Monday 14th Sep 2015.

At last I am connected using my Hudl and WiFi! Have no phone connection as my sim card does not permit it!
Have paid for WiFi connection in my holiday apartment.
We had a very good overnight crossing apart from a slight rumbling noise we could have been in a hotel with cell like rooms!
Bus ride was fine. Lots of maize and sunflowers being grown.
We passed a convoy of about 15 circus vans with huge American trucks with very smart trailers

Le Tour de St Antoine. Night.

Saw 3 kestrels and lots of mistletoe.
Had a beer and Croque Madame for lunch.
My apartment overlooks the river the view from my  balcony.day and night.

Le Tour de St Antoine. Day.

Joy to discover Margaret Rayfield and Paul are also taking part.
Tomorrow the cycling starts!

General view of the old town from the Tour de St. Antoine.

View from my bedroom of the railway station.

My apartment block.
My apartment was on the top floor on the right.

Tuesday 15th Sep 2015.

28 of us set off just after 9.30 to ride to Montresor to visit the château. Dave Pilbeam was leading with his wife Pam acting as sweeper at the back. It had been raining but the day was dry and the wet roads soon dried out. The ride was well organized with pauses when we took turnings to ensure no one was lost.
We were soon at our coffee stop in the small town of Genille. Pam treated us all to croissants, orange juice and coffee. It was really a second breakfast!
Afterwards we climbed the steepest hill of the day, needing our granny gears. A few of the group resorted to walking.

Wild flower meadow.

The country side here is largely arable fields with lots of small copses and in parts larger forests.
Plenty of wild flowers blooming , some in the environs of the villages were planted.

We had a picnic lunch in Montresor under the shelter of a communal building with proper tables and benches.

Chateua.Montresor 

After we visited the château.
This was very interesting as it contains a piano brought there by Chopin for him to play.
Johnston one of our riders played the piano. He was terrific.

The church seen through the gateway of the chateau.

Great views over the town from the top of the walls.





Interesting garden with two enormous trees.

Gridirnman reentering Loches.

We set off for Loches just after 3.20 and arrived back at the complex two hours later having ridden through the Forest of Loches. A much hillier route than our outward one.
Garmin stats for the day:_ Miles39.35 time 3:37:48 avs 11.36 climb 3021 feet. Max 28 mph











The camaraderie of the group is already very high and I am beginning to remember names!!!
Looking forward to dinner tonight when we will enjoy reliving our experiences.

Wednesday 16th Sep 2015.

It stopped raining about 10.30 so when we met at 11.30 we thought the worst was over. Big mistake.
Unfortunately it was another 15 mins before we managed to get going as some were still not ready. Three decided the ride was not for them. Good decision.
We had only gone about half a mile when the heavens opened up and we sheltered ineffectually under some small trees.
When the rain eased we got going again. We were soon out into the undulating countryside enjoying the views of the rain clouds!
We had another very heavy downpour and half the peleton defected to shelter under some large trees in the gateway to a large house. Beautiful cyclamen to admire while we heard thunder rolling.

Cyclamen. Lots of them around the area.

We continued when the rain eased again and eventually arrived in a small village where we sheltered in two small buildings. The one I was in was a shelter beside a water leet leading to a mill. We think it was the place where villagers used to wash their clothes. While we're eating lunch there was a huge flash of lightning followed almost immediately by the bang of thunder it must have been right overhead. We were all very scared.
We were totally soaked by now and had to wring out our mitts before eating out packed lunches.
Dave suggested that we should turn for home now via another larger village where we could get coffee. Possibly the most popular suggestion of the day.
Eventually we got there and enjoyed being out of the rain for a while. A hot coffee had never tasted so good.
I had got cold and as we climbed a hill I found my teeth were chattering! When our leading group stopped at the top of the hill to let the others catch up I rode down s side road and back to keep warmer.
On our way back the rain eased a couple of times and patches of blue sky appeared, this was just to fool us, for as we entered Loches it chucked it down again!
We arrived at quarter to five just five hours after setting off. Our actual riding time was less than three hours and we had barely covered thirty miles.
Garmin data:
Miles 30.13 time 2 hrs 46 mins. Ave speed 10.90 mph feet climbed 1762.
Of course now at six o'clock it has stopped raining and the sun is trying to come out!
I have only once before been as wet as this when cycling, when I did the Plains Challenge for Naomi House two years ago.
A day which none of us will forget in a hurry. The remarkable thing being that everyone remained so cheerful.
Don't you all wish you could have been with us?

