Enjoy the LoireLife!

Le Tasting Room - A unique addition to our french cycling tour

2012-01-15T11:31:00.000-08:00

France and wine has always had a close relationship, but how do you mix this with a cycling holiday in a safe and memorable way?

Le Tasting Room, Cumeray, Maine-et-Loire

Wine has always been an important part of life in the Loire Valley and as part of our french cycling holidays we've always tried to give guests an opportunity to sample the local produce. However, with vineyard's haphazard opening hours, the growers' busy schedules and the difficulty of buying while touring on a bike, we've always felt the wine tasting has always been a hit and miss affair.

Cathy welcoming our cycling guests with aperitifs

To remedy this and turn the wine element of our french cycling holidays into something really special, we've teamed up with Cathy and Nigel Henton at 'Le Tasting Room' to offer a truly unique wine related experience on our cycling holidays in France. Even if you don't enjoy wine, drink or don't think you're interested - this is an unmissable experience and even betters its all included on your French Bike Tour with us at LoireLifeCycling.

Lunch begins in the maturation cellar!

As one of our cycling tour guests, we will send you out on a fantastic morning ride along the Authion river; atmospheric, quiet and flat, with parts of the river resembling Holland. You then cross the Loire at Gennes, where the Saumur cavalry cadets held the German Army at bay for four days after the fall of France in 1940, and shortly after arrive just before lunch, to be entertained by Cathy and Nigel.

Be welcomed with aperitifs and then relax over a three course lunch as Cathy and Nigel explain how wine making is undertaken in the Loire Valley, debunk wine myths and with a sense of fun take you through a tasting of a wide variety of Loire Valley whites, reds, roses and cremants. You'll have the chance to buy what you try, with the added benefit that we will transport the wine and you back to our base at Gue de Ray.

Armed with 'Le Tasting Room's' knowledge, you will be well armed when you drop in on the vineyards you pass on the rest of your week on our Loire Valley cycling tour!

A great experience and some fantastic mementos!

Breathing Space

2012-01-10T09:54:00.000-08:00

We've ended up with twelve bikes since bringing the bike hire in-house last year and so far we've stored them in a small annex attached to the farmhouse. Only trouble is, there's nowhere indoors to service the bikes when the weather is bad during the winter. Our solution - to tidy up an earth floored cellar that we've never really used, lay a damp-course and create a purpose built bike store. So that's this week's job, some good physical exercise to work Christmas off. Photos to follow - but only when its done!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-09T12:18:00.000-08:00

A resolution for 2012 is to blog more often - how many times have we said that?! As an aside, it would be great if Google made a resolution to stop changing the Blogger platform - every time we try and write an entry they've changed the screens and menus....again! Please leave it all alone for a while.

Over the next few weeks we'll blog about our new relationship with 'Le Tasting Room', which is enhancing our French Cycling Tour in a unique way, and talk about our french cycling holiday competition and in particular some observations we have noticed recently.

The really big news as far as we are concerned has been the arrival of our daughter and first child, Ruby - born in Saumur hospital on 19th December 2011. We've been looking forward to our life here changing for nine months and now its here! The close season work has been planned to give us plenty of free time in January, so we're enjoying spending lots of time with Ruby - a luxury our choice of lifestyle has provided. Its going to make our life in France so much more interesting from so many different angles - another new adventure!

Thanks to everyone for their best wishes, cards, emails and presents that have arrived since Ruby's arrival - we have been overwhelmed and really touched.

Ride On

2011-11-19T00:35:00.001-08:00

We made it into the Australian press this week, via a guest who stayed with us back in June. We didn't know until Julia had arrived, but she writes cycling guide books back in Melbourne Australia and contributes to RideOn magazine, one of the Australia's most widely read bike publications. So we were thrilled when she passed on news that her article on her french bike tour experiences had been published. It's like a slow snow ball, as we've also had a press enquiry from a UK cycling magazine - so we're keeping an eye out for that as well. Anyway, if you want to see what Julia though of LoireLifeCycling then check out Pedalling en Francais .

