A tour of the Loire and Indres valleys

I missed a blog last night - I was engrossed in my book and before I knew it, it was 11pm. Lee had already been conked out on the seat for a while, so we didn't even make the beds up properly; we just grabbed the duvets and turned off the light. 

We had a day in Tours yesterday. The bus tops right outside the campsite and then you swap to a tram after about 15 minutes. I love trams; I wish we used them more at home. 

Public transport in Europe is so cheap, compared to the UK, and for a much better service. Everything turns up on time and isn't full of scummy people and "youfs" playing music on their phone at full volume.   

Tours is quite modern as French cities go, but it also had an old town with narrow streets and a big square full of cafés and restaurants. Our first stop was a tourist information centre, for Lee to find a map, and the lady helpfully told us where all the interesting stuff was. 

L'Hotêl de ville (town hall) 

A square in the old town 

We popped into the gardens of the Museum of Fine Art to see the beautiful cedar of Lebanon in the courtyard, which is over 200 years old, with many of it's boughs are held up by wooden supports. I do love a beautiful tree. 

The Cedar of Lebanon 

Today was another bike ride along the Loire and Indres rivers. Not one of my favourite rides, if I'm honest. Too much of it on busy roads, although French drivers are generally more considerate to cyclists than drivers in the UK. 

In fact, French people in general are very nice. There seems to be a view that the French are rude, or aloof, but they're not. Everyone says hello as they pass and today, while we were getting our bearings, another cyclist stopped to ask if we were lost (cue some very bad French on my part, but we got through it). 

Anyway, back to the bike ride. About 24.5 miles through some nice French towns. We saw lots of Aires and campsites along the route, which is good to know for the future. 
A city farm, I think, on the banks if the Loire 

The Indres river

Lac du Bretonnières, near our campsite 

Coffee stop en route 

After we got back we went to the pool. Yet again, we were the only ones in there, so I took the opportunity to have a good swim. Managed 1km, which I was pleased with, as I haven't swum for a few months. 

Tomorrow we're moving on towards Angers. I'm still apprehensive about getting off the pitch, as we've had some truly torrential showers whilst we've been here. The last one was just a few hours ago. I'm hoping it stays dry overnight, but we'll definitely need those grip mats, I reckon. You'll know if we get stuck tomorrow because you'll probably hear the swearing from home 🙈

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