D 18 Bourbon Lacy to Paray le Moniale

After escaping Godot's clutches we passed out final morning following the Loire, the last 'sauvage' great river of Europe (by which the French mean it's undammed U believe) - any other contenders out there? Anyway it certainly felt more like Africa than Europe on one of its many meanders today.

On teaching Digoin we enjoyed one final aquaduct across the river and then we headed East along the
Canal du Centre which joins the Loire navigation to the Saone and thence via the Rhone to the Mediterranean.

Navigation is a belt and braces process triangulating maps, Garmin GPS and signage. When all agree happy riding! When in doubt the compass bearing on the Garmin can determine - Greece lies to the South East! However there are times when the geography determines other less direct routes are preferable as less hilly!

The relief map encountered in the tourist office illustrates this well. I have superimposed my route this far with a swing west to pick up the Seine's route into Paris following it quite far East before cutting diagonally southwest to Orleans to pick up the Loire before abandoning it as described above and heading East to sneak into Burgundy via the mining region of Montchanin.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Parai le Monial took us right back to the world of charismatic Christianity which in the Catholic world equates to the sort of evangelism encountered in the Alpha course campaign of the Church of England. A young  nun met Jesus here in the 1920,s so when we dropped into the chapel of the visitation (incidentally after watching Geraint Thomas have another excellent day on the Tour over a couple of beers) there was a palpable sense of religious tension in a room thronged with people. Indeed there were 4000 faithful in town for a summer family conference and the next morning as we cycled out past the festival grounds there was a Glasto with a twist scene (perhaps more Womad!) of a standing spontaneous prayer circle. Anyway the full city meant we had to splash out on a rather posh bandb and nothing to do with the crowds we went to a Michelin bib restaurant for a fantastic meal -possibly best yet!

Notably in the important church there was a display of 2000 years of human history in a series of 20 boards as per this one for the 20th century featuring milestones in varying aspects of human history but the one constant interestingly displayed in the bottom line is the continuity of popes! We underestimate the continuing power of the Catholic church! 

D17 decize to bourbon-lacy

The canal cycling facilities are excellent - here is one of the roadside self repair stations (thankfully unnecessary!).

 Today was very rural with lunch taken at a seasonal cafe set up under an awning but complete with beer pump - frenc h style as per normal! We stopped at the Grande in Bourbon Lacy an old hilltop spa town with medieval centre -tres joli! The spa hotel felt like Buxton with old ladies either in singletons or pairs with their breakfast unwarranted with their napkin in place and the less able served their preferred breakfast by the long suffering maitresse. Felt a bit like we were trespassing on a scene in a French set for waiting for godot. Fortunately we chose to go out for the evening meal and did well as a relaxed Sus suggests.

D16 le Guetin to Decize

After our night aboard le petit bayou we crossed the Ailler, a major tributary of the Loire on yet another aqueduct carrying the Canal lateral. The extent of the French canal system is somewhat of a revelation. Each lock is personned by a lock-keeper who is housed in a pretty canalside cottage of standard design - all appearing orderly in a Napoleonic and deeply French way.

This Map shows just how extensive the system is -the rivers are in red and the canals in blue- presumably only showing their modern navigable sections - which is why the Loire isn't shown between Orleans (roughly where it stops being marked South-west of Paris) and Nevers - a huge arc which we have been following all week.
To the North I followed the Seine through the Paris basin and in the South I will follow the Rhone (north eastwards) from Lyon into the Alps. This now deeply rural area of central France we are crossing was once the hub of early industrialisation. Between 1821 and 1854 Fourchambault became one the early ironworks in France producing rails and bridge components to create a communication network to complement the Canal system.
The components of 19th century industrialisation coal, iron and waterways all come together here in a way which is relatively rare in France (see coal field map below with Loire highlighted) which is one of the reasons for the way industrialisation was more patchy in France and why in the current era  EDF are leaders in nuclear power (we cycled by one of their Loire power stations on pathway subsidised by them complete with child friendly exhibition space - hearts and minds for the French nuclear  project clearly important strategically!

