Am I Cheating By Taking A Train_ - Bikepacking France

I'm riding the Eurovelo 3 from Paris to Bordeaux. And after a couple of rough days battling the heat, I'm lacking a bit behind. I've tried to make up some time along the way, but to no avail. So on day 5 I find myself at a crossroads. Should I keep pushing myself in the heat, or should I choose to go with the sensible option of taking a fast forward in the shape of a train? Am I being smart about this, or is taking a train cheating? Stay tuned and voice your opinions. No matter what your stand is, you'll get to join me on a fantastic day along the Loire Valley in France. Good morning and welcome to the unorganized chaos of being a bikepacker. Just look at the mess that I have to take care of every morning to be able to get all my stuff into my bike bags. Well, today is the fifth day on my tour here in France. And I'm almost at the halfway point. But there's been a slight change of plans. Last night I tried to look at the route. And I've been about 20-25 kilometers after my sort of planned schedule. And I thought I was going to make that up by adding a couple of kilometers each day. But it has turned out to be so hard to get those extra kilometers in. I'm struggling just to be able to reach the mileage that I've set up. What I'm gonna do today is that I'm actually gonna take a fast forward in the form of a train. So I'm gonna ride over to the next big town here called Tour. And then I'm gonna jump on a train and skip about 70 kilometers. Then I should be able to make it to Bordeaux in time on Tuesday here. Because the problem is that from Bordeaux I'm taking one of these high speed trains back up to Paris. And since there are only a couple of available spots on each train for bikes. I had to book that way ahead about a month ago. So me getting home to Sweden really depends on me making that train. So I want to have some leeway so that I don't have to push it real hard to be able to make it to the train in Bordeaux. But I guess this is all part of the adventure. You never know what a bikepacking trip will take you on. So I get to experience what it's like bringing your bike on a train here in France. And I fingers crossed hope it's a lot better than taking your bike on a train in Sweden. So lovely waking up to those hot air balloons flying over the campground here. Well it's actually kind of chilly in the morning now when you're cycling in the shade. But I like it. I'd rather have this than the blazing heat in the afternoon. It's my Nordic blood I guess. Well believe it or not these are the first hills that I've encountered on the whole journey so far. But I'm quite happy to be able to do them in the morning when I still have a lot of energy. And it hasn't gotten so hot yet. And the hills also mark a big change in scenery. For the first time I'm able to see vineyards all along the trail here. Up till now there have only been corn fields and sunflower fields. Well I've just made it to the city of Amboise. And I'm standing right in front of Klos Luce. This is the place where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last years. So Leonardo spent most of his days in Rome. But he was invited by the French king Franz I to come to live here in Amboise. He stayed in this place called Klos Luce. Close to the royal castle that was by then located in Amboise. So I made it to Tours. And this is where the Eurovelo or the Skanderbrick takes a turn for the south. And this also marks the point where I'm leaving the Loire Valley. And like I told you earlier I need to make up some time because I'm lacking behind a bit. So I've gone over this about a hundred times to be able to find a train that would take me along the Skanderbrick route here. And from just outside of Tours here, about four kilometers from here, there's a train station with these fast French trains that will jump me ahead about 80 kilometers. So that's what I'm gonna do now. So I have about 45 minutes to get to the train station and board the train. You never know what to expect when taking your bike on a train in a foreign country for the first time. But after a somewhat chaotic boarding procedure at the train station the experience was actually quite positive. A conductor helped me find the train car marked with a bike. And I quickly found my place and where I was supposed to store my bike. I buckled up the bike with two seat belt looking things as the train was about to leave the station. So I've boarded the train now and the bike is attached and fixed over here. This train ride should take about 30 minutes and it will save me about 80 kilometers. So that's basically a day out on the bike. And in the meantime I can enjoy my lunch for the day. So I'll be ready to hit the road once I get off this train again. So just like magic I'm in Châtelet-Ros. And my next order of business is to first get to the Lascande Beric again. And even before that find some water because this is totally empty now. But I think there's a water fountain just by the river that the Eurovendel or the Lascande Beric goes along. Well it turned out that the water fountain was broken. So the next one is in about 13 kilometers and I'm all out of water. So I think I'm actually gonna have to go to a supermarket and buy me some water. Which I don't really like but I have no choice. Finally we have some clouds in the sky. So nice! This has got to be one of the warmest days on the trip so far. When you stop outside of a pharmacy like this there's always one of these signs. That tells you the date and the temperature of the day. And you can look yourself. It's 42 degrees. So I'm entering the town of Chauvigny right now. There is a campground here and there's also one coming up in about 12 kilometers. And I could go to the other one. It's only about 5.45 at the moment. This town has an old medieval inner town that is supposed to be really spectacular. And the campground is right by that place. Plus there are numbers of restaurants here as well. And in the next town there's only a pizzeria. So I think I'm actually gonna stay in this one and do a longer day tomorrow. I'm celebrating tonight after a pretty tough day out on the roads here. So I found this bottle pretty feelingly from the region that I am going to in about three days. Bordeaux! That's my end destination on this bike tour. Cheers! I'm just gonna have this one glass of wine and then I'm gonna take you down to the town. But first we're gonna go past the medieval castle that's up on the hill here. You can hear the church bell from the castle over there. As I said I'm supposed to be in Bordeaux in about four days now. And I did take a little fast forward today. And I'm glad I did so because otherwise it would have been pretty difficult to make it there in time. I always thought I had in me to be able to make this 120-130 km days. But this heat has taken its toll on me. I don't know how many times I've said it before. But you saw it yourself today on the thermometer outside of the pharmacy. I'm guessing 42 or 43 is a bit over exaggerated. It's probably in the sun a bit. But it's still at least 36 degrees celsius. So it's almost 100 degrees fahrenheit. And I'm not used to these temperatures. I'm from Sweden. We have mild summers and cold winters up there. So I'm just gonna finish this glass. And then I'll hope you join me down to the medieval castle and a nice restaurant down here. And by the way, notice I'm all dressed up for the evening as well. No stinky t-shirts or anything. I've been saving this shirt for a nice occasion and I think it's tonight. So I'm the first one to admit I've been eating like crap on this backpacking trip. All of the dinners have basically been eating pasta salads from Lidl or Auchan at the campground. So now it's Friday night and it's my time to spoil myself. So I've taken myself to a nice restaurant here in Chauvigny in the city center. And I'm gonna enjoy a nice three course dinner here. As a starter I'm gonna have a chevre salad. And the main course is some kind of duck. The dessert is some sort of brioche caramel. I have no idea what it's gonna taste like but that's all part of the adventure. I think that's a key part when you're going on these trips abroad. That you're taking the time to try out the local cuisine. That's a big part of your adventure. And I think I've deserved it after these five pretty tough days in the blazing heat here in France. Take a look at the main dish. I wish you'd be able to smell how nice this smells. I'm so full from the duck and the entree. But I think I'll give this dessert a go anyway. What a great ending to this sort of unusual day with a train and everything. But I'm pretty full right now. Let's hope I'm able to make it back to the campground. The campground is about one kilometer away from here. I'm guessing I'm turning in right away when I just brush my teeth and hit the sleeping bag here. So I should really get up early tomorrow morning. Because I have a big day ahead of me and it's pretty late now. It's after 10 o'clock. I'll see you in next week's video. And until then. Have a good one.