West
Vannes to Lorient
17 July 2020
After a chilly night, I left this morning after coffee with my neighbors.
First we reach Vannes with sometimes beautiful cycle tracks and then a large departmental road with a small cycle lane on the side. Quite quickly my route makes me leave this road to join small very quiet country roads. Then very often we are either on little frequented roads or along big roads with a beautiful cycle track.
Around noon I leave the track a little to eat at Landévant.
I arrive at the beginning of (…)
L’île aux Moines
16 July 2020
This morning my camping neighbors, Anne-Lise and Patrick invite me for coffee. It’s nice to meet people you meet when you’re camping. We talk for a while over a cup of coffee.
Then I leave for Ile aux Moines. The information given by the camp-site was not very precise: if there are several possible places of departures "to" the island to the monks, if one does not want to make a cruise but just to cross the few hundred meters with his bicycle then it is necessary to go to Port blanc.
As (…)
Piriac - Vannes
15 July 2020
When I had set up the tent there was not too much wind and I had set up the tent softly. At the beginning of the night the wind got stronger: should I stretch it out again and add sardines? I downloaded the windy app that my brother had recommended and read that there was currently a wind of 18 knots (about 32km/h) and that it would decrease afterwards... So everything was fine.
On the way not too much wind in my direction (or was I sheltered?), in the afternoon I had a little more wind (…)
Nantes - Piriac sur Mer
14 July 2020
Below are some pictures of Nantes taken this weekend. I took a lot of pictures while walking along the Erdre river on Sunday afternoon... but an "artistic" option was triggered on my camera and of course I didn’t realize it : as a result all the pictures look like impressionist paintings... I left some of them below.
Today I had to go by train with a stop in Savenay to eat with my colleague Rosine. As there was not much time Rosine came to pick me up at the station and took me to her home. (…)
Pornic - Nantes
11 July 2020
Yesterday I decide to go straight to Nantes without stopping at the Pellerin: no answer from the warmshower and no time to look for something (and no network in my tent while the 4G is of uneven quality at the bar) so I look where I’m sure I’ll find something, in Nantes. I find a small, cheap hotel in the center of town.
Since yesterday we left the Vendée, and now we only have to follow the signs for Vélodyssée and Eurovelo 1, and a bit further EuroVélo 1 and 6.
I thought I was pushed by (…)
Noirmoutier - Pornic
10 July 2020
Walks yesterday on the island of Noirmoutier. In the morning visit of the castle, then bike ride to the ports of l’Herbaudière before returning to the campsite. In the afternoon visit of the hotel Jacobsen, the Dutchman who developed the polders on the island.
Coffee this morning with Stéphanie who arrived the day before and who had booked online attracted by the ad "a campsite in the middle of the forest"...and who is very disappointed. On the way to Gois I talk with cycle riders who were (…)
Saint-Hilaire de Riez - Noirmoutier
8 July 2020
It was a seagull party all night. I think they weren’t silent anytime. I thought these birds sleep at night... Well, it was the full moon. I was told that maybe they spotted a bank of fish...
When I leave, I don’t join the Velodyssey right away because I want to go back to the village of Sion where I ate last night and where I liked the conservation of certain elements from the beginning of the 20th century...
Direction Noirmoutier, the campsite of La Clere, because the two municipal (…)
La Tranche-sur-Mer - St-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
7 July 2020
Pretty good first night camping. In the morning I have to tidy everything up and I make myself a "coffee" and I eat my chocolate biscuits all melted and glued in their case!
Once past Talmont Saint-Hilaire I recognize a path that I had a few years ago on a loc bike! The swampy countryside is very pretty and remarkably well laid out for family bike rides.
Around noon in Les Sables d’Olonne and I dream of a fried Kebab. It falls quite quickly on the waterfront I see a sign advertising it! (…)
La Rochelle - La Tranche-sur-Mer
6 July 2020
Departure from La Rochelle is a bit cool, there is a north wind. In fact, when I had prepared the trip, I had looked to see if there was a prevailing wind and it seemed that there was not... But today the winds will be north, west and then north-west... So I’m not sure that I’ll all the time have the wind from the front but I’m sure that I’ll never have it from the back !
Leaving La Rochelle we follow the canal from Marans to La Rochelle but we are not on the towpath as the path climbs (…)
Rochefort - La Rochelle
5 July 2020
This morning I’m waiting for the sky to clear a little before I leave. I don’t have a lot of miles to cover so I might as well wait for the drizzle to subside... I’m leaving at 10:30, but the drizzle continues almost all the way through, without the rain gear being necessary...
I download the proposed route on Vélodyssée Rochefort La Rochelle and I will follow it, finally my hotel is almost on the track. From time to time the signposting does not correspond to the track... maybe because I (…)