Limours – Rambouillet 20 miles plus 7.

It has been dry overnight and today’s weather forecast shows no sign of rain after 9am. The mileage on some of our days is shorter than on others which allows us time to look around the various places of interest. I would like to say this was all part of my impeccable planning regime but the truth is that I booked the return ferry for the wrong day and when I realised this I had to spread the journey out over more days. My compatriot isn’t complaining though.

Breakfast is available at our Villa accommodation today and we linger over our petit dejeunier in the hope that our hosts will return our cycling clothes which we hope will be dry.

Thankfully our clothes are returned and after chatting with Forneau, our host, we set off. (Chatting with our limited French is an exaggeration of my compatriot). This route like Avenue Vert has two options. The more popular is via Versailles but as we approached Paris via this direction I choose the via Limours route. It is described as varied and only recommended for Hybrid bikes and Garmin users as terrain is varied and signs are sparse. Perfect for us.

We follow the disused railway, small roads and forest trails diverting into villages in the search of coffee which we eventually find in a small town Tabac. French high streets are suffering the same as ours but in France the charity shops are yet to move in.

In another town we come to a lake with seats around the edge and so we sit in the sunshine and eat some fruit. I also take the opportunity to service the bikes after the rain yesterday and our journey over countless gravel tracks.

The diversions to explore towns have added a few miles to our total mileage today. We arrive at the hotel at 2:30 so the laundry is immediately opened. It is very nice place with various bemused French ladies ‘doing lunch’ on the terrace as we arrive. After a quick shower, tramsformed, we join them for a beer.

After a rest we set off to explore Rambouillet, our final destination for today. It features in the final stage of the Tour de France. Fortunately we are going in the opposite direction so have nothing to prove. We took a walk round the chateau which is famous for hosting summits, gardens and park which are beautiful and we wile away a couple of hours before heading back to look for somewhere for dinner.

Did I mention I was unwell but starting to feel better now despite the now painful tooth.

We are rewarded with, after Ed had had a snooze, L’epicurien, where we chose a variety of tapas, cheese and charcuterie. We came in thinking we would have double burgers, but quickly realised this was the lunch menu. We were not disappointed and had a lovely tapas meal with the only distraction being the over sexed French men at the table both sides of ours (my compatriots contribution as I had not noticed it).