Day 7 - Vierzon to La Chatre (89km, 480m)

Friday, May 23rd, 2014

 

Route Map and Garmin Ride Statistics

Today's ride was, according the to route notes, relatively shot (89km) and relatively flat. More importantly, it turned out to be relatively dry as well. By the time we arrived at our first (indeed, only) stop of the day, the sun was shining and the rain jackets were off. We also cycled as a relatively large group of 9 for at least half of the distance. One wonders what the proprietors of all these cafes and bars think of so many English speaking cyclists wandering in together.

So...the next photo is of David crossing the pedestrian crossing outside our hotel for the night. Sometimes we not sure what will happen when he's left alone for this long.

It's not that there was nothing to photograph today, but rather that there was such a large group, and stopping meant being left behind! It was probably also the quietest day of the ride so far, traffic wise, and some of the nicest small country lanes that we had so far used.

Our destination was La Chatre, and we were on the outskirts of the town. We thought it might be small, or uninteresting, but it was quite a surprise. It has a very long "high street" starting virtually from the hotel and rising gently for about 2 km to a main square. There are at least two "tudor" buildings in the street as well (why am I using "tudor" to describe French architecture? Sacre blue!).

An interesting fact about La Chatre is that George Sand lived and died not far from here. Indeed, during the last 10 km of the ride we saw signs indicating a George Sand tourist route. Every second hotel, restaurant, cafe or street seems to have a connection (well, not every one).

And if you don't know who George Sand is, Wikipedia will explain. Short answer - female, early 19th century French novelist, and lover of Chopin (early 19th century Polish pianist).

I had a wander around town on my own for a while, and one of the things I like to do when in France wandering about on my own is look at real estate advertisements. There are an awful lot of houses for sale in rural France, and most of them are priced under $200k, or even $100k for the smaller "renovators delights". Warning - before buying, check out just how remote some of these places are.

And another of my interests is the Camino de Santiago, or Chemin de St Jacques in France. I bumped into Trevor, and just near the bar was this sign on the wall. My "bucket list" includes two more legs of the French camino - one from Paris to the Pyrenees, and the other from Vezelay to the Pyrenees. Clearly, La Chatre is on one or other of these (will check later which one it is).

Back to (faux/French) tudor architecture, here's a really old and interesting door on one of these houses.

We chose the nearby Pizzeria for dinner, partly because it had an indoor terrace overlooking the river, partly because we didn't have to walk all the way back into town, and partly because it was cheaper than our hotel (whose menu looked very interesting, but expensive).

After Osso Bucco, accompanied by "frog pink" (rose), and a limoncello, I had to have dessert - a "Coupe Italienne" - basically lots of ice cream, cream and berry sauces - yum! Yet still I (think) I am losing weight.