A gift of a day, we started in sunshine (enough to dry the tent). The route headed off just up the way from the campsite, and we set off in good spirits even when we turned the corner and hit the – yup – you guessed it – head wind. Another blinder. We stopped for a cake break on the steps of an attractive little church and relaxed in the sun. Must say that the cakes in France are superlative. Our waistlines are suffering!!!

Following the cycle route we then headed away from the Cher (yes, John did all the jokes and the singing) and the Indre, back to the Loire. Next was a 14 percent climb (which we managed to cycle up) followed by an 18 percent climb – which we pushed our bikes up. Yes, both of these are indeed on the official cycle route. Gorgeous view from the top; crap decent into Saumur.

The sun rose on a real autumn day with a blustery wind blowing the leaves across the campsite and grey clouds etched by the sun. It was chilly but not really cold – bracing – and there was the smell of wood smoke and freshness in the air.

We managed to get out by 10am including getting fuel for the stove. First we climbed the hill out of the town then turned the corner into the howling head wind. It was going to be a somewhat challenging day! We actually changed direction 3 times, and each time the wind remained in our faces. Initially we had 20km across a plateau with little to shelter us. We then headed off on our detour to detour Tours, and were peeved when we ended up doing a detour of the detour as a brand new (ie no cars yet) road had been built across some of the little roads we were planning to use.

Lunch was not picturesque – eaten by a large grain storage barn so that we were able to shelter from the wind and the rain, it wasn’t our best to date

There were high points to the day though such as cycling over the brow of a hill to see an incredible cloud scape towering above us, or passing through what was obviously very old oak forest.

Great campsite at Savonnières though with an uninterrupted view of the river. Had a glass while watching the sun set.