The best traffic-free bike rides around Bou

There's a small café where you can sit under the trees on the terrace, very peaceful. But €3 for an espresso...

Beautiful old barges lie in the river.

Pleasant gravel path

Nice place with this factory!

We found this witch's house right next to the bike path. Like in a fairy tale

Nestled in a meander of the Loire, the town of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire is home to one of the most beautiful jewels of Romanesque architecture: an 11th and 12th century basilica including the porch tower, decorated with twelve historic capitals. , the monumental portal and the nave constitute the most remarkable elements. Founded around 650 on the grounds of an ancient Gallo-Roman villa, Fleury Abbey has housed the relics of Saint Benedict, founder of Western monasticism and patron saint of Europe, since 672. During the 8th century, the patronage of the Prince of the Apostles was abandoned for that of Saint Benedict. This event is at the origin of the rapid expansion, prosperity and influence of the abbey which became Saint-Benoît de Fleury, while the village later became that of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire. In the 9th century, after the ordeal of the Norman invasions which pillaged and destroyed the monastery, Fleury Abbey flourished again. The 10th and 11th centuries were the great era of Fleury's spiritual, intellectual and artistic influence. The construction of Fleury was probably completed in 1218. A few centuries later, the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of Religion ruined the monastery and disrupted regular life, the community's numbers collapsed. The French Revolution will end up dispersing the community of Fleury Abbey. But in 1944, a community of around forty monks resettled in the area and undertook the reconstruction of the monastery. A community of thirty-three monks lives there today under the direction of Father Abbot Etienne Ricaud. In 1947, the fourteenth centenary of the death of Saint Benedict led the abbey to be elevated to the status of a basilica. The visitor is invited to admire the fabulous historic capitals present in the porch tower, the nave and the choir; the magnificent paving which extends around the altar as well as the crypt where the relics of the patron saint rest. Not to be missed is the north portal and its monumental lintel carved in high relief.

The Orléans Canal is full of charm with its many locks!

The Orléans Canal is an old waterway which connects the Loire to the Loing Canal and the Briare Canal. Over its length of 78 kilometers, the canal includes a total of 26 reaches (portions of a canal between two locks) and 29 locks. The Moulin-Rouge reach is 1,500 meters long. It is bordered upstream by the Combreux lock and, downstream, by the Moulin-Rouge lock. The lock is no longer functional, but that does not detract from the charm of the place!