Friday 31st July Niort to Ripère

Getting out of Niort was a nightmare! We were quite a way off the V43, and needed to navigate around the outskirts of the city to pick up the route again. But this is the place of ring roads and urban dual carriage ways and massive hypermarkets and definitely no thought for pedestrians or cyclists. The car is not only king - it's the only feasible transport. It took us ages to work out how to cross the ring-road. We eventually found a bridge over it after doing about 3km isn't he wrong direction. Nil points, Niort.

We came here, for a Rendezvous?

After this the ride was pleasantly rural, passing through very few settlements and with a gentle up and down on mostly very minor roads with reasonable surfaces. Most of the time we could ride side by side as so little traffic.  Again , lunch was a problem!  We had reckoned that a small town called Maziers-en-Gâtin would have a café, but although it had a couple of large banks and agricultural stores the resto was long closed, and the Evdn the Huit-8 was closed!  We bought Quiche and Éclairs from the Boulangerie which was the only shop open at 1230, and ate them leaning against a tree. 

Next into Pathenay - the only sizeable place for miles. And it's also closed - shops and restos! We found somewhere to get a beer, and made a detour to the local cycle shop to top up our chain oil which I finished this morning. Generally dispiriting place. 

On to Ripère. Ripère is a hamlet of the left of the Lac du Cébron. The cycle path actually goes to the right through St Loup, but the nearest place we could find to stay was a Chambres D'Hôte here. We  need to bike into St Loup (4km each way) for supper.

The supper was a farce! We had been warned to avoid one of the resto' sand told the pizza place and the hotel were fine. In the event the hotel was doing a reception and was therefore closed, and the pizza place was full. So we went to the auberge. It was run by a woman who had provably already had too much to drink and didn't do politeness or manners. The locals assured us she must like us though as she was prepared to feed us! 

Distance 81.3km

Av speed 15.93kph

Ascent 688m

GPX of Actual Route

Saturday 1st August: Ripère to Saumur

Away from Ripère around 0930 on pleasant sunny morning, and the day France goes on holiday.

Our self contained bedroom beside the garage at Ripère.

Basically today's route followed as near as reasonably possible the course of the River Thouet for 90km north from St Loup to where it joins the Loire at Saumur.  The ride was partly along willow banked river side and partly steeply up and down small hills to cut of the meanders. 

At last I managed to organise to navigate to a suitable place for lunch - The Trait D'Union in Thouars. Fantastic three course for €18.50

Rabbit terrine

Papillotes - Parcels of chicken and vegetables -   - fantastic flavours

Panna cotta and nectarines

After a 2 hour lunch we were grateful that the next 10km was along the river bank.

Arrived at Loire in Saumur at 1745.

Our €85 Logis Hotel (the Critsal) is on the waterfront, and we have a river view from the hotel.

It also has a well respected restaurant. From the things going on on the car park it looks like we will get a band tonight.

Dinner was excellent foie gras, crispy pigs trotter, cheese, strawberry surprise. But we were both very full at the end

The light between us is the moon - actually a blue moon!

The three stages from La Rochelle to Saumur

Distance today 90km

Average speed 17.08 kph

Ascended 506m

GPX of Actual Route

Sunday 2nd August: Saumur to Angers

This was inevitably one of the highlights of our expidition. The Loire has hundreds of km of bike friendly routes, and we had constant choices of which route on which bank to follow.

Cycling along the left bank

Lunch at St-Rèmy-la-Varenne. Overpriced and took 2.5 hours to serve but lovely sun and view

Ice cream at Bouchmaine - the place where the rivers through Angers flow into the Loire,

Entering Angers

Distance 67.23

Av  17.3 kph

Ascent 248m
GPX of Actual Route

It was a rest day at Angers and we spent the morning doing our washing and the rest of the time at the beach by the lake

A pint by the beach café

Supper at the Salamander - quite posh!

Tuesday 4th August: Angers to Chateau Gontiers

On our way north from the Loire now, following the course of the river Mayenne. Very quite paths, nearly all gravel tracks along the river side.

