67.9km
101m elevation gain
Et fin.
Today has been a little flat, in every sense. 100m of elevation over 68km is ridiculous, it was all levée and canal paths pretty much the whole day, and my heart rate barely rose.
I stopped properly just once, for a coffee and biscuit stop at a picnic table, otherwise just trundled along; although it was a perfectly pretty route, it was uneventful. Suddenly there I was at kilometre zero of La Loire à Vélo, but not yet at the end point of my ride.
I should have then stopped in a café I passed for lunch, but stupidly decided to continue. It was a bit further than I thought and by the time I reached the campsite I was hot and hungry and probably making bad decisions.
Of course it took a while to sort out my tent, especially while chatting to a guy who was really interested in the concept of cycle touring (although clearly not in doing any himself).
Eventually I got into town and stuffed my face with carbs from the boulangerie, before doing some sightseeing. Nevers is a pretty, quiet old town with a fair few interesting buildings including a nice cathedral and an 11th-century church. The cathedral is under reconstruction at the moment and in any case has been heavily rebuilt over the years; in July 1944 it was badly bombed by the RAF and so all the stained glass is modern. The old church survived the bombs and is basically as it was built, plain and quiet.
I'm now chilling with a drink at "Nevers Plage", where you can swim in the river and there's a pleasant outside bar. I paddled a little, so I can say I dipped my feet in the river I followed so far, but wasn't really up for swimming. It's quite weedy.
Tomorrow back to the coast via two trains and a little spin through Paris to change trains!
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