Lilinator's Blog

Monday’s cycle was planned to be Amboise, a shorter 63km cycle. We had arranged to meet Sligo friends, Caroline and John, who were in France for dinner in Amboise.

We set off from Saint Patrice and the cycle route took us through Tours where I was able to take some quick pictures. Lovely views over the Loire as always on our cycle. I was interested to read that Macron did well in Sunday’s parliamentary elections. It was interesting to see – Last Saturday when we stopped in Ancenis for coffee, there was a group of about eight to ten older people standing in a circle of silence for an hour in support of immigrants and against the fundamentalist right. (There was a sign explaining its purpose.)

We lost the Veloroute for a while and once again ended up with some interesting cycling terrain! We arrived in Amboise early after clocking up 70km on Strava. We had picked Amboise purely on distance, unbeknownst to us, it was an especially lovely place. We arrived early and so we were able to do some sight seeing.

We visited Château d”Amboise in town. According to the literature this château was the heart of royal power in the Renaissance … a place to live and stay for the king … the stage for numerous political events in the kingdom and ensured the royal family’s safety.St Hubert Chapel in the castle grounds houses the tomb of Leonardo da Vinci.Its beautiful stained glass windows.The final resting place ofA beautiful Lebanese Cedar tree in the groundsThe bust of Leonardo da VinciCaroline and John arrived later by trike – I had to get them to sit up on it on our way out to dinner.We had a great evening – We were celebrating our 30th anniversary. As it happened Caroline and John’s 30th anniversary had been in April when they had both been away, so we celebrated all 60!

We slept soundly in our very quiet abode, the only sounds were the next-door church bell ringing and being woken by the cock crowing. Alix had breakfast ready in the garden – another gorgeous meal of freshly squeezed orange juice, cereal with strawberries and home-made yogurt, scrambled eggs, fresh breads and croissants with a selection of honeys, (including one from chestnut flowers Joseph) and her own home-made jams. It’s just as well that we had a day’s cycling ahead!

Alix loves Ireland and visits regularly. She has taken our address to now visit Sligo – I would not be at all surprised to see her. The other guests who were staying were two very nice French men from Paris and a French man with his Brazilian wife, his son of about seven with a friend, The latter now live in Germany and gave us their contact details if we run into any problems cycling through Germany.

We set off having thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Savennières.

This morning our plan was to cycle 92km to our accommodation booked in Saint Patrice.

In the morning after three hours cycling we had only covered 37km. We can normally cycle about 20-22km per hour on flat ground. The fist problem was that the Véloroute was very busy with many joggers and cyclists, (probably due to it being Sunday). Secondly we lost the Véloroute signs and ended up in the middle of Angers, though it was good to see some of the sights there.

I noted a street named after the famous French singer.

The third reason for our slow progress in the morning was that in our effort to rejoin the Véloroute we encountered some very difficult terrain. At one stage I even fell off the bike trying to avoid a bunch of nettles, though landed safely on soft ground.

Slightly frustrated with progress and with google maps telling us we still had 60km to our accommodation for the night, we stopped for lunch. Over lunch we decided to take advantage of the French people’s way of taking Sundays/holidays seriously – to chance going back to the main road i.e. that there wouldn’t be too much traffic nor lorries given today was Sunday. We gambled correctly, having covered 37km in three hours in the morning, we covered the remainder in the same time in the afternoon. The Strava app told us that we ended up cycling 102km.

In the afternoon, we saw people going to their vote centre for the French Parliamentary elections held today, Sunday. Macron’s party is expected to do well.

Once again it was so lovely to see our B&B for the night in Saint Patrice, again in the middle of the country. When we booked, Madame said that she would not be cooking tonight and there was no restaurant open within walking distance, but that she would drive us to and collect us from a nearby restaurant.

We enjoyed a good dinner after today’s long cycle!

A day’s rest is a great thing… we were up, and back on the road by 8.30 this morning rearing to go. Our plan for today, to get to Savennières, 85km according to Google maps cycle.

These days we plan to do about 75k cycling each day, so we look for accommodation in a town/village at that point on the route. Obviously we may have to go a little bit more or less depending on what’s available. In very rural areas the things we check for when booking – wifi, (yes please don’t give out!) but also if there’s a restaurant serving dinner locally. The latter is particularly important when on a bike as we don’t want to have to cycle for our supper! When I was booking for tonight I checked dinner and no, no restaurant in Savennières but Madame would cook dinner for guests. That sounded perfect.

