Cherbourg to Poole

Wednesday 23rd June
Cherbourg to Poole
We were awoken very early by two seagulls sitting on the roof of the house opposite who showed no respect for humans still trying to sleep after the 4am sunrise!

Alec had an early start anyway as an order had been put in the night before for salami and cheese so off the Carrefour I went. Vivi packed up for the last time and it was an extraordinary feeling not to have made any plans for where we’d be staying tonight.

Emotions have been running quite high and we are feeling nervous about the day ahead as we have no idea how we will adapt. Luckily it was a beautiful day so we arrived at the ferry port in minutes and hung around in the sunshine with all the other bikers. It is very nice always being placed first in the queue for ferries.

That's it we're coming home.

The final ferry; 24 in all!

The sea was like a mill pond and an easy 2.15 hours later we arrived at Poole. As one of our hosts said to us the other day “When you get off the ferry and start driving on the English roads it is like the wacky races” - And he was right as we simply haven’t seen this much traffic in months and worse still they are all on the wrong side of the road!.
British Rail did us proud and let us on the train with the bikes without any trouble and then we only had the few miles from Wool station back home. Annoyingly I still couldn’t bike up that last niggle-y little hill without getting off to push, but Alec sailed up. I will try it next time without the extra weight on the back!
Arriving was a real mixture of emotions and we didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but the house was looking lovely and Harriet and Alfie (new 4 legged friend) were there to welcome us.

Some facts and figures;

9 and a half months spent on bikes.

France going south, St Malo to Portiragnes on the Mediterranean 1565 miles

Spain South - North 425

Italy 457 North - South

Sicily 222

Malta 30

Greece 339

France going North, Montpellier to Cherbourg 1077

TOTAL of 4115 miles recorded on the speedos. However we think we did nearer 4,500 as there were gaps when they didn’t work.
Our original intention was simply to see if we could cycle down France and make it to the end of the Canal du Midi. However having achieved that, we were still enjoying ourselves so much, the winter had begun, the swallows had passed us heading south and that seemed like a sensible idea so we followed them.
Alec carried 19 kilos and I carried 17 kilos in our panniers.
We have both gained half a stone and not sure it is all muscle!
We have stayed in over 160 different places and met the most amazing and interesting people, almost without exception charming and so friendly – except for that railway ticket man in Ragusa!
and for anyone out there thinking of doing something a bit different and a little bit testing- the time for thinking is over just get on and do it.

We are grateful to Eddie Enfield for inspiring us and Paul Riquet for building the Canal du Midi!

And a special thanks to this great man for creating the canal and rail networks and making France what it is today.

THE END

So where next?

viviarmitage@gmail.com

alecarmitage@gmail.com

Bricquebec to Cherbourg

Tuesday 22nd June
Bricquebec to CherbourgFor the first time we had fellow English travellers at breakfast so that was quite easy conversation-wise.
It is a 240 metre drop down to Cherbourg, or so the velo route guide said, so they had routed us off on a bit of a detour to make it less steep. Well, 3 hours later we still seemed to be going uphill and it wasn’t the easy dawdle I had thought it would be. We had to go over the Trottebec escarpment which is a massive obstacle if you are on a bicycle!

Unfortunately the camera flattens out the slope but this really was a very tricky descent!
Luckily it was beautiful weather so we picnicked by the side of a quiet road on the edge of the escarpment overlooking the coast.
We are very definitely now in Calvados country, the orchards are vast and as neat and tidy as the vines are in St Emilion.

You can almost smell the Calvados.

We had planned to have a day off in town tomorrow and lie on the beach, have a celebration dinner and try to sort ourselves out a bit before heading for home on Thursday’s ferry. However, a text came through from Brittany Ferries saying that there was a dock strike on Thursday so therefore no ferry. We had to make a snap decision and book for tomorrow instead so suddenly there is a bit of a change in tempo.

Our first glimpse of the channel.

It will be a very curious feeling having a time schedule as for the past 9 months the days and dates have been of no importance whatsoever, except for Christmas and when Rosie joined us in April. We are not at all sure how we will cope.
Anyway we whizzed down the 240 meter drop and just outside Cherbourg we passed Chateau Ravalets in the village of Tourleville.

Ravalets - The blue chateau!

