Moret sur Loing

Today I am writing from Moret sur Loing. We biked here last night and are spending two nights here. Today we are not doing any biking, just touring the town. Its a good thing because its very cold and now drizzling rain.

This town was originally started in the 12th Century with a church and a typical medieval walled city. Alfred Sisley, one of the 4 original impressionist painters, lived here and painted 400 of his 900 paintings of landscapes or scenes from this city. Its such a romantic and beautiful place, you could really see why the impressionists would want to capture the landscapes and sense of light here.

Also here is a bicycle museum. ITs quite nice to bike here actually, because the French have such a great respect for cyclists and harmoniously drive with them on the roads.

The Tour de France started in France in 1903 by a newspaper man. The first news articles about the Tour de France was printed on yellow paper and is why the jerseys are yellow. Italy has a similar bike race and their first news was printed on pink paper and their jerseys are pink. The first races were 2400 kilometers and took about 18 hours of bicycling. The pictures are so funny to see all the old cyclists carrying their spare tires slung around their backs and shoulders.

Since we are not bicycling this afternoon, I went for a huge lunch in town (Plat du jour was spaghetti bolognase with rhubarb cake for dessert 14 euro). Im stuffed and exhausted. And this internet cafe is pretty far from the barge, over several walking bridges.

So,ething I didnt expect here is that there is no tourism after September. Very few restaurants and cafes are open at all, let alone closed for lunch or Sundays or Mondays. All shops are closed fro, around 12 til 2:30 so Im not getting much shopping done. Today will probably be the first day I will be taking a nap...

0 miles biked today