More friends (and other stuff)

21-28 July

Fresh from R and R with Chris and the kitties, we took more time out from the biking to be with two different sets of friends not all that far from Nantes. Nantes is a half-day train-ride from Orléans. I’m not sure that this is blog material but it’s where we’re at...

Repairs to Cholet church in the centre of town

Cholet is another hour from there. Julie met us at the station so that we could follow her in the car and not get lost - essential when we haven’t been there for a while! So lovely to see Nelly and Hubert again - and the well-mown lawn especially for our arrival (Julie - tu traduis pour eux, stp!). Romain was working until 8pm and we shared a fantastic meal when he arrived home. I must try making courgette crumble!!! I have known Romain since he was 14 (in the  late 1990s) - now he and Julie have their own house 10km out of Cholet and for the first time we split our time - one night with the parents and one night with the son (and Julie, of course.) 

Romain and Julie's place

Julie speaks fabulous English, which she improves every year by watching new TV series in English when they come out, and by reading English books. (Makes the books last longer if you’re on holiday.) Hubert does a lot of cycling (road-cycling, not the wimpy touristy stuff we do) and has the gears for cleaning and fixing bikes in the garage, so we were able to clean up the bikes and let Hubert inflate our tyres with his compressor, made from an old fridge compressor. 

After a quiet day poring over maps  - beautiful day, manicured lawn, table in shade - we set off to bike to the little village of Toutlemonde (=everybody) for the evening. Slight error of missing the turning meant a cross-country hike as well, but nothing too serious. It just meant that Julie beat us home, even after fielding several phone calls as we got ourselves back on track. Hubert and Nelly came out to share the meal - on their 500cc motorbike. Another lovely meal- and still some left for ‘fuel' the next day.

Goodbye Toutlemonde!

Leaving Cholet was another ‘adventure’. Reluctant to be up and ready in time to do the partly-hilly 10km ride into town to catch the 7.45am train to Nantes, we opted to go into town for the day and take the next train at 4.45pm (summer timetable - the 12.45 doesn’t run and buses are no good for us with the bikes) and go on to Redon. The day was fine and clear and passed enjoyably, including a well-priced meal in the centre of the town - you never know when or what the next meal will be when you’re travelling by bike, and our train wasn’t due in Redon until after 7pm. 

Well, it wasn’t a strike but at 4.43pm the train was cancelled (supprimé). what to do? There was another train at 18.33 but arrival at Redon would be nearly 9pm - pretty late. Discussion with the lady in charge of arrangements:  coach would be coming at 5pm. She would discuss bikes with the driver. Eventuality: some time after 5.30 pm the coach arrived; the bikes were allowed. But the bus was not going all the way to Nantes. Just to Clisson, 2 stops out of Nantes. It does. It arrives just in time for the 18.16. Small problem: The 18.16 wasn’t going to arrive on the platform near the road. We would have to get the bikes up and over what seemed to be an enormous overbridge. There was a lift - that’s good. They’re almost always too small for our bikes but by judicious twisting and lifting we usually manage. I managed, with Rodney following - as far as the ‘up’ went, then I managed to get down onto the platform just as the train rolled in. No sign of Rodney in either lift - this is because, seeing the train roll in, he lifted up his bike, including at least 20 kilograms of luggage, and carried it down the long set of steps! Once in the train, no problems. We didn’t even try to put them on the racks for such a short journey and just stood with them. 

As trains roll into a station where there are connections, a loudspeaker in the train tells you what connections there are and at what time they leave. Our connection to Redon was for 19.05 (perfectly do-able)……with an hour’s delay!. Not looking so useful. We had an hour to decide the next move, both of us pretty tired after the last few hours’ uncertainty and with the prospect of more than an hour’s wait. Leaving Rodney with the bikes I took a stroll around the station area to see if there was any interesting hotels ‘(interesting' meaning not crappy but still affordable). Attracted by the name Astoria, the name of the cafe where we have been meeting friends for longer than I care to add up, I had a close look at the displayed prices. Today’s special price..da da…totally within the realms of reasonable for a good-looking hotel (€60). And furthermore it displayed the Loire à Vélo sign, which means no problem with the bikes. Lock-up garage. A quick chat with the people at the station about re-use of the ticket, stamps and signatures, and we were away from there. 

