Je regret, mais France est fermee!!

As promised I went to London yesterday to visit the French Tourist Office to see if I could get any details of accommodation for the Loire valley. They used to have a large facility on Regent St, south of Piccadilly but have now moved to a set of offices in High Holborn. Although it still says on the website that the public may visit between 10am and 4pm this is in fact no longer the case and I came away empty handed. I did take the opportunity to have lunch with my daughter who works in Moorgate so all was not lost.

Possible itineraries our consideration

Some of you must have wondered why I went to the trouble of plotting the route on Mapometer. It is to be able to easily compute distances between any places of your choosing. This is possible because Mapometer plots every km along the route (or 5km - I'm not sure how it decides which; it varies from map to map). Using these maps, I quickly came up with three possible itineraries, although there will be others:

Nantes - Chalonnes	78	78
Chalonnes - Saumur	84	162
Saumur - Tours	85	247
Tours - Blois	67	314
Blois - Orléans	57	371
Or
Nantes - Montjean	68	68
Montjean - Gennes	78	146
Gennes - Langeais	70	216
Langeais - Chaumont	78	294
Chaumont - Orléans	76	370
Or
Nantes - Bouchemaine	97	97
Bouchemaine - Saumur	65	162
Saumur - Villandry	64	226
Villandry - Candé	73	299
Candé - Orléans	71	370

Collectors please note! Some facts about the route Nantes to Orléans

Over the route, we shall be passing through the following départements:
Loire-Atlantique (44)
Maine-et-Loire (49)
Indre-et-Loire (37)
Loir*-et-Cher (41)
Loiret (45)
We shall pedal through two régions:
Pays-de-la-Loire
Centre
And we shall see 5 chef-lieux (county towns), all on the River Loire:
Nantes
Angers
Tours
Blois
Orléans
We've done 49, Pays-de-la-Loire and Angers before, but the rest are new!
*Note the missing e. This is a different river: le Loir, not La Loire, altho we don't get to see it.

Jan/Feb Meeting

Happy New Year!

Re: Jan/Feb meeting. I will be Skiing from the 5th to 12th Jan and in Burma from the 8th Feb to 23rd Feb. Any time outside of these dates, if possible, would be good. I have also been coerced into dancing lessons on a Thursday evening, so Thursday's could be difficult - sorry to be pain.

Maldwyn

Dates for the 2014 France Trip

"My" Heritage Railways 2014 Steam Gala is over the weekend of 24th to 26th May ie Bank Holiday weekend. I missed this event in 2013 as we had already booked to go to the Hebrides but I would like to visit this event this year. How does this affect anyone's already-booked holidays (Shawn specifically)?
Today I received an advertising email from Ibis so (tongue in cheek) I checked out a potential booking in Nantes in mid May and was offered 2 rooms for 5 adults for a total of 41GBP. Not bad!!

Lacanau-Océan to Bordeaux

Just to whet your appetites! This is a tiny part of the D801 (you will recall from our 2012 ride that the department of the Gironde gives road numbers to its greenways!) from Lacanau-Océan to Bordeaux. Sylvie and I rode this bit to Le Moutchic, only a few km from Lacanau-Océan, this summer. It's an old railway line, like the one we rode last year from Mios to Bazas. The sign in the top right picture says 'Bordeaux 60'. For the AF3V website link for this voie verte click here. 

The Bordeaux to Sauveterre-de-Guyenne greenway, which should be the next leg of our ride next year can be found here. It is named after Roger Lapébie, winner of the 1937 Tour, who came from SW France. Alas, although I've ridden it, I have no photos; but AF3V does - have a look! It's another ex-railway line with a lit tunnel halfway along.

Outer Hebrides Ride 2013

After visiting Flora McDonalds birthplace in South Uist we went to the Kildonan Centre and had an excellent Salmon Pate and Oat Cakes in the restaurant. A very nice waitress offered us the recipe and seamlessly took 50p from Shawn and I for copies! So, here's the Oat Cake recipe.

Morag's Oatcakes Recipe 

2 cups oatmeal
1 cup plain flour
1/4 tea spoon baking powder
4 1/2 oz margarine
1 dessert spoon sugar

Methord : Mix dry ingredients, Rub in margarine and make a firm dough, Roll thinly and cut into squares or rounds. Bake 190/200C. Check after 15 minutes.


A few more pics of our Hebrides trip.

This very expensive single Malt (£15 a shot) we saw in the Harris Hotel - Looking at the the label, I am not sure if you rub it into your hands, eat it or drink it!