Distance: 93 km

Time on Road: 7.5 hrs

Had a bit of a slow start the morning after the big first day of biking. Our host for the night had kindly left us a “continental” breakfast for the morning. What this really means, is enough loafs of bread to feed a family and a whole lotta jam. So we ate enough baguette to feed a family, drank copious cups of coffee and slid into our almost dry clothes before hitting the road!

While the weather wasn’t necessarily on our side yet, the landscape was incredible and to be honest, the light sprinkling of rain kept us cool and refreshed for the ride. What we realized as the day went on is that most cyclists heading to the Loire Valley and further south, seem to avoid to first leg and more often than not will pick up their route where we are starting from Orléans! That is where the going gets good.

So that being said, the routes from Paris to the Loire are all reaally highway heavy! We played it well and sneakily though. Conscious of the railway and the major highway, we took smaller roads and paths that kept us cycling parallel to them, and tried to never let them fully out of sight. We did have to briefly hop on the freeway, where some of the 18 wheelers were NOT so friendly as Parisian drivers, and we got a few honks and I’m sure “stupide tourists” from inside the cars. Our aversion to being on the highway took us so far as to hop around a fence and carry our bikes and belongings over a bridge covering the railway.

We did find one bike path yesterday that lasted about five glorious blocks, but in the excitement of discovering it, Steve took the curb from a weird angle and took a bit of a fall…. into pile of, how do you say, ‘merde’. But despite a pretty decent gash, he heroically brushed himself off and got back in the saddle.

We ate some incredible shwarma from a suspicious man in a small town, in a shop which upon leaving we realized wasn’t even open. We aren’t entirely convinced he even worked there…..but the food was good!

Pulled into Orléans around 7pm, cleaned our selves and our wounds and went for a wonderful french dinner just outside the town square. Orléans is known as the city where Joan of Arc, along with the Royal French army, reached a victory in the Hundred Years War. History.

Off to the Loire to see us some Chateaus now!!

Here’s a short video of our ride out of Prunay-en-Yvelines through the rapeseed fields. Incidentally, they use these plants to make canola oil, which sounds better than ‘rapeseed oil’.