On other fronts we've been working on the main house at Gue de Ray over the past month. Our friend Darren has been re-pointing the front facade with a lovely lime render (which is now finished) and as we have finished decorating the bedrooms he has been reflooring each one with oak panels. The self catered property in Breil is benefitting from a new electricity feed this month. As part of a national plan, overhead cables are being replaced with undergroung pipework for all utilities - and Breil is being overhauled at the moment. It will result in a village without any overhead cabling - last time it looked like that would have been before the 1900's I imagine.

Our Inspiration

2011-11-05T08:51:00.000-07:00

Lots of clearing up going on at the moment, including tidying up the office and archiving away old paper-work. Came across some old photos which relate to a question we are often asked by our guests, both those staying in one of our french holiday cottages or enjoying our french bike tours. "So", our guests say, "how did you end up in this particular part of France?"

Our answer is a mix of luck, enjoying the area whenever we passed through on other holidays in France and then one particular holiday in either 1998 or 1999 when we stayed no more than 10kms from where we live now.

We spent an idyllic week at a secluded gite in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by pine forests. There was a pool and the only noise the wind through the trees. I think we were reclining on sunloungers when we first discussed buying a bolt hole in France to escape to from time to time. At that time there were no plans for moving over permanently, no ideas about French cycling holidays, but the seed was sown. So we can trace it all back to these photographs probably - great memories!

It was an idyllic place to take a dip!

The secluded gite surrounded by the forest. It's still avaiable to let today I believe.

Goodness me!

2011-08-12T12:37:00.000-07:00

Well - I didn't realise its been that long since we last posted to our blog! Not surprising that we post in the winter and then once the season is up and running (and we're generally outdoors) the blog is the first thing to suffer. Well, a note has been made to ourselves and its time to begin posting a bit more frequently - but only when we've got something interesting to say!

You may have seen the dates for our 2012 French Cycling holidays are now out and at the moment the prices are held for those booking for next year now. Can't say how long we'll hold them for though. We're working on some more holiday ideas to complement the Loire Valley Discovery Tour and we'll be posting information on that pretty soon.

With that in mind Jon went on a fact finding ride today (and got completely soaked in the process) - a new route, a new destination and some really great people to work with to bring a new dimension to the cycling holidays - keep watching this space!

Adding Chinon into the mix

2011-03-24T11:18:00.000-07:00

We've always wanted to be able to offer a route to Chinon on our french cycling holidays. With guests revisiting us this year for a second dose of loire valley cycling, time to add Chinon to our selection of cycle routes. Today we experimented a little, approaching Chinon from Bourgueil - heading due south from Bourgueil, crossing the Loire in the shadow of Chinon nuclear power station (maybe that's why the wine is so good?) and then arriving high above Chinon, looking down at the town and La Vienne river.

Our outward route was a mix of industrial, urban and vineyards - so two out of three sections will have to go in the final route! However, the drop into Chinon from this direction is spectacular, arriving in Chinon directly behind the Chateau, before dropping steeply like a mountain road into the town centre. One of our favourite Loire Valley towns, there are plenty of places to eat and being 24 degrees in the sun, we spent a pleasant lunch outside on a small square at 'La Pause Rabelaisienne'. Chinon also possesses one of our favourite streets in the Loire Valley, Rue Haute Saint-Maurice - oozing with medieval history as it meanders directly underneath the ramparts of the fortress once owned by the English Plantagenet kings.

The route back avoided the urban and the industrial, and took us through vineyards and then rolling countryside, before crossing back over the Loire and finishing in Bourgueil. At around 60kms, the final route will appeal to those who like clocking up the miles - but with Chinon as a destination, its well worth it.

A world of difference

2011-03-02T02:07:00.000-08:00

We’ve just returned from the UK, where for the first time in four years we spent most of this winter. One of the things that really struck us was the amount of traffic that UK cyclists have to deal with when they head out for a cycle. We spent much of our time in the peak district, a great area for challenging road cycling (with plenty of hills) and with the national park, great track riding for mountain bikers.