Today was a no day – no hills, no rain, no wind, no traffic, no lorries. We had loads of sunshine and plenty of flat cycling. In fact now that we are on Véloroute 6  by the Loire it should be like this for many a day. Today reached 27 deg C but the breeze generated when cycling makes that perfectly comfortable. Obviously we were wearing plenty of sunscreen.

If yesterday was a day of beauty in a city, today was same in the countryside.

We cross the Loire many times on many lovely bridges.

I asked the farmer in my best broken French what crop was growing – salad.

And leeks

Morning break at Ancenis.

And morning break for the cows too!

We no longer need to follow Google maps, this little sign guides us on our path. Whenever we come to a decision point, there is always this sign.

We are meeting other cyclists on the Véloroute 6, many older men and less many women. The age profile will probably change once school/college is complete.

A new bridge beside the old building.

These plants about the size of basil plants all sown in individual pots, (which are hard to see in the photo). I assume they are the pots of herbs one gets in a supermarket. I’m thinking basil as I’m sure that would grow fine outdoors here in France, though I
can’t be sure. If I could have easily gone into the field to check, I would have.

Some sculptures in a small village along the way.

We arrived at our lovely B&B in the middle of nowhere for the night. Measuring on the Strava app, we had cycled 98km. The sight of a bath and crisp white sheets after a long day was magic! Our accommodation off the beaten track was very beautiful and yet very inexpensive. The house, parts of which date back to 1707, has been in the Alix, the owner’s family since 1835. We had a beautiful dinner cooked by her using many local ingredients and served with local wine. Starting with drinks and canapés in the garden at 7.30pm, a dinner of Caprese salad, roast duck with vegetables and potatoes, a cheese course and a cherry clafoutis dessert followed. (To give you an idea of the exceptional quality/value -dinner including wines was €30.) There are three rooms in the main house and two in a converted garage. All the guests ate together with the owner. Speaking both in French and English, conversation was very lively and we only left our garden table at 11.30pm.

And then we rested!

We were so impressed by the little we had seen of Nantes yesterday evening that we decided to take a rest day and see some more of the city today. It was great to be staying in the city centre to be near everything. Nantes has a population of about 300,000. This morning, a beautiful morning, we went walkabout. First up the Castle – the residence of the Dukes of Brittany between the 13th and 16th centuries.

Nantes has a good tramway system with three lines. I love the sound that trams make, that gently bell.

There’s a marked ten-mile trail through the city called ‘The Green Line” that one can follow to see the major sights. We went to a number of the sights marked by the green line but weren’t following it as such.

The gothic Cathedral started in 1434, took 457 years to finish, finally being completed in 1891. No overnight build there!

The proportions of this building are just beautiful as are the windows. One can’t but be in awe.

I am no lover of shopping/shopping malls but the Passage Pommeraye is an architecturally beautiful shopping mall. Built in the early 1840’s it was called after its developer, Louis Pommeraye. It has great, small quaint shops.

Perhaps some chocolate!

The Opera House also known as Théâtre Graslin was completed in 1788.

Graslin Place across from the Opera House and the restaurant, La Cigale.

Place Royale with Basilique St Nicolas on the left.

I walked over the bridge to Île de Nantes to see ‘The Elephant’. Fearghus and Lola had told us to go see it (and other sights). The elephant is fun. Called Machines de l’île, he’s sited in the former Nantes shipyards.

Walking back across the bridge from Île de Nantes, (though not shown here), there are plenty of cranes evident in the Nantes skyline, plenty of development going on.

I was so glad of our rest day – Nantes was well worth seeing!

We arrived in Roscoff on Sunday and up to Wednesday, Day 4 we have been travelling down France in a south easterly direction. Thursday, Day 5 we were to travel east from St Nazaire on Véloroute 6.  Given that we were starting the Véloroute, we really wanted to start at the start so instead of setting out from St Nazaire on the north side of the Loire, we first cycled to the south side of the river at Saint Brévin-Les-Pins. This took a little negotiating – first crossing this railway bridge.

.

This took us over the Pont de Saint Nazaire. The bridge is approximately 3.5km long and does allow cyclists. It was very windy crossing the bridge, a nice climb and descent.

We  expected an ‘all singing, all dancing mark’ at the start of Véloroute 6. Instead the start was marked by this single sign, the sign that marks the route all along its 3,653 km. Who says cycling doesn’t embrace simplicity!

