We set off reluctantly in the rain, which luckily soon cleared up. The first part of the trip went past Chenehutte, Tréves and Cunault, which all had mostly white stone houses with blue shutters and are right on the banks of the Loire. They take a lot of care with their gardens and there are many flowers, especially roses and geraniums decorating the front of the houses. At one point there are private gardens with vegetables and flowers right up to the edge of the Loire, with the houses that they belong to on the other side of the road.

We stopped at Ste-Gemmes-Sur-Loir to see the Jardin du Presbytère. This is a small garden in front of the church with brightly coloured flowers – all orange and red and yellow – planted in geometric patterns – and immaculately kept.

In the afternoon there were a few very short showers of about 5 min each. We could literally see the individual dark clouds passing over us. Once it was finished the sun shone again and we were soon dry again.

We passed by Chalonnes-sur-Loire just after one of these showers and considered stopping there, but decided to go a bit further. The town looked lovely on the other side of the Loire – all white houses and a church.

At this point we were on an island in the middle of two parts of the Loire. We were amused to pass a Lenin pub just after Chalonnes – people were sitting outside, one with a full beard and another playing an accordion. We were again tempted to stop for a drink (and maybe interesting conversation with some socialists), however it would have been too hard to start cycling again.

We reached the end of our journey at Montjean-sur-Loire (after 94km). Our bikes were a bit muddy from the rain and needed a wash. We found a wonderful bed and breakfast that specialises in cyclists. It is run by a friendly German lady who provides a shared kitchen, dining room and lounge for her guests, as well as the bedroom. We enjoyed making a cooked meal again.

Our hostess tells us that the weather is unseasonably cool – that this time last year the temperature was in the 30s with no rain. She has also had fewer cycle tourists coming through than usual – 2010 was her best year so far.

The next morning we had one of our best breakfasts in France – in fact it was more like a German breakfast. We had a boiled egg, cheese and yogurt, as well as good French bread, croissant and jam and coffee.