We left Tours about 2pm and slowly pedaled our way south and west.
But before we got out of town, Doug tried two different bike shops for a new spoke and each spoke was too short. He had to unload his bike tip it over, let the air out of the tire, then take off the tire in order to test it. Poor guy. Not a whole lot of fun but he enjoys tinkering on bikes so that helped. We grabbed a third spoke on the way out to try that evening.
The bike trail is wide and smooth and even and well marked as soon as you get out of the main part of Tours, from within Tours it was a little confusing and we covered some extra distances finding out way to the bike path and then trying to stay on it as it merged with roads and trails and back etc. We rode through wheat and corn farmlands alongside a river that parallels the trail. Pretty warm and still air. We got to savonnières and found a somewhat shades spot and called it good. The only toilet was a Turkish toilet, sigh. I sure prefer the throne style.
it began to cool off after ten and we slept pretty well. No luck with that third spoke either so we will ride carefully until the next bike shop.
No new adventures but beautiful fields and old stone farmhouses all along the way.
Savonnières is small but well featured.
We woke up this morning a little sluggish, probably all that heat the day before. We have been drinking liters of water per day. It is amazing how you can be cool while riding because you create a breeze across all the sweat, but as soon as you stop you get hot and sticky and I start dripping.
Doug began to prepare coffee and I broke camp. I heard him laughing a little hysterically as a pebble like clatter of small stones drew my attention to him. We bought coffee beans, whole. Not ground! I had two beaten up chamomile tea bags in my pannier that we sipped on instead.
This merited a stop in Savonnières for coffee and croissant before we hit the trail. Delicious! One of the best flakiest croissants so far and about the best thick dark espresso so far. This got us Into medium gear :) Our destination? Langeais.
Today it is supposed to break a 100 for a while in the afternoon. So we plan a short ride and to Stay cool in a nice town with a chateau to tour and good camping.
