This post recounts the fourth day of my English Channel to the Mediterranean cycle tour in France with Peak Tours in June 2025. Read Day 3: La Flèche to Loches.

After our ride briefing in front of the impressive Best Western hotel in Loches, we were soon negotiating the handsome streets of this historic town. I wish I’d had the time to explore last night – that’s one of the downsides of such an intense tour.

This was the easiest day of the tour: 51 miles, and more significantly just 1,762 feet of climbing, most of which would feature before lunch.

It was a pleasure to call out, ‘Bonjour!’ to dog walkers and others we passed, in my ‘finest’ French accent. We also saw many tractors, a reminder that France is still a hugely agricultural country, unlike Britain. (No wonder those farmers still hold the power to break presidents and prime ministers.)

Our morning stop was at a pretty location next to an old bridge, which we’d cross immediately after the break. Our route instructions asked us not to lean our bikes on the flowers – mine was resting on a sign, not the blooms surrounding it! We went without a hot drink as the hotel in Loches had filled the flasks with cold, not hot, water… But soft drinks proved just what we needed on another hot day.