Right opposite our balcony

We were relieved to have somewhere for the night and not at all disappointed with our room, which even had a balcony. You could leave the door open for air and even walk in and out!! Unaccustomed luxury! Recently renovated and very comfortable. We had food with us, (we thought we would need something on hand when we arrived late in Redon), and we had eaten well at midday, so no need to go out looking for a restaurant. Instead we went out for a walk in the warm evening air, past Nantes’ treasured castle where ducks were feeding beside the moat, along the old streets past many restaurants and many diners at the outside tables, until bed seemed to be a better place to be and we returned to the Astoria.

Nightfall in Nantes

Nantes station next morning

Next day, Redon, of which we had happy memories of our stay last year. At the municipal camping ground, the same friendly student doing 12-hour days for her holiday job greeted us and remembered us from last year - that was the night they got broken into! Having done the administrative tasks, we decided to wait until the shower passed before we put the tent up - little did we know how long we would wait! However, a pleasant afternoon was spent talking to two women from near Paris, part of a party of 3 couples who had just biked along the canal we did last year. We had gathered in the relative shelter of the Reception entrance, moving back further as the rain became heavier and the wind changed. Later on, when we went out hunting and gathering, we came across (that’s a lie. We went into O’Shannon’s Irish Pub for a beer and the barman told us) two older people [=older than us] who spend half the year in France and half in NZ. One from Katikati and the other from Devonport. O’Shannon’s is ‘their’ pub. Their wives were at home, that is, in Redon, not NZ.

Our ideal camping ground - Redon. Simple, clean, friendly, spacious

Pedestrian street, Redon, waiting for a ham sandwich to be made. Half a baguette each...

Questembert is where we started our bike ride to Elven. It’s pretty, with a spectacular covered market place dating back to 1552, restored 1675. It’s also a place we went to last year with Alexandra, our host for the weekend. This is where we were introduced to La cave du Fromager  (the cheese-maker’s cellar), where you can buy both beer and cheese - a remarkable selection of both. Alexandra’s brother-in-law, Laurent, is the fromager and set up the business a few years ago with a friend, Sébastien, who looks after the beer side of things. We thought passing through Questembert without calling in would be pretty rude, so a couple of glasses of La Duchesse Anne with a plate of cheese and charcuterie (some kind of special smoked ham chunks and a local sausage) was called for. No bread, so that the tastes could be savoured.

The Ducs de Breton- Suscinio castle

From Questembert to Elven on the map does not look far. The tourist information person recommended some back roads to us and we followed her directions. The 20+ km is not all that far but the constant hills, both up and down, were suitably tiring! Great to see Alexandra and the girls. Saturday’s special event was going to the beach - just along the road from a summer residence and hunting castle of the Ducs de Bretagne at Suscinio. Having come up the Atlantic Coast without a swim since La Rochelle, we both made the effort to get wet and enjoyed our time in the somewhat-cold-but-not-too-bad water. 

Lovely beach at Suscinio

Sunday's special event was visiting A's parents who Chris and I stayed with in 1998 (or so). We were able to watch the end of the Tour de France in Paris with them on TV. Lovely. We were also given a fresh cucumber from the garden, which proved to be very handy the next evening! Extra special also was A's quiche, full of veges she pre-cooked (courgettes, green beans, onions, for a start), with some bacon. Plus eggs, of course. And some green curry. And stuff. It was fabulous!

Friends are fabulous! Thanks to everyone for the time you gave us.

"Just a small garden..."

Orléans

9-21 July

14 July

Time out to be with family, so just a few observations.

There’s a delightful Sushi (et al) restaurant, where what you can order as much as you like for a fixed price. If, however, you find you can’t eat it all, you cannot take it home and you pay by the piece for what is left. Seems to work for them and the restaurant is always busy.

