Sancerre

Day: 12
Route: Nevers - Bannay (nr Sancerre)
Distance: 47 miles
Height: 1256ft ascent
Time in saddle: 4hrs 10mins

This was supposed to be an easy day, 20-30 miles, cruise flat or downhill all the way, then when we actually looked at the map it was ~35 miles if we went straight there (which we didn't) and had a sharp climb at the end.
Anyway, we set off out of Nevers then about 5 miles in picked up the voire vert, a cycle path along the Loire. Happy that the sun was almost out again we could almost ignore the head wind.
We'd been wondering where all the cycle tourists had got to, not having seem anyone for the last few days, well today we found them all. Turns out most people stick to the river valleys where the flat terrain makes cycling a little easier. Lesson learned. The cycle route passed lots of lovely fields with yet more happy sunflowers (hard not to smile at a field of sunflowers):

As this was going to be a half day relative to others, we headed straight for Chavignol, a little village behind Sancerre famous for its goats cheeses and wine (we had cycled over 35 miles before we even arrived there!). We popped into a little bistro in this sleepy village for lunch thinking we'd conquered most of the miles, so why not, and as this place had been recommended as a good spot to try some Sancerre in an informal setting.

Alistair managed a full menu du jour and between us we sampled 4 small glasses of Sancerre. We then, with heavy and slightly wine-leaden legs, and with the previously elusive sun out in full force with its mate humidity, cycled in pain up the hill to Sancerre. It turns out that when you have been cycling for pretty much 11 days straight including a day over the alps and the day before >100km, even a ~35 mile day hurts.
In Sancerre we headed for the museum the Maison de Sancerre to learn about the wine and the region. After reading some exhibits, watching some French vignerons on video lamenting the last 50 years and getting to drive a split harvester tractor in a simulator, they gave us a glass of Sancerre to try on the terrace overlooking the vines and told us we could keep the glasses, for which we found a way of protecting them before stuffing them into our back pockets for the cycle onwards:

Three glasses down and we decided we'd had enough tasting for the day so we headed down the hill and popped into a supermarket to pick up a picnic dinner...and a bottle of wine which we then strapped between two flip flops onto our luggage racks. Here we also met a lovely chap who had competed in three Tour de Frances in the 60s, and had a good 5 minute 'chat' with him (in charades) in front of the deli counter!

As we cycled the remaining few km to the village we were staying (the astute amongst you will notice the total miles covered for the day at the top was somewhat longer than that anticipated), our old friends the sun and humidity combined to give us a thorough, but short, drenching, ensuring that we arrived at our destination looking like drowned rats and with a fruit tart that looked like:

Luckily fruit tarts taste good even when they have lost structural integrity. As the storm had quickly cleared, we had a fab picnic outside our room in the garden of the lovely little family run hotel, hugely excited by the prospect of not cycling anywhere tomorrow.