We had a great dinner at an Aubgere (a inn that serves local cuisine) served to us by a lovely person who was happy to help us with our french. Then back to the Rock and Camp campground that was more jazz than rock and roll. For which we were very thankful. It was a quiet night in the site reserved for hikers and bikers which included a charging station. Everything a biker wants!
With no alarm, I woke up around 7 and everyone else started moving as well. No known patisserie in town so we ate the few cookies and stale baguette we had leftover. We all felt a little sad as we headed up a 150m climb out of town. What's that at the top of the hill? A town, and is that cafe open? Cafe au lait? Yes? Then Andrew worked his burgeoning french with ordering croissants. A barrage of french followed from the waiter and we answered in the best way we knew: oui! What came out of the kitchen was a plate of hot, crispy, amazingly buttery, chocolately pastries that were the best we had!
After this redemption of our sad early food, we headed out and quickly were on an old railroad grade bicycle-only trail. We followed the gravel path slowly down down down in to tunnel after tunnel, the longest being over 1 km! An amazing ride for over 20km until we came out at Le Puy-en-Velay, a larger town from which many pilgrims start their walk to Spain (we have been seeing them the last few days backpacking the area). The chaos of a larger town was confusing and we needed to navigate lunch. After a few false starts, we stumbled on a cafeteria, french style! Named Flunch, we ordered roast chicken, spaghetti Bolognese and a Rosti burger (served between two hash browns, swiss style reimagined by a french cafeteria and as delicious as you imagine!). Refueled we headed out on a busier road down the Loire gorge for 26 more km to an amazing campground (Cozy camp) right on the Loire with a swimming pool, bar and a restaurant.
Camping here is amazing! Looking forward to another nice evening.