May 31st, 2022
Day 3 of 4 Biking Loire Valley, France
Day 3 biking: Luynes – Vouvray – Amboise (28 miles)
Amazing! My kids are such amazing bikers! We just finished 3 excellent, sunny, glorious days of biking in France. Despite small hiccups- Asher not letting Linden pass, Linden not letting Asher pass and Ari going too fast for me to even keep up (HOW RUDE!!!). Ha! We laugh a lot- realizing how subconsciously competitive siblings can be, how mom becomes Dr.SCUBA Eyes the minute Asher is going over 20 km/h or anytime we are moving near to ANY OTHER LARGER MOVING OBJECT, how we all function as toddlers if we are allowed to especially if we are hungry or if it is after 7:49 pm and that we all just need compassion and gratefulness to find true joy- AGAIN. We must sound like a broken record, but it is so true! The minute Asher and Linden start treating each other with compassion and respect- it’s as if the entire mood of the universe has shifted for the better! And now the running joke of the family is- “Oh you must be home schooled” to whomever does or says something even slightly stupid! We are getting saucy with each other at this point of “the SABB”. The countdown has begun- only 3 days left!
Kids woke before we did this morning! Knocking on the door- “good morning!” Chipper and joyful…. It’s going to be another great day with them! Even Asher is fully packed and ready to go for the most part. Both have their obligatory padded biking spandex on! Just spandex was another small success of the trip a couple of days back. Before we dropped off the rental car in Tours, we stopped at a bike store GIANT with a mission. The mission was to find biking pants and biking gloves since we didn’t pack them for the 3 month trip. The only male spandex in the entire store were the suspender ones and Asher and Ari were NOT about to sling those muffins nor bananas up like that! So the women’s “side” of the store was raided by the 4 B’s and we came out of there in purple interior style! Ari and Asher are outfitted in women’s spandex with the fancy purple interior pads! Heck we all do and they are awesome! Anyway back to today-
We packed up and headed down to our routine light breakfast (petit dejeuner) in the lobby. The kids were already seated with ornate white personal kettles of hot chocolate (chocolat chaud) and a basket FULL of chocolate and regular croissants and thousands of calories. To be honest- Pastry control has been difficult, but we ask again for the kids to be reasonable with all the food choices… while Linden downs all the sugar cubes. Are we really effective parents? Who is being homeschooled? Us or them? We gather the bikes and check the tires and brakes- sunscreen check! Helmets check! We are ready! We open the app called “Roadbook for discovery” on the Iphone and push START! It shows us the route for the day and for the most part has been fairly idiot proof. Me being the idiot with little to NO directional propensities. Thank baby Jesus (on going Talladega Nights references endure during our trip) that Ari is our lead with the app AND the only gadget to attach the said iphone to the bike! We just follow him singing at that top of our lungs and dinging our bike bells and just enjoy the ride! And it’s also no secret now that I love being the caboose anyway! I can keep all my goslings in full view as all times that way! The day is sunny with a high of mid 70’s today- blue skies, white fluffy clouds dispersed perfectly along the river and cute bakeries (boulangerie) on most town corners!!!! We sneak out of the ancient town of Luynes (the walls of the hotel were from the 1300s!!!) and get into our riding routine. Early on, Asher got his feelings hurt when Linden tried to pass him but it was a small upset and we were back on that horse again! Again, the birds were chirping, the weather was perfect, the fragrant smells of flowers especially jasmine filled the air. We followed the wide Loire River for the most part all day. We weave in and out of small towns- most homes cut into the limestone cliff sides like caves! Today’s route even some mountain biking components to the day! Near the town of Tours (where we started on Day 1) we are on the other side of the river on a bumpy singletrack trail at times. At one point we even must push our bikes up a very steep dirt path only to pop out on a bridge crossing for trains! We cross over slowly riding with just a small barrier between us and the train tracks. There was so much biking terrain variety today! We didn’t have the MUST SEE castles today but hey we loved the parkour nature of the ride! Yesterday was Sleeping Beauty’s Castle (Usse), the day before we saw the amazing gardens of Villandry Castle as well as the favorite writing paradise for the French classic author Balzac (aka Ball Sack for the B team, so much laughter over this one!!!) but we were all down with the Parkour near scavenger hunt like nature of the day! We stop for lunch in Vouvray and have a delicious outside Italian lunch. Ordering lunch in French is once again an ordeal for us. Everyone wants the Iphones at the same time to use google translate to even read the menu! We finally decide and order. As always, the Italian food is perfect for us and everyone is happy! We head out again on the bikes and Asher even complements me saying that this is one of his favorite parts of sabbatical! He is really loving the biking today and is just very content and happy. We sing more, we use our bells often and also raise our hands to the sky with the “I LOVE YOU” sign over and over again as we bike through the valley- fields and fields of baby baguettes (also known as wheat fields), grape vineyards, rows and rows of them all along the river and up and down the rolling hills of this area. We venture in and out of a few small towns but mostly follow the “Vela la Loire” bike trails for the last hour or so and eventually pop up on to the car road of Amboise! Our destination for the night! Just as we arrive our bags arrive too! We see Georgio (our driver from day 1) running our stuff into the hotel and get to chat with him for a bit! Kids scurry off to their room for showers and hopefully some reading and journaling. Ari and I do the same in our room. Another successful day!
Day 2 biking: Azay le Rideau – Luynes
Day 1 biking: Tours – Azay le Rideau
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replica rolex uhren
replica tag-heuer uhren
one of my favorite places, for sure!
such fun!
Sarah and I read this together and are so happy (and a bit jealous) for you! What great weather and another adventure! Hope to catch up with you guys soon!
We loved Loire too! It's so nice to meander on the trailer instead of zooming from place to place in a car. And there is something about the skies in France isn't there? Can't wait to catch up with you! Welcome home!