A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.
I was going to arrive at midnight which was a bit too late to find somewhere to camp and too early to just have an early start so I'd booked in via the Internet with Première Classe Hotel, Orlèans. I'd emailed them to ask in my best French if I could have a ground floor room and take my bike in and they gave me this, fantastic room for the disabled. I don't know if they thought that's what I was with the recumbent bike but it worked out a treat.
Actually it worked out a treat once I got in the hotel. When I first arrived, after 17 hours on the coach, there was a dutch couple who couldn't get in since the large double gates were locked. You have to punch in a keycode which neither they nor I had. They left and I was wondering how to climb over the large wire fence when a french guy appeared. I explained the difficult and he pushed open the little side gate next to the large one... which I'd not even noticed
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Sunday 10th July. Orléans to Briare: 99km, avg 17.7km/hr, max 41.6km/hr
Finding the Loire wasn't too difficult but finding the cyclepath which I planned to follow was much more so. At the moment though I'm just happily cruising along at about 8.00am Sunday morning. A cloudy cool start, perfect for cycling.