PROVENCE TO HEMEL ON TANDEM

Another lovely breakfast - homemade rhubarb jam and yoghurt, oh and freshly baked scones being the particular highlights. Over breakfast our host filled us in on the misadventures of their other guests (a french couple also cycling but on electric bikes) the day before. Apparently they had misjudged the ride and got caught out because their battery ran out with many hills left to climb. We got the sense this wasn't the first time he'd seen this happen and observed that people often bite off more than they can chew. That would never happen to us or so we smugly thought 😂 We knew that today would involve a lot of climbing and, after checking with our host, decided to follow the easy green cycle route to Caen instead of the more hilly route we had planned. Time was not an issue for us today and our plan was to eat in Caen early evening before heading to Ouistreham for the 11pm ferry. Obviously my plan was to also make sure we found somewhere nice for lunch - our last chance to st...

We both had a great night's sleep last night and woke up to the most beautiful view from the bedroom window. We've voted the hostel the best venue we've stayed at so far. Our host arrived at 8am with some fabulous fresh bread and locally produced apple juice for breakfast which sealed the deal 😜 Again it was really interesting chatting to him at breakfast and we picked up a few interesting facts. He suggested we start our ride along the river next to the hostel and promised us lots of chateaus along the way. Apparently King Louis prohibited the building of chateaus along the Loire and so the gentry built them on this river instead.  The path along the river was pretty good for cycling and the scenery was very pleasant so we decided to continue this route rather than return to the road (which would also involve lots more climbing that neither of us felt very inclined to do!). After about 10 miles we reached the town of Chateau...

It was a slightly later start for us today as we were waiting for the rain to stop. Also, our host and her dog were particularly interested in our trip and insisted on a photo shoot outside before we left, I think we'll be appearing on her website soon. The sun was starting to come through but it was still quite chilly. A far cry from the first few days when we cycled in blistering heat. It's a good thing because the last few days look like being the toughest cycling of the trip. We hadn't yet settled on our strategy for today. Whilst Max wasn't keen to stop for a plat du jour type lunch we knew that options this evening were going to be very limited due to the remote location. So we were sort of playing it by ear - I was hoping for a plat du jour at lunchtime (not wishing to risk missing out completely) but Max was hoping we'd hold out and find something later in the day that would serve as late lunch and early dinner combined. ...

The B&B we stayed in last night was more like a boutique hotel. It was a large old townhouse close to the port which has been very tastefully renovated. We both ranked the bed the most comfortable we've slept in yet. The bread and croissants I had for breakfast were probably also the best. As you can see, Max tucked into his gluten free breakfast with great gusto.  We set off around 9.30 (Max gave the bike a quick service first after yesterday's downpour) and were very relieved to see the sun was out. Today was a ride of two halves with the first 30 miles or so being very flat after which the hills would start to kick in. Again we passed alongside a national park and for the most part cycled along quiet roads/lanes often running alongside rivers and canals and even a lake. A rain cloud caught up with us at one point which spurred us on to cycle abit faster to escape it. At one point some friendly French cyclists invited us to ...