Thank Alex for his guest comments yesterday by making lots of comments on his post :)
For the most part, today was excellent with lots of scenery. We did run into our first mechanical issue today, where Alex's bottom bracket has issues and was making very uncomfortable noises. We were about 10 miles outside of Chartres when it started. After determining that there was nothing we could do ourselves, we decided to limp into town to the nearest bike shop for repairs. First shop - no we cannot work on it. Second shop initially said, yes, if we have parts, we can do it on Wednesday. So, I pulled the 'we are touring' card out, rolled my fully loaded bike into the shop and then the guy said, "Well we aren't too busy right now, I'll fix it". So he did!
The bike shop visit added 10 miles to our ride today, so we are very tired, and we face a ~80 mile ride tomorrow. 😳
But, here is the good stuff for today:
