Into the forest

The Sologne is a vast flat area of forest and little lakes to the east of Blois and to the south of the big loop in the Loire that has its apex at Orléans. The route now lies straight through it, eastwards, until meeting the Loire again higher up at Gien. As the crow flies, it's about the distance of Southampton to central London, although the GR zigzags quite a lot from village to village. 

It's not all forest however, especially on this first day. Indeed there is too much open country on what is suddenly a searingly hot, windless afternoon. Walking seems a whole lot harder! One of the open bits has this huge display of poppies in amongst a field of oil seed rape. 

The Sologne is the area of the mysterious demesne in Alain Fournier's classic 1913 coming-of-age novel 'Le Grand Meaulnes' where Meaulnes meets Yvonne de Galais for the first time. (I've only read it in English - so far, but who knows!) Most of the forest is in private hands, large estates where hunting is as important as any logging. Luckily, it's not the hunting season now, although preparations are in hand.