Day Seven

Pithiviers to Chigy

72miles 2926 ft climbed

I’m sitting outside under the awning sheltering from the thunderstorms that have been circulating our campsite since we arrived, in the hope that they will bring cooler weather.

In a first for an NBjTours trip and having consulted our resident doctor we decided to abandon the last 14 miles to avoid sunstroke as the temperature had risen to over 40C again with no wind or shelter.

It had grown steadily hotter during the afternoon and we were genuinely slowing down concerned about over heating as the was no shade. One stop we had was beneath a TGV line which was pretty impressive with trains bombing over our heads at 250 kph. The next as featured above was in a Victorian laundry on a small river which was beautifully cool and ideal to cool us down. After this treat we only had another three miles to go before Monica put us out of our misery and we headed into the camper to our overnight campsite.

The morning was a sharp contrast to the blazing sun of the afternoon and it was pleasantly warm with broken cloud although we were lucky as two storms passed either side is us only depositing a couple of drops.

Leaving Pithiviers we firstly ran through the very pretty Oeuf river valley whose houses bore evidence of long term wealth. The chateau above was owned by the de la Taille family, staunch supporters of the king of France and great poets. Puiseaux was good for a stamp and was home to a famous rose grower André Eve whose nursery is nearby.

Although the first section was a bit up and down at least it made a change to beating out the kilometres between endless hedgeless crops.

We did have a bit of fun by deliberately getting wet under one of the many water irrigation cannons.

Our coffee stop was just after Chateau Landon where the old lady in the tourist office could not have tried harder to ignore us and unsell her town.

As usual Nigel had surpassed himself in finding a pretty spot next to a run down bridge where the stream was full of fish and dragonflies and butterflies danced above the water.

Whilst we were at coffee one of the gum trees let go of a large branch not far from us and it came crashing down so we didn’t hang around for too long.

We turned off the road and briefly ran alongside a canal where we met Hans, a German who was cycling from his home town to Santiago, but was very keen to point out he was doing the hard route ( unlike us) and likely to take him 8 weeks. Now Basil Fawlty had always told us not to mention the war , but Hans was keen to let us know that the French must dislike us Brits and although he was German he promised not to shoot us!!! He was perfectly pleasant but we felt a little misguided.

As Hans started it, Nigel noticed these two Second World War memorials which just brought home the brutality of it all. The free French resistance fighters were shot by an allied plane whilst they were trying to help destroy a German column towards the end of the conflict. What a sad ending.

The next part of the route followed as accurately as I could, 15 miles of the Chemin de César Roman road which was a mix of proper road, forest trail and farm track. Nigel thought he’d better check us out before we went off road but all was good, although the intervening centuries have left it in a poorer state the Roman legions left it.

We had a couple of deviations , one to get over a motorway and the other because a factory had been built either side of the road so the mayor had allowed the firm to built him a bypass, although interestingly the maps still show it was passable – this was the second time this has happened.

Our lunch stop was in a pretty village but the temperature had started to climb and it’s fair to say we were a little leisurely in getting going after the stop.

We next came upon the biggest town of the day hoping to get into its cathedral, designed by the same man as Canterbury Cathedral and also a place of refuge for Thomas a Becket before coming back to England to his death. Sadly it was closed for renovation.

Although neither Nick or I are great Coke fans the heat demanded an ice cool coke in the square before we set off again on what became the last leg of the day as I described earlier.

One funny note though is that when we came into Sens a policeman with a radar gun jumped out from behind a sign and laughed saying “only 27kph you’re ok carry on”

Seeing the terrain on a camper ride to the campsite Nick & I were glad Monica had advised against riding as there was no shade to be had.

The campsite is in need of an upgrade and whilst I was showering it appeared the local works committee came into the block to discuss what they would keep and whether they would just knock the whole block down and start again. Come to Marcilly le Hayer to find out next year when I bet it’s more than 13 euros!!

They were frantically combining whist the storms got ever closer and even moved to a new field but I cannot hear it anymore so fear that the rain that is now thundering down has stopped action for the night.

Let’s hope it stops for tomorrow which thankfully looks much cooler.