Trams seem to travel very fast, even when sharing the road, though this doesn’t seem to pose a problem. Easy to use, not too many stops. Which meant we had to walk quite a long way in the hot sun to get where we wanted to on one occasion. A lot of curves, semi-circles and U-turns on the tracks but the long, bendy-trams seem to cope well.

Chris and Mathilde have two new kittens, almost 3 months old. They are extremely cute, though haven’t worked out that they should try and match the human sleeping pattern, instead of sleeping lots during the day and hooning at bedtime, very very early morning and early morning.

What Chris calls 'administration pinball’ (you know the one - no, we don’t handle that here you’ll have to go to the third floor and find Mr G…..who says, oh no, I don’t know anything about that, you’ll have to go to….and so on) also happens in the larger shops. Décathlon is a large sporting goods store that we have been known to frequent quite a lot. We walked there in the hot sun from the somewhat distant tram-stop to play the same game. First,  (Step 1) we were directed to the bike section...Sorry, I don’t deal with that, you’ll have to go to the workshop (atelier) and ask them. Step 2: No, I can’t help you at all. My colleague is mistaken. You need to go to Santé et Découvertes - it's the second to last aisle. Well, there wasn’t one of those, but (Step 3) we did find similar items in the 4th to last aisle, in Electronique, and waited while a sales person helped a customer make his purchase (a long time). This man knew what we were talking about but (step 4) didn’t know how to solve my problem except to take it to his colleague - the person who had initially sent us to the bike section. Step 5. I suggested I would go on the internet and see if I could find a solution. Thank goodness for the internet! Solution found!

The rain flowing down the Loire raised the level last week and the current was strong. It was our privilege to watch as seven teenage ducks bobbed quickly down the river in the current until the adult duck upstream (mother?) screamed at them to get the hell out of there and go to the side. Some obeyed straight away, others needed the intervention of the flying adult poking at them to get into line and paddle furiously to the side, not against the current. Once in the still water the adult duck seemed to use her beak like a mother cat would, pulling the others to safer water and into the reeds by the shore. Score 7/7 - well done, Mum!

14th July, Fête Nationale. Fireworks. From 23.00. The Blois fireworks, 100km away, took place on the 13th. Orléans on the 14th, moved somewhat west because of the height of the river. Quite close to the fireworks in the next municipality, Saint-Jean-de-la-Ruelle, 4km away, which we could see from our bridge viewpoint. In fact, five of the municipalities had their own fireworks display - fairly inconceivable to NZers - logical to the French - the municipalities are from 2 and a half to 4 and a half km away from Orléans, as the crow flies. Everyone is advised to make their way on foot, as the nearby roads will be closed. The population of Orléans is something over 110,000, that of the larger municipalities up to just over 20,000. Imagine that in Wellington! The fireworks were all good, especially the purple ones with white blobs shooting out from the purple!

Some of the crowd watching the fireworks in Orleans

Picard is on the corner of the street where we are staying - maybe 3 minutes walk. Yay! For those of you who know and love Picard, skip this paragraph. Picard sells frozen food - not just ordinary stuff, but fantastic stuff - puff pastry cases with scallops (or spinach and goat's cheese if you prefer), wonderful desserts, including ice-cream flavours to dream of; pizzas, savoury tarts and quiches, crêpes and galettes; vegetables of all varieties, sometimes made into patties that are easy to heat. Lots of things that require a preheated oven. No good at all to us as bikers but a lot of fun when there is a stove available. Modestly priced to the extent that a pre-cooked meal may well be quite a lot cheaper than buying all the bits separately and preparing from scratch. Certainly great for a change, anyway.

Picard and the corner of the street

Chris works in the building at the centre of this photo. The tram turns sharply around to the right, then the left of the building.

As we were returning from a walk we struck a large number of vintage cars driving through town. Bonus!