One Saturday morning we headed from Matlock to Manchester, crossing a high part of the peaks and the bike clubs and social riders were out in force. So was the traffic and although the cars were considerate all of the time, I couldn’t help but feel that the riding must be spoilt by the constant pressure from traffic behind wanting to pass by.

Sometimes it takes a trip like that to remind us of the fortunate conditions we have for cycling here in the Loire Valley. The extra landmass and the high density of roads, even in rural areas, always ensures we can find a traffic free cycle route – even to get to some of the most famous tourist attractions in the area. We hadn’t realised what a luxury it was and, as with many things, you tend to take something for granted until you see it through fresh eyes.

First ride, new bikes and designer jerseys

2011-01-26T02:08:00.000-08:00

Just spent a week skiing with friends in the Portes du Soleil, Haute Savoie about 1 hour from Geneva. A really great break with lots of sunshine and in-spite of a shortage of snow, plenty of well groomed pistes to ski down.

Back at Gue de Ray now, holiday over and beginning to really turn our minds to our 2011 french cycling holidays in the Loire Valley.

To get us in the mood, we made the most of a sunny (but cold) day and got out on the bikes for the first time this year. We ensured our cycling route took us past friends' houses so we were able to drop in, refresh with a coffee and pass on New Year's greetings. It's probably the last time we'll do any great distance on our current bikes as Jon gets his new Giant Roam 2 later this week and Ali has already taken delivery of a Felt QX80, but we need to pick that up from the UK on our next visit.

We usually look at replacing the cycling wardrobe during the French sales and rather than purchasing standard cycle tops we thought we might as well design our own and promote our holidays as we ride. At the moment this looks the most likely design - we found a great tool on the web for designing the shirts - trouble is you end up with too many ideas!
We'll be able to call down orders as we go, so we will be able to make these available to guests if they are interested.

One piece of good news is that new owners have taken on the restaurant at Chouze-sur-Loire and have started opening on a Tuesday. This gives us a great lunchtime stopping point for the route to Bourgueil. We already know that the sitaution of the restaurant is great - the terrace is right on the riverbank - all we need to do now is get down there and sample the food - what a chore!

La Loire at Chouze

We're in print!

2010-12-19T23:57:00.000-08:00

It's always satisfying when guests really enjoy their french cycling holiday with us - it's why we started the holidays in the first place - we love showing this fantastic area to people. It's even more satisfying when our guests commit their experiences to print and have them published. Cath Williams and her husband Alwyn from North Wales cycled with us in June, having taken up cycling less than a year before. They put in some miles before coming to us, but had not gone much above 20kms before arriving and were wondering whether they had put in enough practice. No problem! Five days of cycling and 130kms later they were surprised at how easily they were able to cover distance on our empty roads without really noticing it.

Cath's article has now been published in 'YWAWR' the regular publication for the 'Merched y Wawr', a welsh equivalent to the Women's Institue, and also the welsh regional newspaper "Y Gadlas". I've put a copy on the website at www.loirelifecycling.com/ywawr.html

Cath, Als and other guests departing for Bourgueil on a sunny June morning

Wintry Projects!

2010-12-15T01:20:00.000-08:00

Now well into winter and we've been spending half our time in the UK working on our winter project - decorating and restoring a Victorian cottage in Matlock on the edge of the Peak District National Park. The aim is to get this work complete by mid February for a tenant to move in. Then over the years we will try and put back in the period features that have been removed over time.

What we didn't expect was the horrible weather that really slowed us down on our most recent trip. Snow, snow and more snow! The whole town had a ski resort feel to it, and one person did try their hand at snow-boarding down a field in fresh powder - a once in a lifetime experience in England! I also ended up using the snow chains - that's the second year in sucession I've used them in England.

The A6 heading into Matlock, during the second evening of snow - it snowed for another three days on and off.

Another view of the A6 heading out of Matlock - the cottage we are restoring is up the alley-way on the far side of the road. By the following morning, no roads into Matlock were passable and it stayed that way for a couple of days.

November Update

2010-11-22T22:57:00.000-08:00

Autumn is well upon us and we're splitting our time between Gue de Ray and the UK, where we have a some other small projects underway. It's been nice to get back and catch up with friends and family and enjoy a pint of beer in an English pub!

