La Loire à Vélo: day 4

LES PONTS-DE-CE TO SAUMUR

54km

276m elevation gain

I had firm plans to leave early today but didn't really wake up until 8am. I slept with the door to my tent open to let air in as it was so very hot, but evidently managed to get a good night's sleep in.

Anyway I was on the road shortly after 9am with a pause to grab a pain au chocolat for breakfast - and I discovered there was a tailwind. It was glorious spinning along before it got too hot and I covered plenty of kilometres nice and quick. I took advantage of two of the extremely well-equipped rest areas en route - the one in Gennes even had showers! 

I chose the route away from the river for a bit which had some steep little climbs to enjoy. Took a little detour to see a museum in a cave of sculptures of local landmarks, which was fun albeit maybe a bit pricey for what it was. 

I was in Saumur for lunch, and then checked into my campsite where I have a huge pitch which is mostly a sandpit; found a spot which was basically level for the tent, and washed all my stuff as it smells terrible after the hot weather!

But I was early enough to then hop back on the bike and head over to see the castle - it's a proper fairytale castle in Saumur with an epic position above the river. There was an interesting exhibition of art by a female Afghan artist which worked quite well in the old rooms.

Then to finish the day, I'd booked on to a tour of one of the local wine cellars. Saumur has 1000km (!!!) of underground galleries and a lot of the wineries use them to mature their wines and store them. The Maison Grenelle was founded in 1859 and makes primarily fizz - Cremant de Loire and Blanc de Blancs. They have 3km of tunnels and keep a couple of million bottles underground, from anywhere between six months and nine years. The place is huge with so many bottles! Then we had a tasting of five of their wines, including the most expensive one which is a bit like champagne, and a fizzy red which was very pleasant.

Am having dinner on a boat opposite the castle and planning tomorrow; there are thunderstorms forecast and I have a longish day, which I'm considering making longer by going to Fontevraud Abbey which is 15 minutes out of the way but where the tomb of my (long, long, long ago) ancestor Eleanor of Aquitaine can be found.