Adventures in travelling: From Belgium to Spain part 2

Evron - Nyoiseau 80 km

Easy ride, small roads, I stopped for a coffee in La Chapelle-Rainsoin and stayed on the D20 untill Villers-Charlemagne then took the D154 and D152 to Fromentières.

The highest point of the journey being Chateau-Gontier where I had lunch in an old café with style. Located on the Mayenne river this village is worth a visit, lots of nice monuments, the river is quite nice as well. From there I headed to Empoignée, Mèe and Nyoiseau, nothing to see except the nice countryside.

Nyoiseau is a small quiet village with a charming camping on the river Oudon. Very quiet only one bar/café/lotto with no customers. Julien the camping manager offered me a drink and we chatted for a while with 2 of his friends, I recommand to stay on that camp for the location, the quietness and the staff. 5 euros 50.

Château-Gontier and the Mayenne river

Weird People around my bike

Nyoiseau - Nantes 115 km

Nantes is a big city worth at least a couple of days of visit. I am back after a few weeks visiting my friend Rémi for just one night.

The ride was pleasant from Nyoiseau to Candé via Chazé sur Argos then I took the D165 towards Ancenis. Very nice city on The Loire river. I then followed the Loire on the right bank wich was apparently a mistake. There were some works on the bike road and I had to turn around after 10 kilometers, no other way and no good deviation signs before engaging myself there. The path along side the Loire river is a dirt road and I would advice a Mountain bike or big tyres. An other thing to check is water, there was no place to refill between Oudon and Nantes and it I was dry one hour before Nantes.

The Loire river in Ancenis

Ouzon

Nantes - Aizenay 66 km

Commuting ride to meet my friend Cécile and her kids Pauline and Martin. the road was straight down south, a few nice villages with some castle along the way, Pallau being the main attraction on this road.

With Martin and Pauline

Aizenay - La Rochelle 138 km

From Aizenay I decided to ride to the coast, I went to Jard-Sur-Mer via Talmont St Hilaire where I had a coffee in front of a medieval castle then I followed the European cycle route to La Rochelle.

Difficult ride because of the heat wave, 38 celsius on the road dixit a fellow biker electronically equiped. I also met James and Rupert, 2 cyclists going to Île de Ré from Great Britain I was exhausted and stayed behind them to avoid the wind. The coast is quite windy and the route is sometimes a dirt road.

In La Rochelle it is the Fête de la Musique. I am not sure I slept that night, music until my departure in the morning.

I met Harald a german cycling from Santiago to Bretagne and we shared the expensive camp site good deal, 8 euros. The camping municipal is walking distance from the city center.

Fête de la musique

La Rochelle by night

La Rochelle - Mortagne sur Gironde 115 km

An other day under the sun.

I followed the beach and right at the start in Aytré, met 2 bikers we cycled together for 25km to a nice coffee place in St Laurent de la Prée where they offered me coffee and breakfast, we chatted for a while, then they took me to a back road to reach Rochefort and they went back to Aytré. My day started very well.

I went through Rochefort, this time took the Pendular bridge, for bikers and pedestrian only, avoiding the dangerous bridge for cars that I took 9 months earlier.

Then the road is quite flat towards Royan. I just forgot that we were sunday and didn't have enough food or water. Looking for my way in the village of L'Eguille. I followed some sign post "Le Sel de Madi". I stumbled upon a group of people ready to have lunch, they were preparing some mussels covered of pine leaves and ready to be burned in a traditionnal way of cooking called 'Eclade'. I just asked for some water to Madi and she kindly invited me for lunch. They are all members of a group of local exchange and trading system called SEL (Système d'Echange Local). It was a fantastic lunch with wonderful people giving their time to help each other without money. I wanted to pay for my lunch but they kindly declined.

This is a link I found on internet www.Solidaire.org explaining all about it in French.

After this lunch I cycled to Mortagne sur Gironde, nice camp site with a fantastic view, very clean with a nice person. What a day ! I highly recommand that camping municipal.

Around 6 euros a night.

Aytré the low tide in the morning

Pendular bridge in Rochefort, a city I already passed 9 months ago.

Mussels on fire under the pine leaves with great company !

The local name for this kind of cooking is Eclade

Some of my wonderful hosts.

2 hours break.

And this is Madi, my fantastic host !

Mortagne Sur Gironde - Bordeaux (Parempuyre) 75 km

This morning I woke up and it was raining for the first time in 12 days. Jean-Jacques and Danielle saw me looking for shelter and offered me coffee, it turned out to be a breakfast with home made jam. We chatted for a while waiting for the rain to stop, they were travelling in a modern VW van, Jean-Jacques has been travelling like this since the sixties, then he was a pionneer and drove all other Europe windsurfing. Before I left he gave me some home made Deer pâté.

An other good start for my day, it is always nice to meet people like this.