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Evidence of the age of revolu tions is also obliquely provided by this glorious 11th century church. Abandoned after the Revolution it was patchwork as a barn only being rescued recently as part of the recognition of national monuments programme. A modern take on superstition is provided by the eurovelist notes left on the altar (' cycling from Budapest to Nantes -Jaques '). The search for meaning is endless!

Decise for the record is a rather forgotten island  on the Loire once serving as a local centre but now feeling rather down at heel.

D15 sancerre to le guetin

We had a spot of accommodation booking malarchy yesterday. Having secured a night just in the right place at a promising chambre d'hotes via email ( b and b) the woman of the operation rang to confirm the arrangements whilst 20minutes later the man rang to cancel. Hmmm I have married friends who don't know what each other are planning but in a commercial operation it's a little unprofessional - anyway I was determined not to be put off our stride and in the absence of any more conventional accommodation tried air b and b to discover Jerome and son ' petit bayou'. Accommodation solved we could enjoy the ride - lunch stop at La Charitie being the undoubted highlight of the

day. In a rare glimpse into the medieval institutional world of Christianity in a direct line of communication with the Carolinigian era (see Orleans to Sully) the great monastic centre of Cluny (where we are headed in South Burgundy) established this church second only to Cluny in the scale of religious edifices in Europe. Opened in 1129 the Pope who attended was said to have witnessed a miraculous healing the same day. It subsequently became an important staging post on central France an route to Compostella hence the name of Charitie. The have by my down in the 1500s so we are only looking at the choir with domestic houses i  the shores up remains of the ruined nave. A surviving typanum of the transfiguration communicated to me vividly something of this medieval God gearing world

The afternoon took us to our very own boat for an unusual air bnb!

D14 Briare - Sancerre

Briare a canal centre put us on the Canal lateral de Loire a gentle canal path ride through pleasant little towns as we gradually approached Sancerre in the land of the grape.

Morning coffee stop - tres pleasant and picnic bought at neighbouring stalls. Over lunch on the riverbank met 2 Dutch couples the blokes digging around quite meticulously. What are they after wonders my wife so I ask? Geo-caches they answer! Susannah thinks then asks 'who hides them'? People like us says the Dutchman. After they left to continue their exploring of the river bank having proudly showed us how many are hidden in the area Sus wonders aloud what do they do with them when they find them. As I was walking to the loo i related this final query to the wives as they relaxed under a tree. Accepting the set up one wife with immaculate timing looked withering and said 'nothing'. What would Voltaire have thought of geomancing - is this what he meant by cultivating one's garden?

Sancerre is a hilltop town surrounded by vineyards suck give the place a cachet. This is about the last stretch of the Loire heading inland that grows sauvignon grapes which rely more on their own delicate flavor. As we worked out way through the four different local varieties on offer on the board behind Sus the variety of dloral.flavours was notable. For the record Sus preferred Laporte which happened to originate down the hill by our logis hotel -expressly chosen by my  wise wife to avoid a hilltop finish! 

A Lovely evening spent with locals an fete including a Maggie Smith look a like who was straight out of an Alan Bennett play....We have more in common with each other than either the French nor the English care to admit!

D13 Sully to Briare along the Loire

A short digression on 'the good life': triggered by our stay in Sully
Eagle eyed readers will have noted my wife's arrival has triggered 'the food life '. The autocorrect in this case was not far from the truth in the evenings anyway when the standard of French cuisine has blown me away. I forget just how good the standard is when for admittedly top dollar prices locally you can eat in lovely informal surroundings what in the UK would be fine dining at twice the price.

Coming back to the 'good life' the phrase has been originally attributed to Aristotle 's concept of eudaimonia, the life we aspire to live. The echoes with those of us planning our 3rd age are unmissable.

Meanwhile you will also recall that the great Voltaire once stayed in Sully during one of his several banishments from Paris for upsetting high ups with his enlightenment views of tolerance in France. This famously led him to write in Candide  the famous conclusion that we must _'cultivate our own garden' or in the original Vous savez... -- Je sais aussi, dit Candide, qu'il faut cultiver notre jardin. -- Vous avez raison, dit Pangloss : car, quand l'homme fut mis dans le jardin d'Éden, il y fut mis ut operaretur eum, pour qu'il travaillât, ce qui prouve que l'homme n'est pas né pour le repos. -- Travaillons sans raisonner, dit Martin ; c'est le seul moyen de rendre la vie supportable. »

You are right, said Pangloss; for when the man was put into the garden of Eden, he was put to work there, which proves that the man was not born for him. rest. "Let's work without thinking," said Martin; it's the only way to make life bearable. "

So my take on all this is to 'stay busy" for now in the 'young old' years but doing the things that hit my buttons for my own take on the good life! Which includes some giving but certainly includes plans to cultivate  the sacred olive  grove!

