7 June 2025 (cloudy, cool, breezy) 65km

Woke at 5am after a sound sleep. Had the window open, but had to push it further ajar in the night as it got really warm. Finished off last night's blog and started packing up our sleeping bags. By 7.15am, we were ready to go.

Jean offered us coffee but we we're keen to get going so thanked him and under threatening skies, loaded the trusty steeds and pedalled off. There was a coolness to the morning, but we were now out of the towns and cities and heading into the real France.

Cycling along in the countryside, for us, there is nothing better. Only the birds to keep us company and the odd car. French country lanes remind us a lot of England. Stone walls, hedgehogs and some beautiful hamlets, with lovely stylish homes.  As we rode the skies began to clear and patches of blue, peeked through. 

Arrived in the small village of Epernon and popped into a Tabac (cafe for locals) mainly so we could use their toilet so thought we'd better buy some coffees. Easy to see why it was humming. We were charged less than half of the price of the coffee we had in Versailles and it was twice as good. 

Onward, and the country roads were a joy to ride and every now and then a gravel track to break things up. Now this is the real France.

Rode into the town of Maintenon. Quaint little town, but hey we'd seen some nice ones this morning. So this one decided to up the anti. Around a bend and there was the Chateau, plus in the background the aqueduct built by Louis XIV. 

 

So, while old Louis was building Versailles, with its fantastic gardens and water features, he runs into a problem. Not enough water. That's not an issue says Louis. Let's build an 80 km canal along with aqueducts containing 700 arches and ....Hey Presto, job done.

In 1695 he grabbed 30, 000 men, 6,000 of whom, would die of Marsh Fever and set them to work on this aqueduct. Work continued for three years until 1689, when after a nine million pound investment and only thirty of the eighty kms to go, he decided to walk away and instead put more money into France's fighting fund.

What it is to be the King eh? We cycled all over town trying to find a good photo of this impressive structure but this town seems to downplay what they have in their back yard. It occurred to us later that maybe you had to pay to go in the grounds of the chateau and from there you could see it.

Anyway Maintenon turned out to be the jewel in the crown and today we enjoyed a lovely lunch at the side of an old stone bridge.

Heading for Chartres and our resting place for the night. Julia had found a site called Camp space where people open up their homes and gardens for travellers to stay, for a fee. It cost us Euro 19 ( roughly NZ $ 38)

When we arrived, we met Doris, a mechanical engineering intern, from Brazil. She has been doing her internship since last August, with another year to go. She was a sweetheart and we shared some nice conversations with her.

The house is lovely and available for cooking, showers, laundry and relaxing. Great score for us.

Pitched the tent, showered, washed some clothes, grabbed some supplies from the handy supermarket and cooked a delicious omlette for dinner.

Caught up with our blogging after dinner while waiting for it to get dark enough to go into town and see the light show on the front of the cathedral. But by 9.30pm it was fully raining, cold and windy and Ju could barely keep her eyes open so we opted for bed instead.