Of all the places we’ve visited so far, Chinon is perhaps the one we were sorriest to leave. It’s a really lovely little town.

Airbnb review – our apartment in Chinon was equally good. A spacious two bedroom unit on the second floor of a newly renovated house in the old part of town (it was on a cobbled side street), it was quite roomy, modern and stylish.

Back to the bike riding and today’s route took us over the ridge behind Chinon and down to the Loire.

After joining the Loire, we followed the bike route along its southern bank for almost all of the rest of the day.

A lengthy stretch was on a traffic free gravel path, but this eventually gave way to minor roads shared with other traffic.

Towns and villages were few and far between on this stretch so we diverted into the small town of Langeais, on the northern bank to find lunch. We enjoyed an excellent meal (Caesar salad for me, seafood salad for Olivia and a huge smoked salmon baguette for Julie).

Our lunch stop was in the shadow of one of the Loire’s lesser known chateau.

Somewhat sluggish after our lunches we headed back out onto the Loire bike route which finally led us to our destination, Villandry (another chateau), on the banks of Cher, another of the Loire’s many tributaries.

All the chateaux have their defining characteristics and Villandry’s was definitely its garden, which is extensive, varied and immaculate.

We finished with a cold drink at the cafe. Villandry was the first reasonably busy location of the holiday. Many of the visitors had arrived by bike and lycra was the fabric most frequently spotted on our tour of the gardens.

In fact, once we joined the Loire bike route, mid morning, we were encountering cyclists in various group sizes every few minutes for the rest of the day.

Bird Watch: the Loire is teeming with life and the number of herons, egrets and cormorants we saw today reflected this.