Gue de Ray is covered in fallen leaves at the moment, so that's the main gardening past time, but we have also taken the opportunity to sort out some new banking facilities for the french cycling holiday and self catering businesses. So now we are able to accept credit card payments in Euros both in person and at a distance, meaning that we don't have to use PayPal anymore. Hurrah!

Autumn cycle and a new destination

2010-11-01T09:42:00.000-07:00

Our season ended this weekend with the departure of our last guests and as this Monday is a French bank holiday we decided to make the most of the weather and get out on the bikes again.

Always looking for new routes we tried out the 20kms stretch of the 'Loire a Velo' cycle path between Candes St Martin and Chinon. As usual the signposting is clear, so we easily followed the route past the Chateau at Montsoreau, through Candes St Martin before crossing to the North bank of the river Vienne, a tributary of the Loire. It was a great autumnal bank holiday, so it was no surprise to see others out with the same idea!

The route brought us to Chinon on the far side of La Vienne and gave us great views of the chateau - extended and used by the English kings during the 100 years war. The castle sits high above the river and the town and has recently been significantly restored.

We swung into Chinon across the bridge and immediately found a great restaurant for lunch. Mussels cooked the 'Chinon' style in a cheese gratin with lovely chunky chips. The place was packed by 1pm.

After our relaxed lunch and a little wine, we took a wander around the jumble of medieval streets underneath the Chateau, spotting out some other restaurants we will have to try another time!

It's such an interesting place to visit that we feel it's a must have addition to our french bike tours in the Loire Valley. So, from 2011 we will add this as a potential destination for cycling guests. All we need to work out now is how to fit this in with all the other great places we already visit!

It's been a while!

2010-10-20T07:06:00.000-07:00

Ashamed as I am, we've not blogged since July - disgraceful! To get back up to date quickly, we had a really really good summer season with lots of self-catering guests enjoying the pool and the great weather.

From the final week of August we ran four consecutive fully catered french cycling holidays. We only lost one morning's cycling to poor weather (we took the guests sightseeing) and the rest of the time we had cool, sometimes misty mornings, which would warm up by mid morning to give us warm sunny afternoons and evenings.

Once again the cycling holidays were great fun, with a great mix of people of different cycling abilities from all over the world. The formula seems to be working really well - we already have a number of guests returning next year for more. (More route planning for 2011 to keep the interest up!)

Our increasingly long holiday let season finishes at the end of this month. However, with the french strikes in full swing and no petrol at the filling stations, we may see our final two sets of guests cancel. There's no point travelling all the way here just to run out of petrol! What with the British Airway's strikes and the ash cloud at the beginning of the year and the French national strikes at the end, travelling for some of our guests has not been straightforward in 2010.

News out yesterday is the Tour de France 2011 will be passing close to us on Fri 8th July, as part of the stage from Le Mans to Chateauroux. We're thinking of running a special day on that week's cycling holiday. It will all depend on the exact route the stage will take (which isn't published until June 2011), but that week's guests will definitely be able to see the peleton and soak up the Tour atmosphere if they wish. More news to follow, so keep an eye out for blog updates.

Bike Fridays

2010-07-14T02:09:00.000-07:00

During this Spring/Summer French Cycling Holidays season, two of our guests have brought their own bikes from overseas. One from Australia and one from California, both had foldable 'Bike Fridays' which were either packed into a ridged suitcase or a large canvas bike bag. Terri, our guest from Australia also brought a bike trailer which with the wheels removed doubled as normal hold luggage for the flight.

At first glance (I must admit), I thought the small wheels would make hard work of longer routes, even ones without much in the way of hills. Well, never judge a book by its cover or a bike by the size of its wheels! Each bike is pretty much custom built and the gearing had been so well designed that these bikes seemed to eat up the miles. With clever damping of the handle bars and seats they were also comfortable and managed the stretches of forest track and gravel paths that we have on some of our routes.

