Monday 14th July, Chinon to Saumur

What a lovely day we woke up to in the chateâu. All our things were dry (my sleeping bag and pillow among other things got wet through our panniers in the thunderstorm. Cat) We had a huge breakfast before setting off at around 10am. At around 10:50 we stopped so Cat could log on to Uni at 7:02 pm Sydney time to enrol in next semesters Biochem tutorial and also buy some fruit and veg from the supermarket for lunch.

We then made our way up to Fontevraud Abbaye. It was a long climb and our legs were hurting after all the up hills of the previous day. We eventually made it at around 12:30pm and headed straight in.

Fontevraud Abbaye was the largest monastic building in Western Christendom, 14ha. It was abandoned and turned into a prison between the revolution and 2nd 1/2 of the 20th century but since then it is being slowly restored. In the main abbey Richard the lionhearted is buried along with his sister-in-law and mother and father (king Henry II Plantagenet of England).

Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and King Henry in background and Richard in foreground with John Lacklands wife.

We walked through the grounds an read about the history as most of the information plaques were in both French and English. It it was amazing that this place was originally set up in the early 1100s as a utopia, but ended up as a prison which only started to close in 1963 and the last prisoner of this maximum security goal left in 1985!

We had a picnic lunch in the square overlooking the Abbaye before setting off for Saumur. We had a lovely afternoon cycling through the vineyards even though parts of it were very steep climbs it was worth the effort to see what we saw. We came across more Hobbit holes or maybe they were for dwarfs as they are built into the mountains!

We arrived in Saumur at around 5:30 and found the perfect spot to enjoy a drink overlooking the Castle and the town.

A German couple stopped us to ask where we were from Germany or England? When we told them we were from Australia they were surprised and we chatted about the bikes an where we were cycling. We then headed off to check in to the campground. As today is a National holiday many of the shops were closed. Luckily the campground reception sold wine as we like to have a drink from the region we are staying in, tonight it is a sparking method traditional from Saumur 6:50€! We had dinner by the tent before showering and retiring for the night to listen to the open air concert for the festivities, across the river. 34km today.

Total distance so far ( when I have had the GPS turned on) 679km, maximum speed 48.6 km/hr.