Our second day began early with Andy waking me at 4 am. He went off to tell the staff in the hotel that “il pleut dans ma chamber”, a phrase that covered it in his best school boy French. There was indeed water coming through our ceiling, so we were offered a drier room and went back to sleep.

The day improved after breakfast, with a leisurely ride through suburbia, woods and country lanes in a warm sun with both of us feeling well. The bikes are working well too, and thanks go to expert bike mechanic Alex for sorting out my bike, the gears are now working beautifully.

Vaux le Vicomte was our first tour of a chateau, and we really enjoyed the formality of water gardens, box topiary, and grand vistas that French aristocracy managed to master so well. I particularly enjoyed finding a soft drinks machine in a beech hedge, supplying a very welcome coke today.

We went on to Fontainebleau, spending time in the town rather than more chateau watching as we had been before. The locals were in party mood, with street musicians attempting a medley of one chord country songs in a marquee, whilst everyone else chatted or smoked, or in our case, drank beer.

Then we pedaled on to the campsite and a well deserved beer.