Bike Fridays seem to have a pretty fanatic following as well - as one of our guests was hailed from a passing car shouting 'Friday! Friday!' - turned out to be two Australians on holiday who were part of the Bike Friday club and wanted to spend some time swapping cycling stories!

If your interested in these bikes, check out http://www.bikefriday.com/ .

New routes to the North

2010-06-16T09:37:00.001-07:00

Our french cycling holiday routes tend to converge on the river Loire, heading in a roughly southerly direction from our base at Gue de Ray. With a number of this year's guests expressing a desire to return and cycle more, we have started to explore potential routes to the north. Today, with a blue sky (but a strong wind, which I detest but doesn't bother Alison) we headed north, following the Maulne valley to the town of Le Lude. Compared to the southerly routes, the cycling terrain here offers more native woods, steeper river valleys and a more undulating landscape - in parts you'd think you were cycling through English countryside, with more cows, lush green pasture and hedgerows lining the lanes. What doesn't change though is the lack of traffic, the honey coloured houses and the numerous Chateau and manor houses that perch on the sides of the river valleys. The valleys offered us shelter from the ever present wind, but did mean that we tackled a few more hills and inclines than usual!

If you avoid Wednesdays when much is closed, Le Lude is a pleasant market town and it's easy to spend an hour wandering around. It sits on the river Loir - smaller cousin to La Loire, but you'd never guess because most of the river bank is within the grounds of the Chateau. Those french aristos really knew about the importance of location when they got into property development! It's open for visits and guided tours and by all accounts the lady who runs the tour puts on quite a show.

We couldn't cycle without eating, so on a friend's recommendation we pitched up at Cafe Cake in the centre of town. Owned by a UK ex-pat, Lindsay Stewart, it offers a good selection of sandwiches, paninis and salads and a great choice of cakes and cookies. All the cakes are made on the premises and I only tried the Banoffee Pie, but it was fantastic! If you've a sweet tooth this place could keep you interested for weeks - and if you cycled there every time you'd soon burn off the calories!

So, now to work in putting this route together on the mapping software - being careful to route around the track with four foot high thistles - why we ended up on that one I have no idea...

Catching the bug!

2010-05-30T12:14:00.000-07:00

It's great when a holiday re-ignites the cycing bug in people and there is nothing quite like cycling in the Loire Valley to do just that. This week the weather was once again kind to us and with a little rejigging of the schedule we managed to save the trip to Langeais and the gardens at Villandry for a fine sunny day. By all accounts the gardens were in full spring bloom and quite spectacular.

Once again we were confused by the afternoon opening and closing timings of the wine tasting museum in Bourgeuil - I'm sure the curator suffers from one too many tastings in the morning...
However, this was more than compensated by a route diversion on Wednesday to the Caves de Vignerons de Saumur, where the red bubbly really went down well and our guests managed to taste pretty much everything Saumur has on offer. And if that wasn't enough, they managed to fit in a tasting at Combier in Saumur, enjoying the Triple Sec (if you like a hint of oranges then you'll love it too.)So to Tanja, we hope the trip back to Adelaide wasn't too bad, to Mick, Angela, Linda and George thanks for the rosebush, which will soon be rambling through the trees and to George in particular - mmmmmooooo!

P.S. To Adrian and Mary - yes the huntsmen have added an extra 'Red C' onto the road, which accounts for your early left turn. Route now amended, but on the bright side you did get to see the Chateau at Chaumont!

2010 Cycling Season Starts!

2010-05-22T23:28:00.001-07:00

A fantastic start to this year's French cycling holidays!

The unseasonal cold winds that dominated the start of May had deserted us by the end of the first day's cycling. Replaced by great spring weather - cool mornings, warm afternoons and light balmy evenings. By Wednesday we were eating on the terrace with our guests able to spend relaxing pre-dinners in the pool and hot-tub.

Drawn from Australia and the UK our guests cycled our routes in the best possible conditions. Unusual highlights were watching a game of the local 'boule de fort' in Mouliherne, the 'Pommes Tapee' at Turquant and a surprising restaurant deep in rural Anjou. And not a puncture all week!

