Cycling past the towers at the entrance to La Rochelle's harbour was a great way to enter the city. We passed through the bustling marina and old town to our Air BnB where we'd booked in for a couple of nights.
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| La Rochelle's impressive harbour fortifications |
We visited all three of the 14th century towers the next afternoon after a lazy morning at the local markets. We had to sample some of the local seafood so for lunch we went for 'moules frites' (mussels and chips) and fish at a restaurant beside the old port.
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| 'Moules frites' |
The next few days of cycling were relatively uneventful and at times pretty boring! At one stage we almost ran over a +1m long snake crossing the road in front of us, as our attention was on the huge fields of hemp we were passing through! We traveled for long stretches through swamps and along canals, spending a lot of time with headphones in our ears listening to podcasts. Current favourites include Sound Opinions (music news, interviews, and reviews), Uhh Yeah Dude (comedy), Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, The Enormocast (climbing), and Radio New Zealand (night and Sunday morning shows). Sarah's also been enjoying a few of these, plus some Hamish & Andy (comedy), Sawbones (medical history), Anna Faris is Unqualified (Sarah's guilty pleasure) and Stuff You Missed In History Class.
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One evening, as we were nearing our campground for the night, a Frenchman pulled up beside us where we were stopped to read our map. After establishing that we were camping and hadn't booked anywhere he offered us his lawn to camp on for the night. We accepted and followed Didier to his nearby house. After briefly pondering how wise this decision was (sorry Mum), we settled in on Didier's lawn and enjoyed his hospitality and broken English. Thanks again Didier!
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| At Didier's place |
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| Which way next? Lots of options for cycle touring! |
The next day we welcomed the change of scenery as we arrived at the mouth of the Loire Valley. Here we started following the `Loire a Velo` system of cycle ways up the valley as we headed to Paris.
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| St Nazaire Bridge crossing the Loire river mouth |
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| Industrial and agricultural scenes at the Loire river mouth estuary |
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| Arrival in Nantes |
We were glad to arrive in Nantes after a couple of nights of rain making us wonder how long our broken tent would hold up. Luckily we had new tent poles waiting for us at our hotel in Nantes!
- David
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