Today’s ride: 184km, 662m elevation

Total so far: 417km, 1345m elevation

Day three was the first day that everything went well, and we really got into our stride. It was scheduled to be a long day of riding, but not a tough one; 184km in rigidly, but almost pan flat.

We had to wait for the campsite manager to open up at 9am so we could pay him, so we took our time packing up and treated ourselves to scrambled eggs and bacon cooked over the Trangia. By the time we’d washed up and packed away the cooking gear, it was 9.15 and the manager was leaving the site already. He drove past us while we were waiting outside the door for him, so we gave ourselves the best Gallic shrouds we could managed and accepted that it was just meant to be a free nights camping.

On the road we took an early decision to find fast roads rather than roughy tracks, and this paid dividends with a good pace. Sooner crossed the Loire and were officially in the south of France. We went well on flat river tracks and country lanes, and by midday we had reached the pretty little town of Sancerre, famous for its wine and goats cheese. We secured supplies of both from the supermarket and climbed up the hill to a viewpoint to taste the terroir. It was magnificent – our first two really good fromages du jour and the local wine complimented it perfectly. We probably spent too long enjoying it, but we had promised ourselves that we would take time out even on the long days, and Sancerre was worth more than the hour we gave it.

Back on the road, we still had 130km to do in an afternoon. We made some good pace when we moved but it was quite hot and had to take regular breaks. We stopped off in the village of Nevers after 100km, one of many places we would have loved to spend more time in and a town which is clearly excited about hosting a Tour de France arrivée this summer. Conscious of the early Sunday closing, we also stopped for dinner in Decise at 5pm, combining a beer from a local bar with merguez and kebab from a takeaway on the same square. Late in the day, we started to get a few small hills, which wouldn’t have usually been a problem but after so much riding it was a struggle for fatigued legs.

We arrived on our campsite at Bourbon-Lancy at around 9pm. We asked a chap in the village if the bar was open, and so fir the first time in decades I signed in to a casino and had a fruit beer while the local villagers pumped their spare cash into the machines behind me. It had been a very good day.