The group posing outside the ruined abbey at Leroux

Heading through the Anjou countryside towards a lunch appointment in Mouliherne

Following in the footsteps of the 2002 Tour de France, heading towards Le Pellerine and into a very strange headwind - it had been a windless day up to this point!

All ready for another 'al fresco' meal

So thanks for a great week to David and Joyce who now head back to Brisbane after a ten week tour of Europe, Mary and Adrian who have seen Summer arrive in their two weeks in France and Terry, continuing her cycling on another holiday in Provence.

Season begins at L'Ancienne Cure

2010-05-02T09:51:00.000-07:00

So the 2010 season begins for L'Ancienne Cure - and after investing time and money outside and in we're really happy with how it's all come together. It still has bags of character, but with a new kitchen, a renovated facade, re-decorated landing and new sofa's and curtains it's even better!

And if you're looking for a self catering cottage in the Loire Valley, you'll have to be quick to catch this one - between now and the end of September there are only two weeks left in L'Ancienne Cure.

Cherry Blossom and Sunshine

2010-04-18T06:42:00.000-07:00

The best day of the year by far - hot and sunny and the Cherry tree has burst into blossom - always a sign that our season is starting again. The pool however, will take a few weeks to begin to warm up - it comes straight out of our well at a fresh 12 degrees centigrade.

We've been preparing L'Ancienne Cure for the season and are really pleased with the exterior work that has been done. When we bought the house in January 2000 it looked like this

Ten years on, new windows, new roof, new shutters and now re-pointing have transformed it, but we hope we've kept the character.

Down at Gue de Ray, where we host our french cycling holidays, in addition to opening up the pool, the pointing work continues on our renovated barn. We wont get it completed before this season, but its beginning to come together. Apart from the asthetics, we wont get the cold drafts shooting through the house next winter!

Plenty planned for the coming week, including planting a trailer full of trees and shrubs, which have just arrived from Holland and getting ready to welcome the first guests at L'Ancienne Cure - that is if they can get out of Sweden, where they are currently stranded due to the flight ban!

Cycling through hidden Anjou

2010-04-14T00:05:00.000-07:00

We spent a great (if windy) day cycling from our place at Gue to Ray to Mouliherne, plotting a route through the back roads of the Anjou countryside. It proves how hidden some of the sights are, as we stumbled upon two large Chateau and the remains of an ancient Abbey - the mind boggles at the wealth that must have been in this area in the 13th and 14th centuries.

We couldn't get a good enough shot through the trees of the Chateau, so I resorted to finding an arial one on the web. This is Le château de la Ville au Fourrier, built from 1265 by the French Knight, Geoffroy le Fourrier - who gave his name to the town. It looked privately owned, but we had a quick nosy down the entrance drive in any case - would make an amazing hotel!

Then in the middle of nowhere we came across this entrance gate, which is the only remaining part of a 12th Century Abbey - 'Notre Dame du Loroux', which existed as an Abbey for 700 years. Then in the mid 19th Century it was knocked down to make way for a more modern Chateau - so property development hasn't changed much through the ages! The new Chateau is pretty ordinary, so I didnt bother with a shot.

We took the opportunity to have lunch at L'Art O Base restaurant in Mouliherne. As usual, excellent and we endulged in the 10€ lunchtime menu. Tomato and Mozerella salad, followed by Spaghetti Carbonara, a cheese course, apple tart, coffee and two glasses of wine - outstanding!

Then with the wind still beating into our faces (which-ever direction we were heading in) we wandered back home, yet still discovered another Chateau (now turned into a Chambre d'Hote) and an old water mill, nicely decorated with an old carriage.

Interior at L'Art O'Base

The water mill at Linieres Bouton

Happy Cycling!

Culinary Delights!

2010-04-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

Wow! Two new Michelin starred restaurants within 30 minutes of our gites, can't wait to try them! Let us know if you have a special occassion to celebrate whilst staying in our loire valley gites and we'll book ahead for you.

Le Chai at the Manoir de Restigne is in Bourgueil with set menus from 45€.

Le Gambetta is in the beautiful chateau town of Saumur, set menus from 29€ lunchtimes (more expensive in the evenings).

