Wednesday 7th October.
Since the chateau had very little to offer we had a coffee by the river and headed off west planning to visit Champtoceaux sometime in the late morning. After an exciting moment when we found the velo route barred with no alternative offered – we were on an old railway line, cliff on one side, 30ft drop on the other and a white van parked on the route. There were several men with chainsaws felling trees but no one willing to help. So we removed all panniers, rucksacks and handle bar boxes and carried the bikes along the 6 inches that was left of the route past the van. No one seemed the slightest bit interested and I only wished that I had pulled up the ladder by which they had got down to work and left them too it. We’ve also noticed that now we are off the Loire Velo proper tourist route that there are great chunks with absolutely no instructions or signage whatsoever, we’ve been down a few dead ends now and it’s very frustrating.
After this excitement we realized that Champtoceaux was on the other bank and well behind us so sadly we never got to see it, but making the best of a bad job we headed into Mauves where the church was locked, and the 8 ‘till late neglected to inform one that this did not include a 3 hour lunch break.
So hungry we cycled out of town and saw a red squirrel which made up for everything and all was forgiven.
A mile further on we stopped at an apple farm – they grow 12 varieties of apple 6 of which we tasted and bought a bottle of apple juice. 6 big bottles for 10 euros (take note Giles Wood you voleur!!)
We are now heading determinedly for Nantes and it began to rain, in fact it really chucked it down and there is a photo of happy Alec in his poncho waiting for the rain to stop. Which it didn’t, so everything got very wet. We arrived in Nantes which is a big city and cycling in was a bit hairy but the French do things very well and there is at least a 4ft wide cycle lane along most roads – it’s the roundabouts and trying to cross the road that gets scary especially in Nantes which has trams! Anyway we found the tourist office who kindly informed us that accommodation would be hard to find as there was a ‘congres’ but when we looked totally pathetic the teenage assistant must have taken pity on two people older than her parents and soaking wet. She started to make calls and on the third go we found somewhere.
Since the chateau had very little to offer we had a coffee by the river and headed off west planning to visit Champtoceaux sometime in the late morning. After an exciting moment when we found the velo route barred with no alternative offered – we were on an old railway line, cliff on one side, 30ft drop on the other and a white van parked on the route. There were several men with chainsaws felling trees but no one willing to help. So we removed all panniers, rucksacks and handle bar boxes and carried the bikes along the 6 inches that was left of the route past the van. No one seemed the slightest bit interested and I only wished that I had pulled up the ladder by which they had got down to work and left them too it. We’ve also noticed that now we are off the Loire Velo proper tourist route that there are great chunks with absolutely no instructions or signage whatsoever, we’ve been down a few dead ends now and it’s very frustrating.
After this excitement we realized that Champtoceaux was on the other bank and well behind us so sadly we never got to see it, but making the best of a bad job we headed into Mauves where the church was locked, and the 8 ‘till late neglected to inform one that this did not include a 3 hour lunch break.
So hungry we cycled out of town and saw a red squirrel which made up for everything and all was forgiven.
A mile further on we stopped at an apple farm – they grow 12 varieties of apple 6 of which we tasted and bought a bottle of apple juice. 6 big bottles for 10 euros (take note Giles Wood you voleur!!)
We are now heading determinedly for Nantes and it began to rain, in fact it really chucked it down and there is a photo of happy Alec in his poncho waiting for the rain to stop. Which it didn’t, so everything got very wet. We arrived in Nantes which is a big city and cycling in was a bit hairy but the French do things very well and there is at least a 4ft wide cycle lane along most roads – it’s the roundabouts and trying to cross the road that gets scary especially in Nantes which has trams! Anyway we found the tourist office who kindly informed us that accommodation would be hard to find as there was a ‘congres’ but when we looked totally pathetic the teenage assistant must have taken pity on two people older than her parents and soaking wet. She started to make calls and on the third go we found somewhere.
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