Fri 1st August - And We're Off

It took us a while to get ourselves sorted but we are finally off on our adventures. Iceland was the original plan but didn't make the cut due to the horrific cost, so we're off to France to explore the Loire Valley / cheese / wine on a bicycle, then going to meet Paul's sister and her family who are staying with her in-laws near Cherbourg and play with them on the beach, all of which is a very satisfactory Plan B.

As ever we / I had a couple of booking issues. The first hotel was super helpful but prices turned out to be per person not per room (oops). Then we / I booked two different places but managed to leave a night unaccounted for in the middle, and then noticed they were only about 30 miles apart (not really making full use of the 800 km length of the river), and then found both places were so small there was nowhere in them to rent bikes. 

Now pretty much all problems sorted (all the ones we've noticed anyway). A romantic tandem is awaiting us at some mystery location about 12 km from our hotel, and the hotel itself appears to overlook not only the river but also the local chateau. There's a scenic private car park for the motorbike and the extra night had to be in a superior suite as no bog standard ones left. Shame ;-) The weather forecast is generally fantastic, and as mentioned before there is amazing cheese and wine (in fact Sancerre itself, home of the venerable Sauvignon Blanc grape, is right there at the top of the valley), and so everything else will be just fine. We have even brought full on camping gear so are ready for anything now apart from a really posh meal or, after a week or so, anything in a very enclosed space as there wasn't much room for clothes :-)
We haven't booked the return journey yet either so might decide it's so nice we want to stay. Watch this space!

Either way we haven't got that far yet. The first night is being spent in the Ibis Budget Hotel about 3 miles from the port. It is much better than it sounds, like a super efficient prefabricated podule room. A bit of an exhibitionist shower but otherwise an impressive amount in a small space, clean and comfy and cheap as chips. Dinner cost at least as much, but we were enticed by the confit duck leg on the menu gourmand. For experimental reasons I had this for my menu pudding: Faiselle de fromage blanc a votre goût. My goût was 'confiture de lait'. A dish that I approximately understood but which  sounded much worse in the English version (cottage cheese with dulche de leche). In fact it was very nice.