Thursday 17th Sep 2015.

The forecast was right! When we met at 9.30 this morning it was Torrential rain once moe. This time we decided to just wait a bit. At ten past ten it had eased so 18 of us took the plunge (literally).
It was still raining fairly hard but within a couple of miles it had greatly reduced.
We followed the Indre river. This was very different countryside to that of our precious rides. Lush foliage and trees with occasional glimpses of the river. In one or two places the road was flooded and water was streaming out of the fields onto the road. I am not sure where we had coffee, but think it was in Cormery. All I know was that while searching for the cafe we managed to get split up.
Eventually we found the cafe and we were all reunited. The sun was shining by now and even my mitts had dried out.

Our objective today was the Chateau Nitray. It only took us another 47 mins to get there. On boy! Were we glad we did! Awaiting us was the present owner, he was very welcoming and soon had us gathering around a table in the sunshine tasting a couple of delicious wines and eating crudites, gaspachio and salmon in a lemon and fennel marinade.

Wine tasting with snacks.

This was only our starters! Our lunch which followed a little later consisted of chicken with small new potatoes and salad followed by blackcurrant tart. Of course this was accompanied by more wine.

Le Patron explaining matters.

The owner also showed us around the chapel, the courtyard and the pigeonaire. He kept us amused with a number of witty remarks and by climbing the ladder in the pigeonaire! It was a most enjoyable visit!

Le Patron on the ladder in the pigeonaire.

We set off to return to Loches by a different font. When we arrived in Cigone we came upon the other riders who had stayed behind to avoid the rain. They had decided to do their own thing. Several joined us for the return to Loches..

Friday 18th Sep 2015.

For once s bright sunny morning. Just had breakfast now getting ready to go to Chatillon sur Marne according to our program but that is about 100 miles away.. Think it should be sur Indre.
I have had a problem with Sporty's drive train. Hope it doesn't get any worse today.
Keep your fingers x'd

Further news of day 4.
Our best day yet, though we did encounter a couple of showers and as we rode the last mile home it started to rain again. We managed to get in by an open vehicle gate which is usually locked. This saved a few minutes which was good for there was a very heavy shower which would have made us quite wet.
In the morning we rode across the fairly flat area where a lot of the fields are planted with crops. Lots of sunflowers, maize and another which caused much discussion. I brought a piece back and have identified it as millet.
There were some hills too, but none too steep. We arrived in Loche sur Indrois on the stroke of eleven by the church clock.

The faster riders awaiting the groupetta after a tough 5 kms into the wind.

The cafe we had hoped to use was closed but a kind lady told us that we could get coffee behind the church. There we found what appeared to be a small village hall where we were served coffee by an elderly gentleman. While we were several villagers popped in for bread.


Suitably refreshed we continued southwards into an extremely strong breeze to Chatillon sur Indre. A slight hiccup in our progress when little Paul picked up a puncture . the group waited in the town by the river until he and his helpers arrived.

The River Indre.

We then climbed the very steep hill into the centre of the town where we arrived outside the Hotel de Ville at one o'clock.
We ate our packed lunches there before exploring more and some enjoyed a coffee.

Lovely Clouds reminding us rain is not far away.

We were on our way once more soon after two.
We were still riding into the wind for a while, but soon turned north.
A number of hills now and then down into the valley of the Indre where we crossed the river.

 Unfortunately it was Jane's turn to suffer s flat tyre just by the village of St. Cyran du Jambot. Once more the experts swing into action & we were soon underway again. It started to rain in St. Hippolyte so we sheltered under the church roof which had a spacious outside are large enough for all of us. A few more miles and some more hills later and we were into the outskirts of the town and then the mad dash for home!