And with the bridge in the background

But all this was tackled only after a hearty breakfast, (picture not including the fruit!) We aren’t under eating!

For the rest of Thursday we had many beautiful views of the Loire.

We passed these guys at one point – the rhinoceros and camel are made out of scrap metal.

They were so cleverly made – the level of detail was amazing.

Yesterday’s cycle ended up being 80km with the added piece at the start plus the fact that the Véloroute to Nantes, our stop for the night, took us on a much more scenic route in every sense of the term.

We met Fearghus, (son of Breda, our Sligo friend) and his partner Lola for dinner last night and had a really lovely evening, first with drinks in their back garden.

We had to move indoors quickly because of a lot of thunder and lightning. This beautiful tree in their back garden is a protected tree!

We went to dinner at the lovely Art Deco La Cigale restaurant.

Nantes at nightime

While Theresa May contemplated her decision to call a snap election and Donald Trump the Comey testimony, after all the exercise we had no problem sleeping!

Today, Day 4, was Malestroit to St Nazaire. As the ‘Google Maps crow cycles’, it was to be 77km. Strava shows our actual as 83km.

We stayed in a lovely B&B in Malestroit last night. Madame reminded me a lot of our late friend, Teresa. She was so industrious – she moved fast, she talked fast. For example when we arrived, she immediately picked up some of our panniers and took them swiftly to our room, I think if we hadn’t promptly moved, we would have been picked up and deposited too. This morning for breakfast we had her home-baked breads, (brown with seeds shown below and a white not shown) and home-made jams, (from the top, green tomato, strawberry and rhubarb). The house itself was beautiful, very modern with a lovely garden and swimming pool.

Setting out this morning.
Selecting the cycling icon on Google maps is very useful. As mentioned before, it can be longer than the more direct driving route, but using the cycling icon you get the less busy routes.  However one thing you don’t discover until you’re actually cycling is that parts can be dedicated cycle routes and parts are just the side of the road with no margin separating you from heavy traffic including big lorries. I’m sure if we put in enough time preparing for each day we could discover this information in advance but generally, we just take what comes our way. This can bring surprises. This morning we found ourselves on a rock-strewn lane suitable only for tractors or 4-wheel drives but then, a little further on, we got the very pleasant surprise of a lovely dedicated cycle route, a former railway track, judging by how straight it went for miles and how cut into the rock sides it was in parts. 

We had a lovely lunch stop in La Roche Bernard. We are certainly eating for four at this stage!

The countryside looks glorious. So far it’s been mostly mixed farming, cattle, wheat, barley, artichokes, kale and more. I love the kitchen gardens which have very much disappeared in Ireland. A lot of the time cycling along one can hear the silence, it’s almost like meditation. The silence can be broken by a cock crowing, pigeons cooing. We’ve even heard a cuckoo. On busy roads we’re obviously cycling in single file but on quiet roads we can cycle together. Denis is the navigator, I’m the follower! Sometimes I’m not a well-behaved follower and have gone too far ahead, I’ll hear a shout from behind!

We have a little bit to go to get to this stage. (Denis said he couldn’t do that because the panniers would fall off, there may be other reasons too!)

This evening we arrived into St Nazaire. Tomorrow our journey takes us to Nantes. Stay tuned!

I forgot to include the photo of Denis drying his shirt on an electric fence while we stopped for a snack on Sunday. His very own electric picnic 🙂

Day 2 Monday 5th June

The forecast for Monday was wind and rain so we decided to be on the road early and get our cycling done hopefully before the rain. We cycled from Carhaix to Pontivy and arrived mostly before the very heavy rain. The rain was down for the evening and especially heavy overnight. Monday was a holiday and Pontivy was almost dead – the French take their holidays very seriously.

Day 3 Tuesday 6th June

Today the forecast was again bad. The plan was to do 75km from Pontivy to Malestroit. As we got ready to leave the rain had already started.

We have been following the google map cycle routes which are generally longer than the drive routes. Today we decided to be bold and try the the shorter drive route, 58km compared with 75km. Given that the drive route was still a minor D road, we felt it was worth the chance to see if the traffic was okay on it.

Bad decision. We quickly realised it had too much traffic including many lorries on a narrow road with no room for cyclists. We cycled over to join the cycle route early on at Rohan.

Fortune favoured us greatly today. Firstly, despite the forecast, the weather was mostly lovely, we got only two showers. Secondly, the cycle route followed the Brest to Nantes canal and was a very easy cycle passing through the most beautiful countryside. We had coffee in Rohan, lunch in Josselin and are staying in a lovely B&B in Malestroit for the night.