It seemed a shame to miss our last chance to sight-see so we parked up and strolled around some lovely gardens. The house opens on 26th June so that was a no-go but it is quite impressive externally. It is made of blue Schist stone whatever that may be, so had a very attractive blue hue. The roses were stunning and it was rather less formal than some of those we have seen.

The Roses

The Hostas

                                                                                                             The inside of the orangery.

Finally we made it to Cherbourg, where our b and b was very well placed for the ride to the port tomorrow morning. It wasn’t exactly the most auspicious looking place and for a moment we contemplated going straight on but since every hotel in Cherbourg was full we didn’t have the option.
As it happened it was like a tardis, the inside was huge beautifully decorated and our room and bathroom positively palatial.

The dirty looking one in the middle - see what we mean!

We had promised ourselves a lobster and champagne supper if we survived to this moment, so we changed and went off in search of a good restaurant. A few hours later we left the Cafe de Paris very well wined and dined. The only bad moment was when the ordered lobster was produced for inspection (which we were not really expecting) looked us in the eye and wiggled his claws in a forlorn fashion. Oh dear, we felt very bad but he was never going to go back into the sea.

Cherbourg Harbour 10pm 22nd June.

Monday 21st June
St Germain-sur-Ay to BricquebecHoorah, finally a change in the weather and the wind has dropped. We have found this past 5 days a real challenge and I don’t think it is just because we are heading for home and dragging our heels a bit. We have been riding quite hard and both know what being saddle sore means. Everything is beginning to break and my sunglasses fell apart yesterday. This might not sound a very big deal, but you have to wear them all the time in case traffic passes and flick stones into your eyes. We stopped in La Haye du Puits and a charming optician put them back together again for no charge. We have had specs mended in each country and not one person has charged for this which is most kind. We wonder if it would be the same in England, you would probably be told to leave them and come back in a week.
The old railway route took us around the side of Mont Castre, and then onto the Sensurieure bog which is a vast area of ........... bog - so pretty flat.

From the bridge at Pierrepont

The bridge at Pierrepont overlooks this and had a viewing point, under which there was a lovely looking river with some nicely mown grass along the banks. It looked the perfect picnic spot but 20 feet below with no access, so we sat on the gravel on the edge of the bridge which was pleasant enough. Needless to say, after finishing and leaving, 20 yards on, we passed the sign to the picnic area below but only signed from the opposite direction.
We didn’t have anywhere to stay so on arrival headed straight for the Office du Tourisme, which was closed and wasn’t opening until tomorrow. We were just standing outside wondering what to do when one of the staff walked by and offered to open up and help us – which she did and in no time we were booked into a B&B just down the road.

Part of the castle at Bricquebec

and the crepe stall for the bands.

The town has a spectacular castle which is almost intact and made a very good backdrop for the midsummer’ night live music festival which most French towns celebrate with bands in every bar and corner of the town. We dropped our bags off at the B&B and were quickly back in the town square to watch the bands (3 in this town) setting up and starting to play. We had settled into a bar where a man with a violin was tuning up when he was joined by another with a drum and a guitar. They then began to play some sort rather monotonous Celtic chant accompanied by a very loud thumping on the drum which upset the baby in the pram beside us and would if we’d stayed probably driven us mad too. So we went across the square for some supper in a brasserie recommended by our hostess and run by a frantically harassed Frenchman who had such a large tummy that we expected him to have a heart attack at any moment.



Afterwards we went to a different bar where Les Pirates – a classic 1960’s rock and roll band complete with shaved heads, pony tails and stomachs to prove the existence of 30+ years of the ‘rock and roll’ lifestyle. They were brilliant except for when the singer forgot the words and they had to play the chorus a couple more times while he worked out where he was on the song sheet!!

It wasn’t quite the opera I had been so wanting to hear around Europe, but it was really good fun and we decided that it was a perfect way to spend pretty much our last night of the trip as we have only 20 k’s to do tomorrow.

Coutances to St Germain Sur Ay

Sunday 20th June
Coutances to St Germain Sur AyWe had a fairly lazy start to the day as once on the bike route it should be easier going, and it was difficult to drag ourselves away from the hotel’s warmth and comfort. As it happened we were the wrong side of the town to pick up the voie verte immediately so spent an hour negotiating our way through little villages around the outskirts. It was still blooming cold so we stopped in Periers to warm up and put on another layer, and buy some lunch. Luckily by the afternoon the sun began to shine, so we had a better time.