Useful brief ref Julie Barnes on voltaire  at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/01/candide-voltaire-rereading-julian-barnes

Why do French people plant trees in lines more often than UK 

People? Our destination today Briare  famously  linking 3 navigations the Loire, the Seine and the Rhone. The then longest viaduct is seen with us crussing

And finally undoubtedly a component of the good life -romorantin an unusual grape bloody
lovely

D 12 to Sully sur Loire

Lovely night dining with Sus in Orleans which is rather splendid.

First day riding with my wife. Few teething issues with her rental kit (primarily related to miscommunication between the hire company and hotel) but high quality cycle which will do is fine. Here she is in action!

The principal cultural stop today was this Carolingian (of the period of Charlemagne) chapel built by one of his principal advisors Theowulf. The Byzantine style begs the question what was the relationship between the western church in the 800s and Byzantium? Apparently the Pope actually crowned Charlemagne as emperor of a western empire tho Charlemagne himself refused the title not wishing to challenge Byzantium claiming for himself king of the Franks. All of this may seem arcane but the village where this church is situated was the site of a major convention of all the lead players after Charlemagne died and his three sons contested the estate. The resulting three way split lay the foundation for modern western European state structures each son gaining territories that came to be france, Germany and italy!

and thence to Sully -sur-Loire

D11 to Orleans

Knowing I'd broken the back of the ride down to my rendezvous with Sus meant I was under no pressure today. So morning swim in the lake and tai chi to start the day in the best possible way. This reminds of some of the very reasons for the Greek project in the firstplace. I do find being out in natural beauty lifts my mood and exercise especially the Chi accentuates this. My psychologist friend labels this biophilia and this is what it looks like in me!

Or maybe that's just the concentration of effort required to take a selfie?

Mainly followed the Canal de Orleans the remaining 30 kms into the city where it meets the Loire. Fittingly built at the end of the 17th century to link the Seine and Loire navigations.

I was intrigued to learn this enabled live fish to be transported to Paris using tanks supplied with the water of the system.

Good to check into a hotel and watch the Tour on telly on the day Garaint Thomas took the yellow jersey after a day of ups and downs not so far from my eventual date with Destiny on  Mont  Cenis. A spot of bike maintenance a la Andy 'guru' Sprod and then of course on the arrival of my wife on the train a lovely diner at the Parenthesis, where for €40 a head we enjoyed the sort of food which gets called fine dining in the UK but in a packed noisy atmosphere complete with dogs (who were fed from bowls under the tables) - no Geena couldn't make it (my dinner companion from Match night last saturday). Expect intermittent blog posts over the next 10 days as we roll eastwards along the Loire enjoying the food life!

D 10 Fontainebleu to Combreux

A delightful day of little villages perched on knolls overlooking the flat agricultural land between the forests of Fontainebleu and orleans. Each village grouped around a medieval church.

This one built in 13th century features a variant on a doom painting on the wall. In this apparently quite widespread tableau of the living  and the dead three well to do young gentlemen pictured here on the right on horseback encounter three more sinister figures (too feint for this camera sadly) who are of course their deaths. Not even wealth and power will.protect you is the message and reflects a time of anarchy and suffering when this whole region echoed to the drumbeat of wars that persisted for a 100 year epoch. The cross suggests that piety and faith were your only chance - hmm not sure how well that turned out.

But after culture stops comes the food stop and when you luck into a busy little place knocking out plats de jour for 8 euro you pull those brakes on pretty sharpish.

That evening on teaching Combreux I took advantage of a delightfully situated and wild boar free campsite and slept soundly.