, 

Noirmoutier to Nantes

6 - 9 July

The cycle path runs along under the sea wall beside one of the drainage channels

The bridge from Noirmoutier to 'the Continent', Rodney up ahead, rain covers on luggage

Noirmoutier to Nantes should have been a doddle but life’s not always like that. No sooner had we got over the bridge from Noirmoutiers than the rain started, slowly, slowly. We changed our route to include the beach/port town of Fromentine, and arrived before the worst of the downpour. 12km, less than an hour’s riding. Sitting the rain out in a bar/cafe is quite a good idea (they sell hot chocolate too) but this one happened to have some cheap rooms available and we decided to stay. Biking in the rain is nobody’s idea of fun, especially if there is an alternative. 

"Our" bar and home for 2 days

The room was great for the price, with a large bathroom (excellent hot shower), TV, our own entrance, as we had had at Noirmoutier, an outside table and chair which we were allowed to take inside, since it was raining, so we could eat our bought food in civilised fashion. And GREAT wifi reception. So unusual!

Very sweet and most modestly priced

It was the start of the Tour de France, and at our host’s suggestion we watched the afternoon’s events in our room, venturing out later when the weather cleared. Turned out we were in the town from where ferries leave for the local islands, so there are people coming and going around boat arrival/departure times and it is relatively quiet in between. The beachfront was great fun - no houses identical though either joined or very close together. Pretty unusual! 

The unusual street beside the sea: view 1

View 2

View 3

There was a second-hand bookshop advertising '20000 livres’, run over the summer by a retiree - all books 2€, unless they are 1€. I spent 2€, as one can’t collect books on a bike… The ferry port is interesting - with such a high rise and fall of tides it is not enough to just have a gangplank that alters its angle - there is a complex system to even out the heights so that little buzzy carts laden with luggage can handle the slope easily. Bakery just along from the bar, so that we could have something to eat with our coffee. Nice walk along the beach to the base of the bridge, almost. In the middle of the harbour are four sunken ships - exposed at low tide and under water at high tide. A range of restaurants but only small shops for groceries. At least three bakeries. Probably 5. The supermarkets belong to the bigger town a bit inland - not far but not worth the hassle on a bike in the rain. Saturday morning market - in full swing when we arrived but we didn’t know whether we would be moving on or not then.

20000 books @ 2€ max

We got on well with our hosts and really enjoyed our day. Rain on the Sunday morning saw us booking for the next night (at an even cheaper rate!) - and when the rain stopped, we and everybody else around went out walking and exploring. 

Everything we needed. You can't see the bathroom or TV! Outside table brought inside.

We ended up in the late afternoon eating well-priced savoury crêpes at a restaurant on the seashore, clouds dispersed, sun high (it’s still not dark at 10pm…), water sparkling, ferries passing.

It took several more days to reach Nantes. On Day 2 we got completely lost - no signpost at a crucial point - and cycled along the wrong track following the wrong arrows for quite some time, lengthening our trip by about 20 km. Bonus: By 3pm we had arrived in a town from where we could continue in the right direction. Somewhat hungry, we were disappointed that the cafe/snack bar at the crossroads was closed and entrances barred. After all, it IS July! Undeterred we went into the town to find a bakery or other food source. All shut! We started out along the main road that the tourist office had guided us to. Very busy. Scarily busy. And there, only a few hundred metres from the roundabout, a restaurant! Not quite what we wanted at 3pm, but food anyway! We explained that we didn’t want a big meal and were offered the buffet selection for 5€ each! A good price. And fantastic tastes! And prawns! Bread included, of course. And they brought us a dish of frites! Gave us a good break and restored our spirits. Extra bonus: This guy actually knew how to get where were going without taking the road outside his restaurant, which he considered too dangerous. With his explicit instructions we were easily reunited with the correct path, which became the Vélocéan at the point we caught up with it. Well signposted. :)

If the restaurant owner had not told us about this steep little bridge we would never have attempted it. It provides a good shortcut to the Vélocéan on the other side

The Vélocéan is a cycle path that goes along the Atlantic coast for somewhat less than 100km on both sides of the Loire estuary. Here it is also the Vélodysée, which we have been following since the coast near Bordeaux