A rather fun mural in Periers.

We had booked into a b and b on the coast at St Germain sur Ay so left the cycle route at Lessay, and headed for the sea. On the map it is shown as a large bay but on arrival the bay would appear to be completely filled in with marshland and dunes. We arrived earlier than allowed by the b&b so went off to have a look at the local wildlife - not many birds but lots of sheep and a few donkeys.

On the map this is all shown as water!

Having dropped down from the ridge the temperature improved noticeably and some Belgian walkers also staying at the B&B were positively sunburned (or was it windburn?). They had come from home by train and were walking around Normandy, taking in the Mont St Michel. Previously they had taken 4 years to walk to Compostela di Santiago from Belgium doing it in 4 one month chunks.
St Germain had a small Norman church with modern stained glass, we assumed because the original windows were probably damaged in the war. There was a Commonwealth War Graves sign on the gate, but not for want of trying we couldn’t find it anywhere.

Norman church and inside.

Supper was the six of us 2 French, 2 Belgians and us so not the easiest but Vivi did her valiant conversational bit and Monsieur kept us plied with Kir Royal, Cider, Calvados and red wine. Actually Alec always says I do most of the talking but he does his fair share too! We were given 4 courses, the first a trio of pates, the second a salmon and potato timbale with a surprise. The surprise turned out to be something which we have experienced before and always thought that it must be off so usually wrap it in our napkins and throw it away later. It is a sort of rancid smelling utterly vile tasting pork terrine and this time there was no escaping it, we had to eat it!! This was then followed by cheese wrapped in filo pastry, salad and chocolate crème brulée. We felt uncomfortably full but didn’t feel that we could leave anything. Everything had come from the garden or the sea and after dinner we were taken out into the garden where we met – the remaining rabbits, the geese, ducks, pigs and sheep.

Saturday 19th June
Carolles to Coutances
For the first time in nine and a half months we left our bikes outside but it was OK, the stars were out in force and the evening was quite warm.
However by 4am all that had changed and all we could think of was that our saddles which act as sponges in times of inclement weather were uncovered and I had left my waterproof yellow coat across my handlebars as well.
At breakfast we were ourselves, 2 Germans and 2 Swedes – we think , as we couldn’t understand anything they said and she was very blond, so conversation didn’t really flow! I have been unable to find a book in English for the past few weeks so am improving my French by reading Barbara Cartland- most helpful and not too testing as I even think I have read this one before. However, making conversation about the ‘flowing golden locks and azure blue eyes’ and such like really isn’t an option at this time of day!
The first thing we did was stop to have a look at the Plage in Carolles, famous for it’s miles of white sand. Unfortunately today it is blowing a hooley and the temperature is down to about 12 so no one but the hardiest joggers was about.

Not exactly a day for sitting on the beach!

From there we gingerly made our way into Granville for the road system is now becoming quite busy. It is a quaint old town with a definite seaside holiday feel to it.

Looking up toward Granville














                                                                                                         My sister lives near Sherborne
                                                                                                       I wonder if she knows about this!

It is also noticeably not the home of masses of hotels as we’d expected so lucky we didn’t make it this far last night. Arriving in the old part of town by the yacht harbour we warmed ourselves up with a coffee before heading out into the wind again. Vivi was so foundered with cold that she had to unpack her panniers and dig out her long cycling trousers, socks, gloves and an extra fleece. Which she duly put on standing on the side of the road. After 9 months in a semi nomadic state the girl has lost all of her inhibitions!!
Fortunately we had booked ourselves into somewhere for tonight so there wasn’t the same pressure to keep going and find some accommodation. Nevertheless we did want to keep going just so that we could collapse at the end of it all in Coutances where the bike route begins.










Coutances, nasty hill going out the other side.

We spent some time weaving our way through these tiny lanes which are terribly pretty and are very similar to Jersey, on a slightly larger scale. It is real horse country with lots of rather fine boned types around. We don’t think they are for the plate.

We are booked into the ‘Cositel’ Coutance which turned out to be just what it said and was extremely agreeable. Beside it were the town’s sports fields and there seemed to be a marathon rugby and football session taking place which ended at about 8 and promptly went into (another)’ all nighter ‘ with a band but this time they were further away and the sound of revelry was not quite so intrusive.

Ducey to Carolles

Friday 18th June
Ducey to Carolles
Our first stop was the Ducey Tourist office who were very helpful and armed with yet more leaflets we followed the bike route to the coast at Pontauban. We were now on the edge of the Baie de Mont St Michel so we followed a rather circuitous route across the marshes to Avranche to avoid the traffic. We had another glimpse of the Mont which although several miles away is still quite spectacular.

Our first view (on the way home) of the MSM

We followed the designated route into Avranche where we bought more inner tubes, post cards and a drink and then out again by a most complicated route which took us over the motorway on a footbridge. We are now very much on our own and relying on our map reading skills which aren’t bad but are not helped by 50% of the roads not being on the map. We stopped to eat our lunch on the side of a quiet lane and were almost immediately accosted by a very flustered lady who was supposed to be meeting her friends nearby to walk across the mudflats to the Mont. Despite the fact that we had no idea who her friends were, where she was supposed to be meeting them and at what time she was absolutely certain that we should be trying harder to help. In the end she gave up and left us and mercifully set off in the right direction because the next thing that we cycled past was a huge car park saying Meeting place for walks to the MSM!

For a while the countryside was quite flat and a pleasure to cycle across. The land is quite sandy and the farmers grow a variety of multi coloured salad crops.

Lettuce!

By now it is 4pm or so and looking at the map we haven’t made much progress toward Granville our intended destination. The hills seem to be getting steeper and longer and our progress with this beastly headwind is down to about 4 miles an hour. The countryside is pretty but that isn’t much help when you have nowhere to stay! The final straw was the huge hill before Carolles at which point we must have abandoned all hope of reaching Granville.

From the top of an awesomely steep hill - in the distance the Mont!

Gliding down the other side suddenly like a mirage there appeared on the side of the road a large sign saying Gite de France Chambre D’hote. And to cut a long story short they had a room and we fell into it!
It was a lovely modern house in a clos with all mod cons (not exactly finished though - the drive was still cinders) and probably better than the small hotel in the village where we had an extremely good dinner but hadn’t been able to stay. They only had 7 bedrooms so hardly surprising!
At some stage during the day Vivi went through 4,000 miles on her speedo. She is about 50 miles behind me as her machine stopped working for a while and since mine stopped working back in Spain we suspect we are both about one hundred miles short of what we’ve actually done.

Thursday 17th June
Landean to DuceyLast night’s host is a great butterfly and moth expert so before leaving we looked at some of his wonderful photos, and were also able to put names to some of the ones we have seen over the last few months. We were quite pleased that we had a photo of the very large moth seen in Greece which he hadn’t seen but did know what it is- a Paon du nuit, - no idea what it is in English!
Today was a joy compared to the last 2 as we were mainly on bike routes and were out of the wind for a fair bit. Our first stop was at the boulangerie in Landean to get some bread for lunch. When we asked the girl in the bakery if she made filled baguettes she said “no, but go to the bar next door and they will” so off we trotted. We put in our order at the bar and they then sent a runner back to the bakery to buy the bread to make them with. Then we had to get the Orangina and fruit from the Epicerie so in our short 30 minutes there, all the village businesses had benefited a little. It is one way of keeping the money circulating.
We joined the cycle route going northwest towards Normandy, about 10 k’s ahead.

Todays route with Alec in the lower one!

This is new country for us on this trip and it is very picturesque with rolling hills, a great many beef cattle and hay making in progress yet again.










                                                                                            A bit of Normandy countryside.

The bike route was easy and all went well until Alec’s back tyre went flat again. The same thing had happened yesterday . Probably too much weight on it! ( in fact it was a faulty valve) So for it to happen again so soon was annoying – I hadn’t even managed to clean the oil off my hands. Why is it always the back wheel that goes, the one with the chain and all the gears? So for the third time in 2 days the back wheel had to come off and the tedious process of changing an inner tube began all over again. Fortunately this time it stayed up and the rest of the day’s ride was uneventful and even enjoyable. As we neared the coast we could see the Mont St Michel in the distance.

We arrived in the little village of Ducey on the west side of the Manche peninsula and to our half surprise had booked ourselves into a salmon fishing hotel.

Our hotel and below again from the next bridge up. Vivi's duckling is somewhere below us in the weeds.


When we told the owner we fished for salmon on Scotland he became our new best friend! If he wasn’t also the chef and was somewhat busy we would have seen his fishing books and fly box too.

                                                 River Selune photos of past catches.

The season unfortunately is currently taking a break so there was no opportunity to borrow a rod and get out there. From the photographs on the walls and the size of the sides of smoked salmon in the freezer some reasonable sized fish do make it across the channel and up the river. (Probably more than run up the Frome!)

Looking downstream and past the hotel.

After a delicious supper we went for a stroll.There is a weir across the river with a chute in the middle which is presumably designed for the salmon, if this was the Oykel there would be one a minute going up it but sadly it isn’t so in the 5 minutes we stood there we saw nothing.-except for 1 baby duckling who was far too young to be out on his own busily feeding on the weed, with no sign of any parents, so hope a pike doesn’t have him.
There is also a rather lovely chateau in the village called Chateau de Montgomery which is now owned publicly – presumably the owners didn’t survive the revolution! Consequently it looks extremely well maintained although there wasn’t much sign of life.

2 days Chateaubriant to Vitre to Fougeres, Landean.

Tuesday 15th June
Chateaubriant to Vitré
Writing this two days later I can say with some accuracy that today was a very long day. Firstly it did a lot of raining, secondly the countryside just went up and down with absolutely no flat bits at all and thirdly there was nowhere to stay until Vitré which was 43 miles – quite a long way on a bike carrying 40lbs of luggage and that same awful headwind – yeah yeah, don’t whinge we know if you can’t take a joke etc. But still, best foot forward and all that and eventually after a rather long delay with the unhelpful lady librarian regarding the internet, and an exceedingly good lunch in Guerche de Bretagne

Lunch - a lifesaver!

we made it to the Chateau Hotel in Vitré. Actually the afternoon was a little better than the morning as from Guerche onwards there is a cycle route all the way to Vitré and the one good thing about disused railways is that the hills have been rubbed down and the dips have been filled in!

This may look dull but a welcome relief after the morning's roads.

We had forgotten just how picturesque Vitré is and it was a joy to freewheel down the hill into the centre of town with it’s imposing chateau overlooking the surrounding countryside. We stayed in the very comfortable Logis at the foot of the ramparts.

On the whole the farming is arable or dairy however the farmers seem to have found a niche market for Guinea Fowls and the number of farms with a couple of hundred of these noisy guards dogs amazed us.

Ch Vitré

Wednesday 16th June
Vitré - Fougères – Landean.Today was a complete repeat of the journey we had made back in September last year, only now we are traveling in the opposite direction. It’s amazing the different things that you notice when you are facing the other way but the peaks and troughs still keep coming whichever way you are going!
St Christophe, a village we remembered having a little shop which sold poulet roti and BBQ’d sausages from it’s car park was needless to say closed on a Wednesday so we had to make do with a baguette on the immaculately mown lawn of the church. Sheltered from the ferocious North wind and in the blazing sunshine this was very agreeable.
On entering Fougères, Alec even remembered the cunning short cut we had taken through the back streets which took us off the rather busy ring road. Once again we were struck by what a fantastic place this is, and well worth a visit for a weekend together with Vitré.

The only drawback is that like all medieval towns it is built into a hill so we had a long climb up to the top to continue on to our b and b. This was about 6 miles to the north east of the town through the ‘forêt domeniale’.

Huge forest of deciduous trees.


It was a lovely house with an immaculate garden all done by monsieur who is ‘retired’ – note for all men contemplating such a move in the near future!! As the house was so far from the nearest town our hosts very kindly provided us with some supper and a bottle of cider which to our surprise we finished rather quickly – but then hills and a headwind do work up an appetite and a thirst!!
One of the more memorable moments of the day was when waiting at a crossroads a Frenchman wound down his car window and asked (amongst other things) where we were from and then told us he knew the south of England well and that he used to import cars and many from Loders in Dorchester!

Nort-sue-Erdre to Chateaubriant

Monday 14th June
Nort-sur-Erdre to Chateaubriant.Despite Bernard’s best endeavours on the internet and calling various B&B’s we left him without finding anywhere to stay tonight. The town we are aiming for, and roughly at the extreme end of our ability is Martigne Ferchaud. It had plenty of B&B’s and hotels but for some inexplicable reason they were all full.  Chateaubriant, the home of the jumbo steak was the only alternative but was a bit nearer and there is nothing worse than stopping knowing you can do another hour.
 Anyway undaunted we set off and it immediately started raining but this soon cleared and was replaced by a cold headwind (straight down from the North) it is hard to say which is worse but the headwind is definitely more demoralising. On we trudged, up and down, up and down, and then b*****up again until eventually we made it to Chateaubriant! I kept myself busy counting hills and lost count somewhere in the teens. When we finally arrived we fell into the Office de Tourisme asking if there was anywhere we could stay. Yes they said an Eengleesh couple tres sympatique. That’ll do nicely we thought and she phoned them for us. Halfway through the conversation she asked if madame would mind cooking us dinner. This horrified us as it was late in the afternoon and if it were us on the other end we would have said cheeky monkeys NO, so we gulped ‘non non’ we’ll go out and supper was over-ruled. Turned out Skip and Andy are a great couple, Skip cooks like Escoffier and she wouldn’t have minded at all if we’d wanted to be fed. Too late - you just never know do you!! They live in a huge architect designed modern French house, have the perfect attitude toward guests and really made us feel at home. Pool, Jacuzzi and the most comfortable bed!
As we were sorted we thought we ought to see the famous Chateaubriant which it turns out is a complete mix of periods. We didn’t go into the Chateau itself as it was too late in the day, but the remains of the ramparts dating from 1000 years ago are still impressive and the current chateau is enormous and also looks very impressive from the outside. As we ventured back into the open there was the most tremendous clap of thunder and the sky turned black so we pedalled home at top speed just beating the rain.

Like Bernard the day before they too tried to find us lodging for tonight and even found us the website to book our ferry home but we declined the latter as we still don’t know what day it will be and booking B&B’s is becoming so complicated we now find it easier to put ourselves at the mercy of the Almighty and just turn up looking anxious.
And by staying with Skip and Andy an exhausting day suddenly got a whole lot better!

Le Pellerin to Nort-sur-Erdre

Sunday 13th June
Le Pellerin to Nort-sur-Erdre
We had agreed an 8.30 breakfast with madame this morning and we were in the dining room on the dot, to find no sign of our hostess and a very weird looking couple standing with their coats on obviously waiting for her as well. As there was a table laid up with some breakfast on it and as the weirdos obviously weren’t going to eat it, we decided to sit down and tuck in. We tried to engage them in conversation in both French and English but they were less than monosyllabic. Madame then re-appeared having been walking her enormous Irish Wolfhound. She looked a bit put out too that we had already started but obligingly gave us extra croissants as we then noticed that someone else had already demolished most of the food on our table. The other couple eventually sat down elsewhere, never took their coats off and only ate a couple of things and then left still in silence. Not like us at all!
The hotel is perfectly placed on the banks of the Loire about 100 yards from where the ferry comes into le Pellerin and you would think that it would be a popular place to visit. However it is in need of a massive makeover which the new owners are carrying out at the moment. We had a chat with the owner and she told us that they took it over last year and are really working hard but struggling to get enough people in as most people tend to disembark and head straight for the coast to the west or Nantes to the east. It is a shame as le Pellerin is a pretty little riverside port and everything in town was half the price of other places.
Anyway we left at about 9.45 - a really early start for us, caught the ferry across La Loire and began the eternal switchback of hills and valleys northwards.







On board




On the North side of la Loire we've passed this cafe twice now the smell of cooking coming from it is mouth watering. Sadly both times it has been the wrong time of day for anything more than a glass of wine.

We stopped to pump our tyres up in Coueron and were accosted by an old lady of 93 who told us she had a bicycle once but couldn’t remember where it was. She hadn’t seen it since 1952!
We stopped at the Sunday market in Sautron, but only for a look after our scare yesterday spending so much! Thereafter we just concentrated on the ride through Treilliers and Grandchamp until we came to the Nantes-Brest Canal cycle route at La Provostiere . We joined this for a couple of miles just so we could say we had been on it, very nice and flat it was too

Fisherdog and man.

