Roanne to St Etienne

I found my way out of Roanne and along the eastern side of the Loire. The road then turned over a bridge and then climbed. The D56 was like this. You would go past a hill top village thinking to yourself, "Thank heavens I don't have to climb up there!" only to find the road doubling back and making the said ascent. For all that the scenery was spectacular. I was really in the hills now, up and at times away from the valley and looking across hills and valleys to distant purple hills both to right and left of me. I'm reading Homage to Catalonia in preparation for the Spanish leg of the journey, and as Orwell describes the trenches separated by valleys that kept the combatants too far apart to trouble each other, so I could imagine this landscape though it is considerably more lush. There was one very spectacular descent followed by a cruel, steep and very long climb. I thought of it as a long and painful form of bucking broncho, a test of how long I could stay in the saddle. I kept going and made it to the top. In fact, that was by far the worst of the climbs.

At St Jodard I passed a small convent and stopped to call, but no one was about, so I said morning prayer in their garden. Once I got a little beyond to Pinay, I realized, looking back from the next spur that I had missed a very substantial monastery (how different and obviously male is monastery from convent architecture!).

From here the road rejoined the Loire and the way leveled out, but I was concerned to have got only a little beyond Feurs, and only halfway but lunch. Still, my legs were tired with the climbing, and I knew the hostel I was headed for was remote, so I decided to stop in a roadside canteen and have the plat de jour.

In fact the next stretch was flat as the valley widened out. I made for St Rombart which has an extraordinary Romanesque church with a tower at both ends. I also called in at the Tourist Information. Allow me a little rant about Tourist Information. These people never seem to want to help you! And this despite the fact that they don't seem to have anything else to do. They only want to give you leaflets and direct you to expensive attractions/ restaurants/ hotels. Yesterday I was told there was no green cycle way and then I discovered it for myself half a mile away. Today, I was asking much the same thing: I had 20km to cover and only one road, the Chambles road seemed possible. Yes, I was told, via Chambles would be my only way. Is it hilly, I asked, oh no, I was told, but watch out for the traffic. Well it was a narrow winding road, and indeed there were even signs directing motorists to leave 1.5m when passing cyclists, but not hilly? St Rombart was on the Loire, Chambles was 630m up. It was 10km of climb! And then 10km of white knuckle descent. I got to my hostel just as the rain began to come heavy. Home and dry and safe.