A shortish day of cycling, but lots of things to enjoy along the way.

Almost straight out of Saumur we were onto the Loire cycle route, which includes some intriguing opportunities to cycle through the cave dwellings in the cliffs above the river.

Little side-roads took us into these highly unusual “troglodyte” structures.

Much of it was rideable and was some of the most unusual cycling I’ve ever done.

Our main target of the day was the Fontvraud Abbey, which reached in time for a lunch in the adjacent village square.

The Abbey is nearly 1,000 years old and has strong links to the Plantagenet dynasty (and therefore English history) and is the burial place of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France and England, her husband Henry II and her son Richard the Lionheart.

A stunning building, it had periods as a prison and factory and has lost almost all of its ornate interior decoration. But the shell, in the pale local limestone, is almost luminous with the sun streaming through its windows.

Julie and I visited the Abbey on our first trip to France together in 1996 and the place has special memories for us. It was fun introducing Olivia to it.

We ended the day in Montreiul-Bellay after a total of only 21 miles. But with strong headwinds almost all the way, we were happy to reach this very pretty little town. We enjoyed probably our best meal of the holiday so far at L’Auberge des Isles, a modern restaurant down by the river below the chateau.

Bird of the day: black redstart – a very rare bird in the UK. Males are a sooty black around the head fading to dark grey down the body and tail. But with red and orange under the tail. We saw a couple at Fontvraud on the high walls.

Julie adds. Our first night in a hotel. The bicycle storage was outside in the spacious hotel grounds with limited cover in an open air shed. Phil wasn’t happy and the owner stressed this was normal so we persuaded him to accept it. Olivia did a great job conversing with her in French and explaining our hesitation.

The hotel was an attractive, historic building rated 3 stars with a small outdoor swimming pool and pretty garden a terrace. We had a shared room with a put-up single bed for Olivia, having refused the sofa bed originally offered! Olivia’s French continued to come in handy as we got the owner (husband) to book us a table at a nearby restaurant. (she did however mistake the word Reserve for Theresa!!).