After leaving blois, headed south in our little red convertible,  successfuly negotiated tolls, gas stations, 2 lane highways through towns to the autoroute, no billboards, no trucks, packed rest areas (with parking lots overfilled with vacationing french, and real meals served on non-disposable plates with wine!) then south to Jens friends communal house in pavie, near toulouse. An incredible group house (Domaine de Peyloubere, a 17th century former estate/hotel) these friendly people bought together. Amazing multilingual meal with 14 people, interesting conversations with folks from Beirut, Moscow and new zealand.  Then had our own gite. Spending 2 days with pool, river swimming, walking in beautiful remote area, with spanish influenced architecture. Funny story while getting gas - 1 pump was not working according to people in front of me. So I waited till they drove off, then the car behind me pulls around to the broken pump and gets it working. I asked 'ca marche'?...

Started out in the rain, across the loire to the right bank, wearing my new loire kit (thank you all!), 3 riders short as some returned their bikes. Rain ended quickly, then rode through vineyards, sunflowers to vouvray where half the group stopped for 10.30am wine tasting. 5 o'clock somewhere! Down to river where lots of cave-houses cut into side of mountains, where rest of group stopped for coffee and olive/nut cans from 1 Euro vending machines at lulu parc, looks like a total party place with band warming up. Rode into town and grabbed lunch by our **** grand hotel, then most of us rode to lac bergeonnerie - nice picnic spot, but no swimming. So we rode along the cher, through the trailer park to lac brettonierres. Also no swimming. Ah well. Turned around to go back to our **** grand hotel, beating the rain but most of our rooms were not ready...dinner in the big city at L'atelier Gourmand with Glasgow, #1 of 426 rated places by tripadvisor. 1 and a half flats, Jason...

Faster turnaround at the bike shop this morning, including 2 e-bike upgrades, and back onto the trail along the loire, this time continued straight until coffee at scenic bridge in cande-sur-beavron, where we tried to figure out where the 4 stragglers were ('we weren't lost!') and how 4 leaders went on without stopping. Beautiful riding through forests and along the river until the fairy tale castle in chateau de Chaumont where we instantly decided we needed more time than initially allotted. Beautiful gardens and overlook of the loire River, and nice lunch in courtyard. And a nap. Magical. Then back along the river, and by the vineyards. Stops for swimming in the loire, and another winery tour! Arrival in amboise before 5pm (!!), then our 2nd 'group's dinners (clois d'amboise with anne & jj). This town may be even cuter than the last.  First appearance of audrey, still testing covid positive but still not riding with us. One flat (with the wrong tu...