Bike: 20 miles, 650 feet of climb
Accommodation: Hyper Centre Tours, Balcon (Airbnb), host Alexi. Large, airy, two-bedroom apartment on first floor. Alexi warned us that previous Airbnb tenants had been noisy and caused problems with the neighbors, even prompting a visit from the police. We were careful to be especially quiet.
Meghan headed to the train station at 8:00. Konur, Ken, and I took our time finishing breakfast, cleaning up the kitchen, and packing our bikes. Just as we left, it started to sprinkle. We went straight to the hunting store at 10:00, found it open, and bought Konur's knife. Happy boy.
We had an easy 10-mile ride, mostly on dedicated bike trails, through small villages and vineyards and horse farms, to Chateau de la Bourdaisière, where we planned to have lunch. We could not find the café at the chateau, but we had lots of food with us, so we parked ourselves on a bench near the front gate and ate what we had.
Another 10 miles down the road we were in Tours, a large town with an old historic district, an art district, a beautiful cathedral, and many shops and restaurants.
About the time we finished our showers, Meghan appeared on the doorstep. She had spent a few hours at Chateau Chenonceau. We were all hungry, and headed to a nearby restaurant for burgers, fries, sausages, potatoes, sauerkraut, fish, and salads.
Fortified, we continued on our walk to the Tours Cathedral, aka Cathédrale Saint-Gatien. Konur and Ken found a store with bulk candy. We gave Konur our coins, prompted him with a few words of French, and he managed to buy himself a little bag of candy. Again, he was happy. We like to keep Konur happy.
 |
| Riding in the rain. It sprinkled on and off part of the day. We ignored the water. |
 |
| We had read that Chateau de la Bourdaisière had a cafe, and we planned to eat lunch there. We did not find the cafe. We did find a wedding party setting up on the grounds. |
 |
| Ken and Konur swap tall tales during lunch on the chateau grounds. |
 |
| The Tours Cathedral is a famous Roman Catholic pilgrimage destination. The current church was built from the 13th century to the 17th century. It was constructed on the site of three earlier churches. |
 |
| We were surprised by the brilliance of the color in the stained glass windows. |
