By Maggie LaCoste
I’m going to blame today’s start to the Romans! Near the great little town of Gennes there are a lot of Gallo-Roman ruins: an amphitheater, an aqueduct and baths. Being a great fan of Roman history, it seemed normal to want to see these ruins, but that meant deviating from the river route at Gennes, and taking the interior route. Bad idea. No matter whether you were biking east-west or west-east as we were, it was 50% hills either way. Note to all, unless you want great physical workout for an hour and a half, stick with the Loire a Velo itinerary that runs along the river from Gennes towards Saumur! There is also a new route we found on the north side of the Loire from les Rosiers-sur-Loire to Saumur.
As challenging as the morning adventure was on the interior route, the afternoon was one treat after another: the beautiful town of St-Hilaire-St-Florent, with its wonderful wineries and caves, cosmopolitan Saumur and its gorgeous castle, hills along the route filled with troglodyte caves and the unique troglodyte village of Turquant. It was a challenge to only visit for a while, as each has so much to offer. An advantage to traveling in the off season is that you do have more flexibility to linger longer, as you choose your hotels daily. We had reservations for the night in Montsoreau, about 15 km past Saumur.
Leaving Saumur you are really treated to an incredible sight of troglodyte dwellings that fill the hillside. Some have been converted to wine cellars for the areas famous vineyards, some renovated into homes, some just empty. In Turquant, an artist’s colony has been established in a formerly abandoned troglodyte area. This year there were about 50% more artists in residence than last year when we bicycled through. Judging from the crowds of tourists and bicyclists, this has become a great local attraction!
Last stop of the day before Montsoreau was Champignonniere Le Saut aux Loops, a network of old quarrying caves turned into a mushroom farm. It was really a fun touristy thing to do, and interesting way to learn about this area which produces about 80% of the mushrooms for France.
Our last stop of the day: Hotel Le Bussy, a Logis hotel located right next to Chateaux Montsoreau. Our room: up three flights of stairs (no elevator)and so close to the castle you could almost touch it! What a day this has been bicycling along the Loire. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring!
