The home stretch - Saumur

Saumur - the last few kilometers

We were on familiar ground now as we pedalled through the river-side woodlands between Montsoreau and Turquant, finally joining the main road on a cycle track as we approached Saumur with it's château perched high on the hill-side to our left, the newly-repaired surrounding wall glowing brightly in the sunshine.  Perching our camera on a wall we managed to chop off the top of the château, but there was no-one around we could ask to take the picture......

600 kms - nearly home....

From Saumur we re-traced our route first made 17 days previously through St Hilaire-St.Florent (a long drag up to the local airport) then down again through pinewoods and the villages of Rou-Marson and finally Forges, where distant views of the white twin water towers told us we were nearly home.

We crossed the 600 km mark just as we navigated the roundabout at Intermarché - an amazing achievement for us, we all thought.  Based on the distances given in the guidebook, we were expecting to do about 450 km to which we had to add the journey to and from home to Saumur and the mileage during the 'Fête du Vélo' - our final tally was way above our expectations and surprised us all.  Once home, we had just enough time to dump our bags before cycling a few k's to our local 'routier' restaurant where we celebrated in grand style.

For a bunch of novice's we were all feeling amazingly fit and well - the first few days we did have tender 'bits' (a little more advance preparation would have saved that), but, apart from feeling short of sleep, there were no adverse effects.  We can't wait to do another trip.....