It was 3 days before leaving on a planned October business trip to St. Malo on the northern coast of France when we heard about the expected train strike. We'd scheduled extra days to visit France following our conference - guess we'd just have to tour by bicycle! So with very little lead time, we consulted the web (the natural reaction for Tarwheels webmasters) and found a number of tour companies that ran bike trips through the Loire Valley which was where friends, who know France well, had recommended that we go. We settled on Randonnee Tours, based in Winnepeg, who offered self-guided tours in which they would supply rental bikes (quite a challenge to find Rick a bike big enough,) plan the route, reserve different bed and breakfast inns for each night - breakfast and dinner included, and transport our excessive baggage every day so we could ride unencumbered. They did this on only 3 days notice to fit our flight schedule. With the exception of the equipment, their arrangements exceeded our expectations with wonderful meals, inns with lots of character, friendly people (in spite of the language barrier), and quiet, scenic roads that we never would have discovered on our own. They couldn't do much about the October weather - daily rain and one day of high winds (mostly tail-winds, fortunately).

The bikes that they rented for us were hybrids - an appropriate choice, since our route included cobblestone roads. The good news was that they did find a bike to fit Rick! However, they were delivered late so that we got a late start (hey, no laughing among those of you who know us well) after installing our own clipless pedals and other gear. There were some maintenance problems - one of the racks was broken and the chains desperately needed lubrication. If we go again without combining biking and business, we'll seriously consider taking our own bikes.

Fortifications - Castles and French Food

The Loire River Valley is famous for its extravagant chateaux. We explored the valley in the vicinity of the town of Tours - the Touraine region. Our first chateau was Villandry, a Renaissance style chateau with spectacular terraced gardens. We climbed the tower which gave us a grand view of the 3 tiered gardens (the water garden complete with swans, the formal, geometric, hedge mazes, and the kitchen, veggie-and-herb gardens) and the lowlands along the riverbank. Lunch at the base of the walls consisted of omelets and French onion soup with wine.

Next was the Chateau at Langeais which was more medieval looking, having been built as a defensive fortress on the site of a 10th century stronghold. We passed on going inside and spent the time in a pastry and chocolatier's shop across the street from the gate eating rich pastries, drinking tea and cafe noir, and looking at the grand architecture.

We toured the chateau of Azay-le-Rideau on our third day out. The Indre river, a tributary of the Loire, forms its moat and provides a romantic setting. The inside furnishings were elegant and of various ages. Some rooms were all medieval tapestries on the walls and heavy furnishings, some rooms were light and fine. We ate chocolate crepes at a cafe beside the chateau gate.

Our route also took us by the imposing 10th century chateau/fort at Chinon and ruins of massive gothic churches, abbeys, or fortresses in practically every village. Even our nightly lodgings were steeped in history. Our B&B for the second night was in the barn of a ruined chateau. The chateau walls were still there...complete with moat and swans. It was certainly the nicest and oldest barn I ever stayed in. The B&B on our last night, in Cormery, was in a house that was a recycled part of the ruins of a huge Benedictine Abbey founded in 791 A.D. From the courtyard garden you could look up at the 11th century Romanesque bell tower, the same excessively historic view we got from our bathroom window.

If "eat to bike and bike to eat" is your motto, France may be your ideal destination. Each night, we were served one of those many-course French dinners that take all evening to eat and every meal was superb - plus riding all day, we had little guilt about even the cheese (3rd course) and rich food we were eating. For carbo-loading, there was always an abundance of crunchy French baguettes at every meal. Our tour company was careful to advise us of the importance of hydration when (not, if) consuming French wine. For example, dinner at our B&B on the third night out included wine from the innkeeper's brother's winery...it was a bottle with just the lot number written on it (prior to labeling). The innkeeper had cooked duck in her kitchen fireplace and it was wonderfully charred on the outside.

Real Men Don't Ask Directions - Especially in French

Unlike automobile-based tourists, our route did not seem like just one chateau after another. In fact, the countryside and tiny villages held the most appeal for us. Our route took us over roads that were often about the size of bike paths (presumably 2 lanes auto roads, but obviously very minor ones). We navigated cobblestones along the banks of the Loire and through the main streets of many villages. Except when we had to travel a few miles on major roads, we didn't meet many cars and those we did meet were mostly extremely considerate of bikes. We often looped away (and uphill) from the river bottoms through forests (hunting season - how does one translate "I am not a deer"? - no need, French hunters appeared very responsible), wine making country with miles and miles of vineyards and signs inviting the traveler in for wine-tastings, and truck farms. It was near harvest-time in the vineyards and the air around the wineries was fragrant.

The inns were all in very obscure places near tiny hamlets (rarely actually in town) and run by very friendly people, but our written directions for getting to them were a bit weak. Each night, we arrived near our destination at about dusk and struggled to find that night's B&B. Carla's high-school French was still adequate for constructing a query to ask for directions, but not adequate for understanding the response. Unlike visiting Paris, where you suspect many people can (but possibly won't) speak English to tourists, the farmers in the countryside would-if-they-could, but can't effectively communicate with an English-speaking bicyclist. We could have understood simple "turn right and go 2 kilometers" kinds of directions, but what we inevitably got were rapidly spoken descriptions of landmarks unlike anything we'd encountered in our French phrase books (e.g. "behind that row of poplar trees..."). To Rick's credit, he was better at listening carefully and understanding the response after Carla had concentrated on composing the request. We always managed to arrive and we were always impressed by the friendliness of the folks we met along the way.

Next time, we'll review those French language tapes before we go, but don't let it stop you if you want to go and haven't gotten around to learning the language...our experience proves you can survive with a few basics..."bonjour", spoken to all pedestrians you pass; "Je ne parle pas Francais", the great disclaimer; "L'addition s'il vous plait", you'll never get out of a restaurant without asking for the check several times; "Ou sont les toilettes", don't be surprised if they're unisex; and "chocolat", which is universally recognizable .