We did another 20km after that, bringing us to a 60km day and to a point 12km outside the next big town, Pornic. Two choices of camping at La Bernerie-en-Retz - overpriced 4 star and overpriced 2 star. We went for the latter, which was mostly all mobilhomes, with a paddock or two down the end for passing campervans, caravans or tents. Only one sanitaire, and that at the entrance, but a huge bonus with an electricity outlet hanging around in the paddock, still with the ‘old’ connections, meaning we could plug in more than one appliance all in the same spot. Luxury indeed. After our very late, copious and delicious lunch we finished up in the evening with an aperitif (Perrier water for me…I drink a lot of Perrier when we’re biking) and a cheese selection in a local cafe! All good. And Nantes getting closer!

Pornic

Our special treat the next day was being invited for coffee as we passed a house in St-Michel-Chef-Chef. This town is where the original St Michel biscuit factory (and shop) are - except closed for lunch, naturally, when we were there. However, being invited in for coffee was just lovely. Our host has a 200 year old house which they have been renovating over the last 8 years. They have lived in it as a family house though it will soon be a secondary residence, as his wife works in Paris and the children will be in school there in September. As he works abroad we talked about the ongoing international events.

One of the many tourist offices recommended a good place to stop for the night- after St Brévin-les-Pins and not too far from Nantes. We took their advice and found the most delightful camping ground aimed at cycle tourists. Right on the edge of the cycle path beside the canal, plenty of space for tents, and in addition a floored marquee with lighting providing table-seating for 12 and bicycle stands for 12 - fantastic if it is rainy or cold - a refrigerator and microwave, even! Plus excellent showering facilities. Top marks to Le Migron!

A fellow-traveller in the marquee, our bikes on the bike supports. Later they were full.

The 35 or so km to Nantes were quickly covered. There is a crossing on a free ‘bac’, quite sizeable, from one side of the Loire to the other - part of the road network. 

For a long time coming into Nantes there is a very depressing area of industrial land  - smells, pollution, railway lines (lots), a gypsy camp - gypsy is used generically here - I don’t know what group of temporary stayers lived there but it was depressingly awful to bike past. Dirty and smelly. 

Once in Nantes and armed with train tickets we had plenty of time to kill. We rode a bit, walked a bit, and fell upon a delightful little CycloCafe not far from the station where two people follow their passions. La Musette is run by a computer-programmer-turned-cycle repairer/restorer and his Hungarian-born wife, who loves cooking. They made us very welcome - we ordered 'the lunch’ (modestly priced) - gave us a place to leave our gear so that we could tether our bikes outside, looked after our gear when we went for a walk, invited us to watch the Tour de France on the TV, and generally made the wait for the train pass quickly. He fixes the bikes while she fixes the food! It’s just a new enterprise and we hope it goes well for them.

Eszter and Yvan and their cyclo-café

The train we waited for has a specially-fitted wagon that takes 34 bikes. A guy takes them off you and looks after them until it is your stop. So much less trouble than struggling with them up steep train steps then hanging them on hooks - once you have managed to find the right place - especially when loaded with panniers etc. This train runs during July and August, to cater for the many people who want to bike the Loire à Vélo trail. It stops at relevant stations between Nantes and Orléans, doing the trip in about three hours. We appreciated this service last year as well. 

Chris was at the station to meet us. So good to see him again. Time to catch up in many ways.

The beach at Fromentine with the ferry wharf visible at the end

The bridge at St Nazaire. Cycling over it NOT on our route, nor recommended

Ile de Noirmoutier

3-5 July

The Ile of Noirmoutier is smaller than the Ile de Ré and much closer to the mainland (the Continent, as they call it in Noirmoutier). You can get there by a bridge and there is also a spectacular crossing available at low tide only, the Gois, which would have been nice to do but the tides just didn’t work for us. We biked over there after low tide to watch the traffic movement and the tide slowly coming in.

The bridge way...

