Day 5 - 6 of Tour: Redon to Saint-Brevin-les-Pins

Guenrouët castle

Day 05: Tuesday 09th June 2015  -  Redon to Nantes

Today's Ks': 124.5  Total for Trip: 480.72 ks'

After a great nights sleep and packing up camp I headed back in to Redon to join the velo route again. Today was sunny and the route took me a long the canal  and where I saw a lot of boats slowly cruising up the canal both of us waving and shouting bonjour to each other. The surface was not too bad, patchy in places but no bother. Today my knee was hurting me so I purchased a knee support which gave great relief.

My first village was Guenrouët  where I stopped to have a rest a view the beautiful castle above. It was funny today because for the last few days I've being cycling with canal for a good part of my day that I tended to day dream but unlike the other days today the canal twisted and turned and at one stage I nearly cycled straight into the canal on one of the twists only just missing a wet dive by centimetres but I laughed for the next few kilometres about it.

On I went to Blain where I took a detour into town to have lunch. I found a lovely little pub where the locals were having their wine. I did get funny looks, especially as I was wearing my bright yellow Cookie Monster jersey and a few comments were made when I entered and I'm sure if they were translated would be something a long the lines, will ya look at that gobshite in the Cookie jersey. The owner of the pub greeted me and I asked for the menu and a cola.....ice cold in the bottle, there's nothing better. 

He pointed to the board saying no menu, that's that what was on. Explaining to me in his little English, I went with pork and then was asked what sauce.....sauce....I just have bisto gravy normally but you can't get that here. So I went with chance when he pointed at some alcoholic stuff. Although I don't have alcohol in anything never mind drink it, I said what the heck and boy was I glad. The sauce was white, with a light creamy texture and the taste.....oh my God it was delicious and I poured it over my chips when I had eaten the pork. It was wiped off the plate with every movement of my fork.

Not having dessert I decided time to get back on road as I was there for an hour and outside I met a guy who was travelling for years on his bike and we had a great chat. You can view his website here

Then it was on to Nantes, where I was staying with a family through Airbnb. The whole way into the city there was cycleways which is just unbelievable. I was on one side of the city and needed to get to the other and again my gps and I didn't agree and as usual sent me up a hill I didn't need to do. The reason being I was under the bridge and in between the two major support columns there was a pathway that you wouldn't even notice. Eventually after asking a few people to help I spotted a cyclist go there and I followed and was back on track. In the cities I totally relied on gps. The house that night was fantastic and a bed.....how I missed a bed. I had a great shower, charged my batteries for my electronics and my hosts even washed my clothes which meant I'll be good to go the next day. I spent the even chatting and contacting friends and family and then to bed. Each night regardless of whether I had wifi, I text one of my friends to update them of my position, usually around half nine. 

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Day 06: Wednesday 10th June 2015   -  Nantes to Saint-Brevin-les-Pins

Today's Ks': 86.70  Total for Trip: 567.42 ks'

After a nice sleep in bed and a lovely breakfast it was the usual routine of repacking the bicycle and off across the city to try and rejoin the velo. The velo has three gps routes for the entire route and unfortunately it took too long long to load so I followed the roads to the city centre.

 

started at front of bike but then went to back

What a beautiful city but big and I was lost without the gps. Stopping and pulling in to the path I had the only real bad moment on my trip. While trying to sort the gps I suddenly felt someone at tugging at my bungy cords on panniers. Turning around I saw a teenager trying to steal Cookie from my bike. He ran across the road to his group who were shouting and jeering me. 

I was very annoyed but was out numbered so left just taking a random road. Good thing I really secured him to the bike. To be honest I was extremely angry but at least all was fine. Eventually my gps kicked it and I made my way out of the city passing under one of their traffic bridge and boy is it impressive. 

My first stop after Nantes was Le Pellerin and it is where I got one of my most unusual images of my trip.....Coueron La Maison dans la Loire and no it 

wasn't a bad choice of accommodation on my part :-)

Coueron La Maison dans la Loire

Le Pellerin also offers what's rare these days and its a free ferry service across the La Loire....thank you, very much :-)

On to Saint-Brevin-les-Pins, which wasn't going to be my final destination today but getting lost in Nantes changed all that. From here the route took me on trails by the river, small roads and it is where I saw the most wildlife, small eagles, storks, little birds and loads of dragon flies and the sounds of crickets. The one I got the most fright is when I saw a giant rat on two occasions but on checking it out, its a coypu (ragondin) or still a rat to me.

pic: http://www.francethisway.com/wildlife/ragondin.php

Today had a lot of different scenery and one of my favourites were the fishing huts I saw .

 They were dotted all over the place. I imagine when the tide is in they lower

the nets but I'm only guessing as to how they operate.

and while I think of it the one thing of notice was the way traffic behave towards cyclists.  They try their best not to intimidate you or force you off the road and actually wait until it's clear to go. Somethimes I was saying to myself will yo just pass me already....but very courteous. There are signs on roads warning them to give 1.5 metres and also that cyclists are on the road.

Today for the latter part of the day two young lads and myself just kept
 passing each other out until I met them in the tourist office where it was funny as all three of us had knee pain in the same leg and all wearing supports bought in France. These two yong guys were English and thought my flag was Italian. We ended p in the same camp site that night and had a good old natter, all of us suffering with sore muscles and asses lol and all understanding how each of us felt.


One of the guys only decided to do this a few weeks before and bought a second hand bike for £100. He said he didn't have a ground mat. I said if it was any consolation, I had a self inflating one but it doesn't work. Luckily for me his friend had the same one and showed me how to use it. Sleeping in the tent was a lot different as a result of this. 


That's it for now, to be continued..........


Keep smiling :-)