We are fortunate people. Today, after we had left Loche in the morning (after walking around the city, immense in its history, a warren of alleys of stone buildings, castle walls, moats and old drawbidges, all with an overlay of modern life over the top of it) we rode through fields of winter wheat and new sunflowers, through small villages with churches central to town. We made it just over 15 km when i got a flat tire in front of a particularily lovely church. Christine went inside, struck up a conversation with the equally lovely man inside, and we were promptly invited to his house for the night. So we write from the inside of a beautiful 18th century farmhouse, after a lovely dinner of lamb, french cheese, wine and conversation with this couple, both in their 70's, and it is grand.

I think that we are stopping and looking more than we are cycling, but we are making our way slowly south through france after leaving Tours three days ago. We are eating far too much cheese and baguette and drinking as much espresso as we can force down, but that is what one does here. It is a brilliant and lovely existence.

Stuff is old here, older than we can figure. We've explored chateau and walked through towns with histories we can't even start to comprehend. We are fumbling through french as we have stumbled through many laguages and learning about food and kings and modern politics.

Internet is hard to come by as, like in the states, everyone has computers in their homes. Internet cafes are rare and expenseive. but we will post as much as we can...

Ian