Nature notes. A lot more birds about today, spotted were:
Swallows, rooks ,, house martins,, a heron and some small brown jobs.

One of several mules we saw.

Animals:
Mules, cows, one bull, one deer & horses.
Lots of flowers:
White & red clover, white campion, scabious, cornflower, toad flax, marjorum dandelions, various small umbellifers.
The company was great, though at times we were strung out over a mile or more.
This week has been like four all day easy rides with a wide range of abilities but no one has been left out of the fun & games!

Saturday 19th Sep 2015.

At last a day of sunshine and no rain!

Most of the group about to start the final ride/

Our target for today was the Château de Montpoupon. Our third château of the week.
Our route was a familiar one along the D31 for the first few miles, but then we deviated onto the D80 to the village of Luzille.(It should have an acute accent on the e but I have failed to go d out how to do that).
The kids among us tried to get the speed limit reminder over the prescribed 30 kph!
More importantly this was the place for a very good coffee stop at the Hotel Mail. More kids fun here as some had the joy of playing table football. It was not long after this when we stopped for our picnic lunch beside a lake in Eperigne Les Bois.
More kids stuff as a few could not resist having a go on the children's swings.
Unfortunately Dave had a picture as we were starting off so we all waited while he changed his tube.
Unluckily he had a second one very soon afterwards near to the Château. As we were so near we continued , he joined us later having replaced the tyre as well as the tube.

Chateau Montpoupon. 

The Château turned out to be very interesting. It had been a very important place for hunting of all kinds and was stuffed with thousands of items of interest.. Lots of pictures including many old photographs and other hunting memorabilia.
There was so much of interest that we could on!y skim the surface in the hour available. After leaving Montpoupon we rode through the forest before turning for home. Unfortunately w e managed to lose one rider when he missed a turning. Despite a valiant chase by another we failed to catch up with him and had to wait nearly 15 minutes for him to come back to rejoin us.

We made good time on our return journey to make up for lost time but we were still too late to get admission to Le Tour de ,St Antoine for our 4.30 tickets but 12 of us managed to get admitted at 5 p.m.
Marvellous views of the town including my Dragon Jersey in the window of my apartment!
A very enjoyable day!
Nature notes. Two buzzards. Lucerne crops in several places. Hemp agramony, Large white convovulus, old man's beard..
Total mileage for the 5 days only a modest 193. But we were sightseeing, not racing or trying to achieve a specific cycling goal like LeJog.

Dinner at Entre Acte.

We had great dinners each evening in one of the local restaurants.
Very French cuisine with more than enough wine and great service.

It has been a most enjoyable week despite the poor weather. I made 27 new friends from all parts of the country. We seemed to get on so well together with a good range of ages. I was the senior member of the party but Ali from |Scotland is only a month younger than me and at 9 stone he is a formidable climber. Regularly rides 100 miles a week.

The Original Pegasus Bridge.

On our way back to the ferry on Sunday we had enough time to visit the Pegasus Bridge in Normandy. Famous for the Airborne action that took place there in June 1944. A very moving experience. I actually can remember seeing Horsa gliders flying over us in Gloucestershire in that year.


A great thank you to Pam and Dave Pilbeam for their patience and kindness in dealing with at times a such a "herd of cats"! They made the whole experience a good one despite the adverse weather at times. Thanks too to all of the others taking part for their contributions to the fun and games!

I hope those of you who wish to do so keep in touch.

My Garmin maps and data can be found at : https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/905400576
This is for day one. The next four days can be viewed using the right arrow at the top right of the first one. I actually did ride about another two miles as twice I forgot to check my Garmin Unit was on when starting off.

To any of my fellow riders, Please tell me if I have anything wrong!!!!

By the way i can remeber all the names. In Addition to Pam and Dave there were (in no particular order):

Margaret & Paul, Marje, Meg, Keith & Carol, Ron, Ann, Graham & Isobel, Michael & Rosemary,
Louise, Ali, Johnston, Tim & Dianne, Dave & Jane, Anthony & Debbie, Linda, Karen, Carol, Paul (T) and me.!

GRIDIRONMAN