Comparing French Cycling Holidays in the Loire Valley

2010-03-17T04:52:00.001-07:00

We're always keeping an eye on other companies offering cycling holidays in the Loire Valley and we thought we might as well share our research with you!

I'm sure we missed some tour operators and if they let us know who they are then we'll gladly add them to our research. It was comforting to see that we still offer outstanding value for money when you see us in a list of twenty or so other tour operators. The prices differ significantly between the cycling holidays, but we would like to think that we provide an outstanding blend of high quality, reasonable pricing and great personal service and flexibility.

So enjoy and Compare French Cycling Holidays in the Loire Valley

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2010-02-28T12:39:00.000-08:00

An eventful end to the week with a violent storm system, named Xynthia, passing up through Portugal, Spain and France on Saturday night. We were just north of its path, which was bad enough. The electricity finally died at around 4am and we emerged into a blowy morning to assess the damage. We were lucky with only a few pots broken, covers ripped off the summer furniture and the gatepost plus concrete support out of the ground. Some of the neighbours didn't fair so well, with barns, greenhouses, gates, road signs and trees either mangled or destroyed. Power was restored by mid afternoon, but there are still some friends up the road spending their evening by candlelight infront of the wood burner. See the BBC's report for more.

Earlier in the week we dropped in on a couple leaving their 18th Century Chateau to return to the UK - they were having an 'every-thing must go' sale. After spending two years renovating they have decided the Chambre d'Hote life is not for them. They have managed to sell amazingly quickly and the new owners don't want any of the house contents. A lovely location, but a fortune to keep together I imagine. We came away with some great bits and bobs for the farmhouse. Gareth and Heather were a lovely couple and you can see their story at the Daily Mail.

And finally, reminding us that the French cycling holiday season is not far away, we had a lovely note from a set of guests that stayed with us in May together with some photos.
We had some free time so joined them for one of their cycling routes - the weather being just too good to miss. Being the perfect host I suggested a short cut through the forest to get us all home earlier for some quality pool time. Well, 2 hours later and an extra 16kms - we finally made it back to base after some monkey had illegally blocked one of our tracks with a fence. The least we could do when we returned was break open the beers! No wonder we continually re-ride the routes to check for changes!

It all started so well, down on the River Loire - follow me!

These guys were Australian, so used to our version of the outback! Although, I think by now they had realised that I had lost my bearings.....

But there is nothing quite like a well earned ice cold beer - and these guys had earned it. The ride also turned out to be one of the highlights of their six week trip to Europe!

Ticking Along

2010-02-04T09:10:00.001-08:00

Hints of Spring finally in the air, so we are beginning to turn our thoughts to the cycle routes as we will need to get out and check that no changes have been made to the road layouts and signs etc - we've learnt its dangerous to think that all will be the same as last year! Plus we're amending some of the routes to add in more flexibility and for those wanting it - more miles!

We're also busy in the garden, tidying up before everything starts growing like mad. Three deer watched us for half an hour yesterday from the fields; they must be short of food and are having to be more adventurous in their foraging. Almost finished yet another shed - which after we've shuffled things around will make more room available for bike storage.

We've also been writing a few articles, which end up in all sorts of places on the internet and helps www.loirelifecycling.com continue to travel up the google rankings. Its a slow process but we're getting there - hovering around page 3 for "French Cycling Holidays" - alot better than page 20 something three months ago.

So thought I'd post the articles here as well - enjoy!

Spares and Repair!
French Cycling Holidays
LoireLife goes to Australia!

A good week

2010-01-16T13:09:00.000-08:00

We've had a good couple of weeks really. Lots of technical work on the websites have raised their google rankings, this year's improvements to the properties are almost complete and the bookings for cycling and self-catering holidays keep steadily coming in.
We finished the week taking out some friends who help us during the cycling season - a cracking three course lunch with wine for 12 Euros each!
So now we'll do what we usually do this time of the year - pack our bags and head off to the Alps for a week's skiing. Conditions look great so we're looking forward to meeting up with old friends once we arrive.
Come Feb and Spring will feel just around the corner - so plenty to do in the gardens!

