up abc the gradient so steep, we almost certainly wouldn't have bothered considering the time pressure we're up against.

Quick lunch - salads - after a bit of confusion with the order where my vegetarian goats cheese came with a load of ham, which John kindly took over and gave me his.

We'd both been dreaming of a posh vineyard lunch with beautiful wine tasting, but that hasn't happened and we haven't got time to try and find it. Need to get some more miles done. Another trip....