The world and their wives are all out on their bikes today and anyone who wasn’t was cooking a BBQ. We definitely hope that when we get home there will be some summer left for us to do the same thing.
We had booked into a Chambres D’hote in Nort-sur-Erdre, yet another picturesque town on a river.

The little river harbour at Nort-sur-Erdre

Our host met us at the door of a pretty French town house, but on entering it had an unexpected Arabic look to it. Our host had lived in Egypt for some time and had decorated the house beautifully with many Egyptian artefacts. It was very comfortable too, and we enjoyed several tisanes with him and learned a lot about his fascinating life! It was a lovely evening and we had supper in the open air in a brasserie close to the river.

If anyone is driving south and in need of a stop Nort-sur-Erdre this is a very worthwhile place to stay and - Bernard Fourage lemarais44@yahoo.fr an extremely fine host!

Pornic to le Pellerin

Pornic to le Pellerin
Saturday 12th JuneFor anyone wanting to holiday in an area where there is lots to do and see, the Loire Atlantic really is a great destination. We had seen such a variety of countryside and we have only skimmed along the coast and a small way inland. It is also excellent for any amount of biking, as much or as little as you wish. Today however, we have had to leave the coastal part of it which is extremely sad as we don’t think we will see the sea again for a while. Thank goodness we had the afternoon on the beach a couple of days ago. We have found that the ferries back from St Malo arrive in Poole after midnight, so will have to do an extra few miles up to Cherbourg where the ferries run at more reasonable times!
Now, I am desperate to cycle over the St Nazaire Bridge which is huge and looks as though it would be a really exciting hour’s ride (at least). Vivi is not so keen so we checked in a tourist office as to whether there is a cycle lane crossing the bridge and happily the girl has confirmed that there is and it is quite OK to cross with a bicycle. So we are all set then, but Vivi I can see is still anxious. So to put her mind at rest I Google – crossing the St Nazaire bridge by bike. Up pops a question ‘I am cycling from Biarritz to St Malo is it possible to cross the St N bridge?’ There are ten answers to this question (those are only the ones that I read) they all said Don’t under any circumstances it is terrifying, go east to Le Pellerin and take the ferry. So we did.
We cut across country from Pornic towards le Pellerin which was straightforward and not terribly exciting. It is very rural again and there was hardly a person on the roads due to the football matches on TV so it is a great time to cover the miles. There was a Broquante (village fete) in Chauve so foolishly we stopped to have a look and buy some food for lunch. Everything was very decorative and we became mesmerised by a lady who had made lots of different kinds of Nougat.
By the time we had tried chocolate, praline, almond among others we were inveigled into buying some.

Nougat woman's stall.

We were much poorer by the time we left, and could hardly afford anything else for lunch! Alec said they aren’t nougat bars, they must be gold bars!

Remote control Oppies for anyone no longer able to fit into one!

Eventually we dropped down to La Loire where the water meadows are vast and the views of the little villages very quaint.

Cheix en Retz in the distance

The countryside and the people’s habits are becoming almost English – there was a sponsored ride in progress and we passed the remnants of village fete floats. The hedgerows are now full of foxgloves and briars as opposed to wild orchids and poppies,

In le Pellerin we were relieved to see the ferry was working and checked that it would be tomorrow as well. It is a small flat boat which takes about 30 cars and ploughs it's way across the river every 30 minutes and is absolutely free. It is a real public service.

We had booked into a small hotel (the only one in le Pellerin) right next to the terminal. As we appear to be the only people staying here Madame had to be telephoned when we arrived and she duly came to meet us, gave us a key to the place and left us to it! So we went for a drink in the square where we found a young magpie as keen to have a drink as we were – nothing would persuade it to go away and it did a very good job of frightening two lady cyclists who were also trying to enjoy a drink.

We had an excellent gallette in a pizza grill (well we are almost in Normandy) walked around the town and then fell into bed only to find the neighbours were having an ‘all-nighter’ which kept us awake until 3am and then the ferry started at 6.30am so it wasn’t much of a night’s sleep!

Our hotel is in the middle with the shutters closed downstairs and our bedroom window wide open and the duvet hanging out to air!