2009 Euro Tour -- Ride Day 17 — 12 July 2009 — 58200 Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire to 45200 Montargis

<div style="color: #000000; font-size: medium;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Despite our riding in rain or otherwise wet conditions for over half the ride, this was our easiest ride of the trip so far.  There was virtually no climbing and the terrible head wind of the last two riding days had finally disappeared.  And the rain itself was never strong enough to properly soak us through.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In Gien, there's a skyline of sorts dominated by the Château de Gien.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Upon arriving in Montargis, the sun showed its face and we saw our shadows for the first time this day.  We were in our Ibis Hotel room in time to see the last half hour of stage nine of Le Tour.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">During the day, we passed from the Nièvre Department in the Bourgogne Region briefly into the </span>Cher Department in the Centre Region and then into the Loiret Department, which is also in the Centre Region.<span style="font-family: Arial;">.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Background:<span style="font-family: Arial;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></div> </span></div>

My wife and I have been doing self-supported tours in Western Europe (a majority in France) since 1993.  This series of rides covers our 2009 4.5 month route through parts of France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and then back to France.  Our beginning and ending point is near Chadurie (south of Angouleme) where our friends have a farm with Gites and Chambres d'Hotes.

We rode our Dawes touring bicycles purchased in 1993 heavily loaded with 700Cx32 tires.  All of our riding was on paved roads, mostly with very little traffic.  Pretty much the only unpaved sections were some bicycle paths in Germany and Austria. Sadly, that wasn't so great as Helen fell a number of times on the unpaved paths.  Fortunately, though, no serious injury.

If any questions, feel free to email me at jeffkadet@netdiving.com

Jeff </div>