Thursday 3rd, Gien to Orleans

"Set off at 8:30am bought some fruit for breakfast and rode along the Loire passing grand old houses with markings on their stone walls of the floods the oldest being from 1764. We stopped off at St Gondon, parts of it an old medieval town. A lady was just opening the church as we arrived. It was beautifully painted inside. We rode on along the levee bank with views of fields on one side 

And the Loire on the other

Just before lunch we made it to Sully-Sur-Loire the first major chateau of the journey. We were amazed that there were no crowds around. We took many photos and ticked another Unesco world heratige site of our list.

Next stop was in St-Benoit and an 11th century abbey (considered one of the most remarkable Romanesque buildings in France). We arrived just in time for the end of mass which was sung. It sounded lovely.

We decided to push on to Orleans for the night (as we are expecting rain tomorrow),an afternoon ride of 30km, powered by banana dipped in Nutella, an orange and washed down with a can of coke! It was so hot we stopped for a quick dip at the Charlemagne leisure base. We have been loading on the sunscreen but still getting burnt on our legs and feet. Daily total 77km, feeling much stronger and not exhausted.