It was chilly this morning when we left, just 52 degrees, great weather for arm warmers and brisk riding. After an easy route out of town and rush hour traffic, we were on rural roads the rest of the day. We rode through the agriculturally diverse Loire region of France. I road with Jed who is fluent in French and made many visits here for his business. He read signs and could point out many things I would have missed riding alone. We first were in the Loire wine region. Vineyards flowed across the hills in waves. Some plants were trimmed into neat box shaped hedges. The old vine areas had thick trunks while some areas were very recently planted; the stalks of the plants were protected with covers and the ground was recently worked. All of them had one thing in common: there were no weeds. We rode the wine trail for a while, going from vineyard to vineyard. Then the the vineyards gave way to fields of corn, wheat and pastures with grazing cattle. The wheat has been harvested and in many places farmers were spreading manure. The sweet, dense smell filled my nostrils frequently as I rode along the quiet roads. inpassed many orchards of of apples, peaches and plums and berries, and the acres of trees were covered in netting, I assume to protect from the birds. There was very little traffic, only an occasional car or tractor. As I got closer to Noirt, a town of about 60,000, I came upon vast fields of sunflowers, their dropping heads turned toward the sun. It was an incredible sight seeing sunflower fields as big as Kansas wheat fields. At about mile 25 Jed and I accidentally got separated in one of the villages, and I rode the rest of the day alone. I don’t mind riding alone. I enjoy it. But today there was a head wind and it would have been nice to shared pulling so that each of us could have had drafted for a rest from time to time. As a result, this was an exhausting day of beautiful, scenic riding. 88 miles and 4500 feet of hills. I am tired tonight. Tomorrow is our longest day, 120 miles and 4500 feet of hills. Is there nowhere flat in France?
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