For once I got up early at 6:30, but I was upstaged by the family next door who had already packed their trailer and were just about to cycle off. I was ready to go only an hour later, after coffee and porridge. I crossed over the bride to the north bank, and stopped to take some photos on the bridge. As I took one, the bike moved between my legs and I grab it to stop it falling. In the process I flung the camera on the end of its strap into a concrete pillar at speed, it ricochet off and skittered across the road. The camera is shock proof for a 1.5m drop and it still worked fine after exceedimg this limit considerably. It had been a good buy for my first trip, a water proof, shock proof and wifi enabled camera – it allows getting photos on to the blog a breeze and I can’t believe I nearly took my SLR to Finland!

I got onto the levee and the headwind was ferocious, I stopped many times, mainly to check Google weather which said 20 km/h easterly. I now know this means the wind is coming from the east (I’m sure I must of known this before). Another Nuclear Power Station dominated the views for a while.  I stopped in Beaugency with a big abbey and very ancient cobbled streets. I thought I’d look for lunch, and found a Boulanger but no sandwiches on a Sunday but came out with the next best thing – a Quiche Lorraine (and two croissants for second breakfast). There was not many shops open, but lots of the streets had markets in them, and the markets had spilled on to the Loire foreshore. I didn’t look too hard in case I got tempted by a large impractical antique or in fact anything unnecessary to carry.

I pushed on to Meung-sur-Loire, which was the same story, very busy with local markets. Here the route crossed back to the South side, where I came across a dedicated cyclists crossing – I was surprised that I hadn’t seen more, but it’s probably testament to the route planning and the quietness of the roads along the rest of the route.

It was back on the levee – it was really hard work, the people going the other way looked happy being blown along. There were a few electric bikes, I hope they saved power for going back. Made it to the outskirts of Orleans, and found a super-U supermarket open to 12:30 so bought a few bits to supplement lunch and tea. The route crossed back over and into Orleans. It was really quiet and nice to pootle around the cobbled streets. I found an open corner-shop for some cold drinks, and while looking for shade met a dutch cyclist. He’d come down from Paris, and was heading down to the Pyrenees, then back up to Nantes before following my route – in a month. He asked if I’d seen food, so pointed out the corner-shop but he was looking for something more like a kebab! I found some shade in a nice square for lunch. It was about 10km to the camp site I’d spotted, just east of Orleans and on some good roads to Fontainebleau. The final part of the route was along the Orleans canal, presumably used to keep ships/goods higher than the river to get into the city. There was a narrow wall dividing the canal and river, with some runners choosing to sweat it out with nowhere to escape from the sun. They disturbed a heron just as I was level to them, which was a shock for everyone especially as it flew my way.

The campsite is in a quaint village of Chercy, which happened to have a fete – or festival in the field next to the campsite. Very well attended and gendarmes out in force, checking everyone’s bags even for a local event. I was entertained for the evening by some bands, and french “smashy & nicey” which whenever they played a record after 30 seconds it cut out. Everytime!  It was funny for me, but the crowd groaned each time it happened (I think there was a noise limiter, yet they wacked each record really loud each time – much louder than the bands who got really good support). Well as long as it doesn’t go on too late I want a 6 am start!