Thursday 24th July, Nantes to Paris

Had a relaxing start to the morning and headed over to the train station.

We had things much better sorted for this trip, waiting till we got to our carriage before folding the bikes. Not much luggage room on the TGV but the conductor helped us sort it out. We tracked a bit of the trip using google maps. Amazing to see how fast we were traveling through the countryside. We had lunch at a cafe down the road from Montparnase station where we arrived and headed off to cycle to the Eiffel Tower. Traffic was a bit crazy but nothing compared to Sydney!

Had the obligatory photo in front to the tower then headed off back to Antony to Olivier and Isabelle's. Isabelle had their baby daughter Paola on the 10th of July so we also met the new member of the family. A gorgeous little thing who is very good and sleeps through most of the night.

We had a picnic dinner in the local park, Parc de Sceaux with some of Isabelle's colleagues. It was another very hot day and the picnic in the park lovely.

Monday 30th June, Paris to Nevers

Had breakfast with Olivier then packed the bikes and set off. Olivier drove in front guiding us to the train station and then helped with purchasing our tickets into Paris. We said our goodbyes and boarded the train. We had a short ride from one station to our intercity train station. We were pushed for time and got a little lost. Luckily we had purchased a data sim for the ipad and were able to use google maps to find our way. Once we arrived at the station we tried to buy tickets for our bikes to Nevers, but we're told the spaces were booked. So we folded them up and put them in the bags and our panniers in another bag and set off for our carriage which happened to be the sixth of a seven carriage train. With our arms dropping off we boarded the train to find the bike spaces empty! David had to put the bikes in a shelf at head height, we thought maybe the people with the bikes were just running late. It was a nice trip to Nevers and when we arrived and found the bike spaces still empty!

Our first stop was Espace Bernadette where Saint Bernadette of Lourdes was buried. We arrived just in time for the start of mass.

After leaving the chapel we stoped at the replica grotto then headed of into town for some lunch. 

The view from our table was historic as we could see the Dukes palace and many other old buildings.

After lunch we rode up to the palace and visited the St Cyr-St Julitte cathedral with its stained glass windows that light the inside with glimmering colours. Unfortunately we only took pictures with the camera. The view of the palace from the gardens was majestic and all the surrounding buildings looked wonderful.

We did a quick shop then set off for the start of the Loire a velo ride. It was difficult to find the start but once we did we really enjoyed the ride along the canal lateral. 

We over shot the chateu where we were staying but once again with help from friendly a French cyclist and google maps we found our way.

We had a lovely walk around the grounds took photos inside and out, had showers, dinner and set off for bed so we could be up for our 7:30 breakfast the next day.

Paris 28th June 2014

We finally made it to Paris and after an hours wait due to a broken baggage carousel we headed off to catch the train to our hosts place in Antony. Only a 100m from the station but what a long way it felt dragging the bike and carrying our bag of panniers. We are staying with Olivier, Isabella and their 4 1/2 year old son Vadim. Olivier very graciously offered to take us to the closest decathlon store a few kilometres away so we could buy a tent that our weight restrictions did not let us bring from home. We also managed to buy some light weight camping cutlery and a lock for our bike.

We had a lovely dinner with the family and only managed to stay awake to see the first half of the Brazil  v Mexico game.

Also realised I forgot to pack a very important adapter from the camera to transfer the pictures to the ipad. So I will now have to make sure I take photos using the ipad so we can post them.😔