D9 Paris to Fontainebleu

Spent the morning doing the essentials (buying maps and spectacles !)and considered popping into the louvre but I must say the journey is still all consuming and there is a deadline involving meeting my wife susannah in Orleans on Wednesday evening so decide museum browsing will have to await my next trip.to.Paris (not long Greg!).
So I picked up the Seine route and had a fiery P smooth exit apart from an unfortunate cleat incident. As those.who have tried cycling in cleats will attest one typically has three falls before fully mastering them. I had previously had one on the Thorn in my home street thankfully unwitnessed. So this my second was at traffic lights central Paris when concentrating on traffic flow I lost the balance of the bike and as it toppled over i went with it into the gutter. I'm this occasion it was witnessed by the uber cool.French cyclist beside me.I'm full.kit on the top.end racer. The disdain with which he looked down on me reminds that paris.snobbery isn't dead. But the charming (tres jolie) young woman who served me.in the opticians nailed the mood when I congratulated her on the nights victory and the mood in France seemingly much more 'up' than in UK with the words 'yes, now it's our turn'! Indeed, it all feels like 1997 in UK here remember Blair just in, Britpop ascendant all.was cool! What happened??!!
Anyway enough musings as I await my lunch.
The negotiation of the route southeast ounce O left the  Seine was a little tedious in parts but things picked up as I hoped on heading into the forest of Fontainebleu. I had my eye on a couple of trails through the forest as possible wild camping territory and so it proved. Having prepared with dinner purchases (bread,cheese,nuts vin rose) I cycled past a pizza oven place in a roadside barn which was too good to pass. So laden with food i entered the forest and sure enough found my forest camping place.

I LOVE my Hubba one man tent. As you can see in settled weather (not a drop of rain since I started - can't last!)you can leave off the fly which leaves you cocooned in an insect proof space open to the air and stars. Indeed as I fell asleep I could see my lucky star (Ref retirement speech) shining down on me. Mind you at 4am as I woke to the sound.of approaching footsteps i wasn't so sure about " lucky ' mormoree foolhardy star. As my suddenly adrenaline surging brain computed the various possibilities a giveaway snuggling sound followed by grunt pointed towards wild.boar. Now you are lying in a flimsy structure at good and tusk level what do you do next?
Our book 'Travel health for your child abroad' hadn't covered this one! Well after shitting myself I just lay quiet and decided against the torch and noise option as he seemed pretty happy snuggling around. At this point I regretted leaving half a pizza on a log for breakfast (I learnt in the Adirondacks to always hang your food in bear country but this is 50km from Paris for chrissakes). Well.clearly I survived and the boat wandered on and the trophy pizza was enjoyed an route the following morning!

Ps here's  Macron milking it in le monde

Monday morning summary

welcome to my blog. For those of you reading this at work you may want to stick to this summary as you may find my verbose lifestyle too time consuming (gloat 1 from the semi-retired)!
The rest of you will find daily posts below!

Leg 1 South coast 275 kms
Leg 2 dieppe - Paris 291 lbs

In the same period the Tour De France covered 1568kmskms somewhat quicker than I. My stats are settling into a sedate 10km\hr uphill
20 km\hr flat
30 km\hr downhill

Onwards.....roughly 1934kms to go!

D8 Sagy to Paris

D8 Sagy to paris
A superb run into the city starting with my first glimpse from Cergy - sky scrapers including La Defence visible beyond the lake

 Then a long run in around the bends of the Seine with impressive barges - this one caught my eye with the Chinese containers bringing more stuff into the heart of europe.

 Some lovely bridges which John Grimshaw would approve of.

 Before leaving behind (temporarily) rural France entering the city via Saint Denis which felt like Senegal with street vendors selling skewers of goat to an African beat on their sound systems and after a pretty non diverse French village scene there very few white people out in the banlieu!

 Very happy with my route in however see the traffic free cycle lane over my shoulder! Latched onto a young couple of cyclists who guided me in to the centre through horn sounding streets as the atmosphere built for the big match.

As you can see i lucked out finding a stool in a bar casserole where I watched the game in a convivial cosmopolitan atmosphere surrounded by delirious kids on the street all with my clumsily locked bike in sight chained up ouside.

Booking .com got me to my garret bedroom and that brings to a close legs 1 and 2 South coast and France to paris.