Last Day on the Bikes

September 20th

Before we began our last ride of the trip we drove to Château Cheverny just outside of Blois.  The Château was built at the beginning of the 16th century.  An interesting fact about the place is that it was lost to the Crown because of fraud to the State. It was donated by King Henri II to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers but she preferred the Château at Chenonceau.  She must have been quite something! Later the property was purchased by Henri Hurault, the Comte de Cheverny, who was a lieutenant general for Louis XIII and whose descendant, the Marquis de Vibraye, is the present owner.  The Vibraye family opened the château to the public in 1914 and is a popular attraction not only because of the home but also the grounds and the hunting hounds.  We were told to try to arrive at the feeding time of the hounds but when we inquired one of the docents said they are no longer doing the public feedings. I wasn't able to figure out why but perhaps PETA is active here in France as well as in the US.  

During our walk around the grounds we discovered the "Love Garden" by the Swedish artist Gudmar Olovson who was nicknamed the Swedish Rodin. I didn't count the number of statues but the project took him seven years to complete and he was able to admire and enjoy his work before passing away in 2017.

After our chateau fix for the day we drove to the Loire where we parked with a picnic table to have lunch.  There was even a lovely view of the Blois Castle in the distance.  Our long ride yesterday took it's toll so we opted for a short 25km route along the south bank of the Loire this time to Saint-Dye-sur-Loire where we had turned toward Chambord a few days ago.  

Jay said we had ridden over 1200km this year in France so we deserved a nice happy hour at our favorite pub in Tours, the Pale.  We met a group of Irishmen here for the big rugby match and had a fun time chatting with them.  The Irish are a cheery bunch!