The Vienne, at near-flood levels after recent rains, at Châtellerault
I write from Poitiers, two days out from Tours, with about 150 km of cycling to our credit. In previous travel blogs I’ve tried to do daily posts, but there’s been little time to write during these past couple of days. That’s my excuse, at any rate, and I’m sticking to it.
So this post, an anthology of sorts, covers the time (& space) between Paris and Poitiers, and is copiously illustrated with photos that feature (among other subjects): nuns; rain; scenic beauty, horses; signage, cups of coffee, and yes: pastries; specifically: a gland. Surgeon’s warning: best consumed in portions (this post, not the gland), with a suitable beverage in hand.
Last night, at the end of dinner at the halte Jacquaire in Poitiers (of which more later), a few of the other pilgrims surprised the table with a selection of pastries, purchased earlier that day from Fink, a high-end pâtissier in Poitiers. These were divided, and subdivided, and (ultimately) devoured.
Our loyal readers—both of you—will not be surprised to learn that A&I would—inevitably—attempt to track these unctuous treats to their source on this, our rest day in Poitiers. Here is a small sample of what we found at Fink.
After our first three days in Paris, we left the city to visit friends who live just south of the Loire, near Orleans.
J&I would be back in Paris after our two nights away, so, to simplify our travel, we’d asked our next hotel a few days earlier if we could leave some luggage—and my boat-anchor bike—with them until our return.
J&I have been posting photos to Instagram “in real time,” so you might consider following us there (@mhhayward and @jk.2523) —particularly if you’d like to avoid the unnecessary verbiage of these posts. The blog sidebar includes a “widget” that displays the most recent Instagram pics, in case you were wondering.
Either way, here are some photos from our first few days wandering through the streets of Paris. You will find views of: the Canal Saint-Martin; Notre Dame Cathedral; a Fête du Pain; several interesting bookstores; the Jardin du Luxembourg and Medici Fountain; the Fondation Louis Vuitton art museum; the Arc de Triomphe; plus some random street scenes, guaranteed to stimulate the most jaded of palates.
Sounds like the start of a classic Lewis Carroll riddle, doesn’t it? Ravens and writing desks, that kind of thing. Well, like that famous riddle, this one doesn’t really have an answer either. But there are definitely times when traveling with a bicycle as luggage is a pain.
Once the cycling actually begins, a bike will offer the purest kind of freedom: that sense of having a quiet, open road ahead, a map for reference, and a distant destination, however imprecise. Plus the time (Leisurely! Cafés! Pastries! Picnics! Books!) to reach that destination, pedaling. But until that moment, a bike can feel a lot like a boat anchor.
J&I fly to Paris on Tuesday, so I’ve spent the last couple of days fine-tuning my packing list, gathering everything together so that I could pack it into panniers. The good news: everything seems to fit.
What I’ll be wearing for the next monthMy gear, packed
The biggest job was packing up my bike for air travel. In the past I’ve used a heavyweight plastic bag, supplied by Air Canada at the airport. The theory was: if the baggage handlers could see what they were dealing with, they might handle it with the necessary care. And in the past this has worked just fine.
It seems to have become almost a routine: creating a travel blog to share some details of another bike adventure. This time I’ll be cycling along the Way of Tours, one of the four main “feeder” branches of the Camino in France, as a way to mark a significant birthday (if I may be permitted this minor euphemism). The map below shows these four branches, and their connection to the main Camino route across northern Spain.
The four main Camino routes in France. The Way of Tours is the westernmost one.
My trusty cycling companion will once more be the formidable A, from Cork, whom you may have met previously via the travel blog for our 2015 cycle trip along the Vézelay Way; or via the travel blog for the 2019 cycle trip that J&I did with A, along the EuroVelo 6 from Basel, Switzerland to Orleans, France. A will take the ferry from Cork to France and plans to cycle from Roscoff to Orleans as a warmup ride.
I promise that I’ll try to keep the postings short. It can be tiring to put a blog post together after a full day of activity, when all you want to do is sit down in the shade with a book, and/or a coffee or a cold drink.
Check out the blog’s About page for more details about this trip. And check in here, at thewayoftours.wordpress.com, from time to time, to see how we’re making out. Or you might subscribe to the blog using the Subscribe field (in the sidebar or at bottom). In theory, subscribing will allow you to receive new blog postings via email as they’re posted, which might give the impression that you’re cycling with us in real time. But I’m not sure exactly how—or if—that actually works; it may depend on whether you’re already a regular user of WordPress.
The Way of Tours 