Maintenon to Chartres – 20km
18C
Terrain: lovely countryside roads.

A short one today which is great as I think it’s allowing my knee to heal. I do like it when I arrive in beautiful places and today it’s Chartres. Amazing with a huge cathedral on a top of a hill (torture to get Bob up!).

I’d really recommend this place as somewhere to visit. Not too far from Paris, and the Loir valley with this amazing cathedral and lots of narrow sinuous streets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quaint streets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A really gorgeous route today as well as well, nice quiet roads with lots of cyclists and runners out to say hello to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quite possibly the coolest danger sign I have ever seen!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cycle path!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This being said, I’m still finding things challenging after leaving Paris. I’ve always been really interested in how the mental affects the physical and I’m certainly a great case study for myself at the moment.

My energy has been low, I’m tired and more surprisingly, my legs have felt tired despite covering shorter distances and not having to deal with hilly terrain. I think it’s just the way I’m feeling and I’m waiting for myself to snap out of it, which I usually do.

I try my best to put life into context, remember just how fortunate I am and think about the greater cause of refugees and what they go through daily. Sometimes though, it’s difficult to overcome the downers.

I’ve got a pretty long one to cover tomorrow which for some reason I feel quite apprehensive about despite having covered similar distances many times.

Let’s see how it goes…