We took a more leisurely ride today to Orleans, with a number of stops along the way. Altogether we did 95 km.

Yesterday we saw a handful of bicycle tourists on the route and today even more. You could see some were doing overnight tours like us, but at least half were doing day trips.

Our first stop was at nearby St-Gondon where we sought out the bakery to buy some breakfast. I had a piece of ‘flan’ – which is very much like milk tart but without the cinnamon.

Our next stop was at Sully-sur-Loire, where we marveled at the chateau – it looks just like a fairy tale castle with several turrets and a moat around it. The town is right next to the chateau, so we stopped to have coffee (outdoors, next to a table of very noisy men who were smoking a lot – they smoke a lot here). We didn’t spend long in town as it was congested, being a busy Saturday morning.

After a lovely stretch right alongside the river, we came to St-Benoit. We stopped here to visit the Fleury Abbey, where the remains of St Benedict lie in the crypt. They were brought here from Naples by the monks in 672. There is an impressive porch tower, built in 1020 with sixteen columns, all with stone sculptures at the top.

The monks were dispersed during the French Revolution, but full monastic life has been restored here since 1944. There were a few of monks around (talking to a group of children, manning the gift shop) in their distinctive brown habits. We bought some of the chocolate that they have been making since 1878 in the gift shop. (see www.abbaye-fleury.com)

Our next stop was at Chateauneuf-sur-Loire, at the marine museum which displays the history of boating on the Loire. The original boats were flat bottomed sail boats. Later there were steam boats, until the railways came in and put lots of mariners out of work. At this stage steel manufacturing factories were opened in the area to make use of the ready labour force. There was also some information on the canals, which is what Kris particularly interested in, but disappointingly not much on the actual construction of the canals

From here we pressed on to Orleans, about 30km away. We had some nice fast straight runs along stop banks. The ride coming into the city is beautiful, along the river with some small lakes and parks on the other side of the track. There were off road bike paths right into the center of the city, what a pleasure!

The Office de Touristme is right next to the magnificent Salute-Croix Cathedral. We visited the Cathedral after sorting out our accommodation (since tomorrow is Sunday and there will be a service on when we are sight seeing). This is the biggest Cathedral that we have seen – really awe inspiring. There is an alter hanging and stained glass windows depicting Joan of Arc (in fact, there are many references to Joan of Arc all over the city). The organ began playing towards the end of our visit – making a wonderful noise. We quickly left when we saw very smartly dressed people coming in and realised a wedding was about to begin.

We are staying in a bed and breakfast close to the city center. It looks onto a busy street but has a nice big garden out the back. The furnishing is old fashioned (but comfortable).