Day 14: Saumur to Savigny-en-vernon

Miles: 15

Temperature: High of 98 degrees

Maintenance issues: Kimball had a flat tire and a small hole in his tire sidewall. Fixed with GU wrapper and gorilla tape. Might overnight new tires from online retailer based in Europe. Very hard to find 20 inch road tires.

Highlights: Saumur Castle, Cemetary with water spicket, church at top of hill, and two popcicle stops.

Today was a bit of a bummer. Dian, who has been riding with us has decided that with this heat wave (forecast of 102 degrees tomorrow) she needs to split up with the group. She’s going to take a few days and decide how to move forward, we may see her later on. She’s already sent me an email today and she’s having a great rest day.

We rode back into Saumur today to see the castle. It was built about 1000 years ago, and the kids really enjoyed touring through it. The views from the castle were awesome! From the castle we walked back into town and had a nice lunch of paninis and tortinis in the main plaza then had some popcicles from a supermarket nearby.

Once the riding started we were in the heat of the day, so hot. We had a talk with everyone about the importance of drinking water, we made sure to keep our 8 liters of spare bottles filled. Each person also carries around 2 water bottles. At one point in the day we passed by a cemetary in between towns and Brittany pointed out that most cemeteries have water spickets. It did, so everyone filled their bottles and many of us soaked our shirts which really helped us keep cool.

The last 5 miles of riding for the day was on a beautiful path that was mostly tree covered. We rolled into camp around 8pm. The Pugmire’s rode separately and spent more time in the town, they rolled in around 10pm.

Today’s day of riding was a bit much for Kenny. His knee isn’t doing too hot. He hurt it last week, and yesterday and today have put it over the top. We changed his ticket to fly home this Friday. Tomorrow we’ll figure out any other details to get him to Paris.

Our campsite. Quiet, plots with grass, nice hosts and facility, bad wifi.

Saumur Castle.