We awoke to sunshine at from our top floor room at the Le Domaine des Bidaudieres château in Vouvray. The kids had a quick breakfast and then were off to explore the buildings and grounds. Dylan gravitated toward the large pond to greet the fish and frogs. We all explored the buildings, some of which were built into the hillside with cavelike earthen walls and ceilings. In fact, the LK family's room had earthen walls and ceiling, the latter of which was covered by nets to prevent the occasional loose rock falling.

We hit the road around noon and headed west for about 2.5 km into the Vouvray town center. The first 1.5 km were a bit hair raising along a busy road with no shoulder before we could turn off onto a more bike friendly route. We stopped at a lookout near the town cathedral and sent a contingent in search of a store for lunch food, snacks, and, of course, candy. From Vouvray we continued west 11 km toward the city of Tours. To avoid riding along a busy highway, we chose a hilly route to the north of the Loire river. However, the kids and adults quickly tired of the uphill sections and we went back to the highway for a short section so that we could hook up with a bike trail along the Loire.

While on the trail, 8 year old Kat had a spill in some gravel. We stopped to patch her up with some giant band aids but failed to notice a problem with her bike which would become significant the following day.

We arrived in Tours about 2 pm, crossing over the Loire river again. Outside of Paris, this was the largest city we encountered on our trip which was why it was not selected as an overnight stop.

Tours has a magnificent medieval Gothic cathedral in the center of town and an excellent street car / light rail transit system in addition to being a major intercity rail hub.