Thursday 8th October.
Our B and B in Nantes was about 3ks north of the city in a beautiful area on the river Erdre (rather similar to Little Venice) Our hosts were delightful and most welcoming and we all practiced our Franglais nonstop as they took it upon themselves to have breakfast with us. We learned a lot about the history of Nantes, the Dukes of Brittany and the cathedral and how Nantes was France’s 2nd largest slave trade port after Bordeaux, in French (with only a little help from the Oxford dictionary).
The Cathedral was huge, light and airy but had been badly damaged in 1944 followed by a bad fire in 1972. However the doors are still the original
15C and are seriously imposing. There are no columns in the main transept which gives an impression of vast space and light. We bought a history but I short changed the church as we didn’t have the right small change. It is very important here to keep exactly 30 cents available at all times as that is what the loos cost, and they do not take anything other than that. Bearing that in mind I had to make up the 50 cents with various oddments and a 2p piece. The good Lord took exception to this and then threw all sorts of weather at us for the remainder of the day. We looked at the Chateau
from the outside only, as it was heaving with 100s of small children on outings. It is lovely and was our last chance to admire a Chateau on the Loire. We peddled out through the industrial/docklands which were predictably smelly and rather unattractive except for the tall ship
we saw. It then poured with rain. We now know that the French bus service is very regular as we spent a great deal of the next 2 hours sheltering in the bus shelters waving cheerily as the empty buses went past every 10 minutes. . Finally we gave up and just peddled through it to get to Coueron where there is a little ferry
to take you across the Loire to Pellerin where we thought we would stay the night. There was a wonderful restaurant on the bank by the ferry where we would have liked the Plat du Jour, but had no time, so cheered ourselves up with a glass of wine. Pellerin had no B and B’s so we went on along the Canal de la Martiniere to Frossay. All along the canal there were clusters of very enthusiastic fishermen who always parked around a public picnic table which they covered with fishing tackle and copious bottles of red wine. Clearly they all had a long night away from home planned. The rain finally ceased so a good opportunity to dry out. Frossay had no restaurant open so our host and hostess said we could use their kitchen. This was a bit of a challenge for me as I haven’t thought about cooking for a while, but we bought some huge artichokes and chicken and had a feast.
Some cattle which looked a lot like Jerseys.
Our B and B in Nantes was about 3ks north of the city in a beautiful area on the river Erdre (rather similar to Little Venice) Our hosts were delightful and most welcoming and we all practiced our Franglais nonstop as they took it upon themselves to have breakfast with us. We learned a lot about the history of Nantes, the Dukes of Brittany and the cathedral and how Nantes was France’s 2nd largest slave trade port after Bordeaux, in French (with only a little help from the Oxford dictionary).
The Cathedral was huge, light and airy but had been badly damaged in 1944 followed by a bad fire in 1972. However the doors are still the original
15C and are seriously imposing. There are no columns in the main transept which gives an impression of vast space and light. We bought a history but I short changed the church as we didn’t have the right small change. It is very important here to keep exactly 30 cents available at all times as that is what the loos cost, and they do not take anything other than that. Bearing that in mind I had to make up the 50 cents with various oddments and a 2p piece. The good Lord took exception to this and then threw all sorts of weather at us for the remainder of the day. We looked at the Chateau
from the outside only, as it was heaving with 100s of small children on outings. It is lovely and was our last chance to admire a Chateau on the Loire. We peddled out through the industrial/docklands which were predictably smelly and rather unattractive except for the tall ship
we saw. It then poured with rain. We now know that the French bus service is very regular as we spent a great deal of the next 2 hours sheltering in the bus shelters waving cheerily as the empty buses went past every 10 minutes. . Finally we gave up and just peddled through it to get to Coueron where there is a little ferry
to take you across the Loire to Pellerin where we thought we would stay the night. There was a wonderful restaurant on the bank by the ferry where we would have liked the Plat du Jour, but had no time, so cheered ourselves up with a glass of wine. Pellerin had no B and B’s so we went on along the Canal de la Martiniere to Frossay. All along the canal there were clusters of very enthusiastic fishermen who always parked around a public picnic table which they covered with fishing tackle and copious bottles of red wine. Clearly they all had a long night away from home planned. The rain finally ceased so a good opportunity to dry out. Frossay had no restaurant open so our host and hostess said we could use their kitchen. This was a bit of a challenge for me as I haven’t thought about cooking for a while, but we bought some huge artichokes and chicken and had a feast.Some cattle which looked a lot like Jerseys.
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