Yes today is a lovely rest day. We cycled five days then took a rest day, then six days and today is our next rest day. We need a rest day – John is due to join us tomorrow and we plan two long days cycling with him.

In eleven days according to the Strava app which records our actual distance cycled, we have covered 893 km, (81km per day over 11 cycling days.) If I put in our direct routes on the google cycle app it states 825 km. The 8% difference is due mainly to 1) The Véloroute being less direct than the google cycle app. 2) We go off piste to go to get food, drinks, see something interesting. 3) We make mistakes and have to retrace our steps. Knowing the difference between the google cycling app and the actual is very useful for us when planning the next day’s cycle.

We reckon that the whole trip will take us about forty days – even for us non-believers, there’s something biblical about forty days!

We are staying in a lovely B&B in Sancerre run by a very nice couple who speak good English.Breakfast was with a Japanese and English couple. Again the breads and jams were all homemade – strawberry, rhubarb, apricot and jelly of white wine, the latter is a new one for me. The honey was a local one. I tasted all and they were great.
(I loved having breakfast with the map of the world as a backdrop – reminds one of lots of places yet to be seen!)

Sancerre is set on a hill with beautiful views over the surrounding countryside. Obviously we are are beginning to see vines growing now.

Sancerre itself is a very old historic town.

There were plenty of options for dinner in Sancerre including à la maison. We opted for the latter since the food here was lovely and Phillipe and Giselle, our hosts, spoke some English and were very sociable. They told us another couple, a French lady and her Dutch husband, friends of theirs who were visiting, would also be having dinner.

Dinner was gorgeous, Phillipe had done the cooking and he served it with local Sancerre wines. Everyone spoke some English so between mostly English and some French, we had a lively conversation until late. Jaap, the Dutchman, was a cyclist and had many interesting stories.

A gorgeous sauce to go with the pork


It was beginning to get dark. Dessert was a lovely frozen strawberry with egg white combination, served with homemade biscuits.

Good night Sancerre!