The other way - le Gois, 4.5km. Incoming tide

Due to approaching storms we opted for a room in the closest settlement to the bridge, Barbâtre. Now that it is high season the prices have increased quite a lot but we very much enjoyed our two-day sojourn in a lovely room in an outside, ground-floor annex, with shaded garden table to picnic in, deck-chairs to lie on, and clothesline in the sun! Also an attractive outside area where one could access wifi. Lock-up for the bike, ‘express' breakfast at a competitive price (we don’t eat big breakfasts often so they are a waste of money for us.) And when it was raining we were able to use their dining room to eat our own food, as did several others there.

Our special retreat - our room is centre background, one shutter half open

After the necessities of Day 1, (washing done, lunch eaten, an afternoon sleep, a short bike ride to check out the nearest campsite - deemed not very attractive and overpriced), we were ready on day 2 to push ourselves further, and do the obligatory tour of the island on some of the 60+km of cycle paths or lanes. Again, much of this island (two-thirds, one source says) is below sea level, ideal for the traditional harvest of salt for a small but popular market. Our first stop was a museum about the traditional way of life here, and we were particularly impressed by the video of the salt harvest and management. So impressed that Babette, the lady in the museum, sent us to talk to Philippe, who makes his living this way. We did that on the way back. And called in to see Babette. She had had two more NZers passing by that afternoon!!

In Noirmoutier-en-Ile ( a place) there is a castle, dating from medieval days. We didn’t feel we had time to go in, but I probably would on a subsequent visit. The original keep is 12th century.  The port where the castle stands traditionally housed the rich salt traders (18th century)  and the fisherman and artisans who supported the community. 

Further round the coast, and at a later time, (early 19th century), mansions and chalets for the rich sprang up around the beach area in Le Bois de la Chaise as sea-bathing became a popular holiday pastime. Trains allowed people to get as far as Pornic and boats would take them to the jetty (still there) at La Plage des Dames. So there were two entirely different societies, living within a couple of kilometres of each other, in the port and in the 'forest'.  I had been to the Plage des Dames in 2007 with the Soulard family and we celebrated my return with a very delicious caramel crêpe!
Back onto the bikes and around the north coast - beach after beach. Had our togs but not tempted. Water was freezing. We paddled. Slightly.

The jetty at la Plage des Dames

And panning to the right...

On our way back we managed to stop by to see Philippe, he of salt fame. The museum display was very good and had shown us the techniques used and some of the history. The Benedictine monks first started this process here in the seventh century and in the 19th century huge drainage projects, were carried out, completing the works. Between the thirteenth and ninetieth centuries salt was the island’s source of wealth. Philippe put the personal stamp onto it, showing us exactly how he extracted the salt which he sells from the stall on his property. All the salt pans are below sea-level and have a clay bottom through which water cannot penetrate, upwards or downwards. Briefly, water comes in from the sea with 30g of salt per litre, stays in a sort of shallow holding tank where some of the water evaporates, until there is 40g per litre. This water is then let into a sort of one-way shallow maze, where it continues to evaporate as it makes its way into the (shallow) salt pans (oeillets) from where it is harvested. The water has to evaporate until there is about 230g per litre. The recent rain has knocked back Philippe’s harvest and he needs sun! June, July and August are the only suitable months to harvest and he needs to renew the water supply every fortnight if he is to harvest enough over the season. The salt pans are very geometric and there are flat spots onto which the salt is raked up and loaded onto a wheelbarrow, to be emptied into large heap on dry land. In the mid-19th century there were 30,000 salt pans on the island. Today only 3000 are in use. Industrial methods have taken over but the mineral salts and trace elements of the traditionally harvested Noirmoutier salt remain, and it is sought after by fine restaurants.

Part of Philippe's salt marsh

Philippe's diagram of how it all works

Philippe and his salt stall - and other interested tourists

Much as we enjoyed our two nights in Noirmoutiers, we needed to move on. The storms had passed and we were faced with just rain showers. The morning dawned fine and we followed a coastal route to the bridge. Up and over. Back to the mainland.

Fishing port of l'Herbaudière, north-west corner of the island

The day we left, the Plage des Dames moved back to La Belle Epoque, with a picnic for people in period costume.
Renoir visited and painted the Bois de la Chaise in 1892.