Here is the map of each day and tomorrow’s plan to St Nazaire where Véloroute 6 begins. When we get to St Nazaire, we’ll have 300km done as the crow cycles! An average of 75km per day for that crow.

We have poor wifi tonight so uploading photos is very slow. More will come.

Well our cycle Roscoff to Budapest has begun!

The map shows Véloroute 6  from Nantes to Budapest, however, we have to first cycle from Roscoff to meet it at Nantes.

Here is our rough plan:

We travelled by ferry from Cork to Roscoff leaving at 4pm Saturday, arriving at 6am Sunday morning. Disembarking at 6am meant a 5am rise to be showered, breakfasted and ready by the bikes when the ship docked. The crossing was perfect, just a tiny bit of consistent gentle movement in the water but no bother, thankfully we had berths, I felt sorry for people for whom reading the sign ‘No berths are available on this crossing’ was relevant. Happily we had booked early enough when berths were still available. More to come on not booking accommodation!

We cycled forth from the bowels of the ship and were blessed with a lovely sunny morning. We were very quickly into rolling hills, plenty of up and down. Having reached Morlaix we stopped for a coffee break (and boulangerie for necessary fuel).

Day 1 as the crow would fly on a bike. We are no crows. Ours was longer as we took a less direct route from Callac to Carhaix.

On our way into Morlaix, a ‘Petit Tour De France’, a large collection of of antique vehicles of all sorts – old fire engines, buses, old sports cars, antique cars with many equally antique drivers, passed us. Everyone waved as they passed. After the first hundred, I gave up waving back.

After our Morlaix coffee stop we cycled on and have just arrived in Callac. We are living in hope of our dejeneur here. We arrived just after 1.30pm and the only restaurant open in the small village (or maybe very small town) was busy. Mr ‘Callac restaurant owner’ has sent us to the terrace and told us to wait vingt minutes. We are waiting and hungry but hopeful! You might wonder why we left it so late to stop. We are in very rural France and this has been the first any sort of restaurant we have seen since Morlaix. That’s one disadvantage of staying off the car routes, we might have to go a little less rural!

Well we are now beautifully fed. Unusually it was a Basque restaurant. We had the lunch menu – €12.50 for lovely starter and main course. We shared a Basque cake which was great. Well we can’t be eating pastries at every stop or we’ll be soon carrying more weight than we started out with – We’re all for making this cycling easier i.e. carrying minimum weight on the bikes. That rule doesn’t just apply to the panniers 🙂

From our previous cycle through France, knowing how rural some of the places we cycled through were, we had gotten into the habit of always booking accommodation ahead for the next night. We somehow had unlearned this habit. Though we meant to, we hadn’t pre-booked accommodation for tonight. Thankfully with good data available, we searched for accommodation nearby for tonight and though very little was available we called the nearest at Carhaix.  With my best ‘Parlez vous Anglais’, an Irish voice answered. Daria Roche from Dalkey and her Irish husband were running a B&B in Carhaix. She was delighted to hear an Irish voice and though technically closed, she immediately booked us a room. Given that the web said they also had a restaurant, I enquired re dinner and she said they were closed that night and nowhere in the village was open given it was a holiday weekend. She and her husband were going out for dinner and suggested that she could make a sandwich and have some cake for us. Given how exhausted we were plus the fact we had just had a decent lunch I said that would be perfect.

Well fed from lunch plus now with a bed plus hoping the forecast had got it wrong re rain in the afternoon, we set out for the cycle to the Irish B&B. Unfortunately the forecast won, it started to rain, sometimes hail. We took a more circuitous route than shown above, it ended up being a very, very hilly cycle to Carhaix. (It would have been hilly by any route though.) Nevertheless we stuck with it up hill and down dale in the rain and eventually two wet cyclists arrived at 5.10pm just in time since the owners were leaving at 5.15pm.

The prospect of a wash, a bed, a sandwich and sleep was sheer bliss. Well that was the prospect for me – Denis who runs a minimum of 5k every single day had to include the prospect of a run. Sometimes I think he needs canonisation or certification… at least, some kind of ation!

Having relearned the rural France lesson we booked Monday night’s accommodation before we were both snoring by 10pm.

Strava’s profile of Day 1’s route, total elevation gain approx equivalent to climbing Carrauntouhill.