So Cold!

2010-01-11T12:29:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all!

January's weather can really put a spoke in getting anything done! We've not had the snow like the UK and the rest of France, but it has been very very cold, so working in the cottages or the garden are both definitely out of the question. So we've been occupying ourselves with marketing the cycling holidays and of course responding to the booking enquiries. January is usually our second wave of bookings - the first bookings were made last Summer while people are still here and now its those people that are really organised - and know that to snap up the high quality cottages with pools, you have to be quick.

I think we've benefitted from the UK snow, from the web stats its obvious that snow bound people are surfing the net, thinking about their summer holidays!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-22T09:00:00.000-08:00

We've emerged from our first cold snap of the winter and are now looking forward to the Christmas festivities. So Merry Christmas to all!

See you in 2010, hoping for a great season of french cycling holidays and self catering in the Loire Valley!

Back in the routine

2009-12-13T13:35:00.000-08:00

The holiday is already fading into the distance, so its been a week where we've been making the most of the off season and improving the properties.

So, its a kitchen makeover at our first Loire holiday cottage, L'Ancienne Cure. On the final straight now, plumbing, tiling, a few electrical bits and snagging - pictures to follow. On another front, we've had 13 tonnes of ballast delivered as we create a new back garden down at Gue de Ray. The weather has turned cold so its ideal to get out there with a shovel and wheelbarrow - so far 6 tonnes moved, only another 7 to go!

LoireLife goes cycling in Australia

2009-12-10T09:39:00.000-08:00

We're back from our long planned holiday to Australia and getting back into the swing of things back at Gue de Ray.

We had a great time catching up with some of this year's cycling guests who had invited us back to Oz to show us around. Mixed in with the sightseeing we managed to cycle in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide using a mix of hired and borrowed bikes.

In Sydney, we didn’t find many marked routes around the city centre and you pretty much take your chances with the rest of the traffic. So, rather than risk injury, we hired bikes at Centennial Park and enjoyed a couple of hours cycling around the large parkland. I say a couple of hours – we spent at least forty minutes having ice cream in the park’s restaurant – but we were on holiday!

Brisbane was a completely different with plenty of bikeways. In fact, if you are exploring central Brisbane and in particular the Southbank area then using the bike is perfect, with dedicated routes and plenty of clear signs. We opted to have a cycle the Moreton Bay Cycleway following the coastline in the eastern suburbs. Many thanks to Lou & John Carroll, guests from our first French Cycling Holiday of 2009, who provided us with the bikes and Lou who guided us.
We wont forget the ride with the cooling coastal breeze, nothing but the glistening Pacific Ocean on our left hand side and boardwalks meandering through mangrove swamps - just great!

Adelaide is designed on a grid layout with wide boulevards, the result being fast moving traffic on three lane highways. Even the locals would admit that the drivers are unaccustomed to sharing these routes with cyclists! However, we choose to cycle the dedicated cycleway running from the north eastern suburbs and following the banks of the Torrens river through the centre of the city and out to the coast – a ride of 16kms. For city centre cycling this was brilliant, with glimpses of all the sights, including Donald Bradman’s statue outside the Adelaide Oval.

The sheer size of Australia makes rural cycling entirely different to France. While in France we will pass a hamlet or point of interest every few kilometres. In Australia the space between hamlets are not usually less than 20kms and often far more. This is what makes French cycling holidays so appealing – being able to cram a huge amount of sights and sounds into a 45km cycle ride, and at the same time using roads with little traffic and where there is traffic, the drivers respect and understand the cyclist, as perhaps no other nation does. What we can’t provide though in the Loire Valley is that stunning coastline – cycling alongside the crashing waves is fantastic! For photos see our french cycling holidays website.

An Introduction

2009-12-06T08:19:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the new blog from Ali & Jon at Loirelife!

We'll be updating the blog for the latest info on our self catering gites in the loire valley and our centre based french cycling holidays.

So, if you fancy a great holiday take a look at our websites for a flavour of what's on offer! Just click on the links above to find out more.