Again, finding lunch was really difficult. At 1330 we had explored two reasonable size "towns" - they had Marie's and they had post offices but no shops or restos! Finally we came to a village with a waterside campsite which promised a resto at the top of the virtual valley side. Got a salad and a beer from a rather surprised cafe owner who was about to close!

At Chateau Gontiers we stayed at the Parc hotel and spa, and we arrived early enough to get a late afternoon by the pool.

Supper was on the terrace at the stunning Aquarelle restaurant with lovely river views.

Toasting Di Davis's birthday with Soupe d'Angevine (cremant de Loire, lime juice and triple sec - in this case Blue Curaçao.

And this is Henri the Hommard who joined us for our Entrées.

Distance  60.65km

Average speed  16.64 kph

Ascended 252m

GPX of Actual Route

Wednesday 5th August: Chateau Gontier to Mayenne

Today the whole day was again spent cycling up dedicated cycle paths (actually the original tow path) alongside the River Mayenne as we followed it upstream and North. Today we did not go on a real road once, and after leaving the town at Chateau Gontier we travelled up the right bank all morning without seeing a car until lunchtime at Laval, where we crossed the river and traveled up the left bank for the remainder of the day without seeing a car till we reached our destination, 3km downstream from Mayenne.

Crossing the Mayanne at Laval - a cycle path built under the railway bridge.

The path had a range of different surfaces. The most common was aged Tarmac covered in fine gravel which although dusty and slidy is still a good surface on a straight road - much better than old roads that have been constantly patched. Sometimes the surface was hard mud, sometimes grass and mud, but the worst was where they had laid road making gravel on the surface making steering a touring bike quite tricky and necessitating reducing speed to less than 10kph.

Every 5km or so further down steam there was a lock (écluse) and weir and Mill. As we got upstream they became more and more frequent - every few hundred meters at one point. The locks seem like an excellent tourist opportunity that has mostly been missed so far.

A lock, weir and mill beside the cycle path.

We passed some cyclists with a tyre that would not stay inflated  - I sacrificed my foam blow up to them to get them home.

The hotel today was the Beau Rivage, on the banks of the river with a Moulay address- 3km short of Mayenne.  This 2* hotel has a Michelin listed restaurant, and again a fantastic view of the river.

Dinner was Fois Gras, Spit roasted quail, cheese and various fruity desserts. We had Lopiac with the Fois Gras - nice but missing the botrytis of the Layon we had in Saumur, and we had Menetou-Salon - excellent and underpriced Pinot from the Loire. Followed by Calvados with coffee of course :-) The service here was exceptional. 

Distance 70.44km

Average Speed 16.77 kph

Ascended 348 m
GPX of Actual Route

Thursday 6th August: Mayenne to Flers

Got away reasonably early - we were hoping to make it to Domfront for lunch - but underestimated the distance.

At Mayenne we left the river and today has mainly been on disused railway lines - often alongside the Varenne - a tributary of the Mayenne. The surface quality mostly allowed quite good speed.

The Varenne 

We came across this weird thing called the Velo-Rail. They supplied a kind of cart loaded onto two cycles above each rail and a family could drive a few km

Into the forest - where there was a little turntable. Possibly they did not think through the business model though??

Our hotel today is the St Germaine in Flers. Booked through booking.com it's the cheapest we have used other than B&Bs.  On arrival it was closed. It's a simple commercial hotel with a bar. The bar keeper has gone on his Congès and we had to ring someone to let us in.

Flers is a small town that seemed to be much more noisey and alive than many other places in early August. We were looking forward to cidre and crêpes tonight, but of course the only Creperie in town went bust in June.  In the event we found the streets full of nutters and druggies, and our experience at the otherwise rather good Beverl'Inn was rather tarnished by a couple of coke heads/ nitrous oxide users (I don't know the difference but they made the place unusable for all the other clients who left as quick as possible). The streets are full of wankers doing wheelies on motorbikes or skid turns in cars. What a foul place! Property is incredibly cheap here. There is a good reason for this!

Distance 78.25 km

Av speed 18.17 kph

Ascended 450m

(Note for me - I failed to start my log this morning - started after 8.5km - taken from Su's log.)

MY GPX of Route taken

Friday 7th August: Flers to Arromanches-les-Bains

The Breakfast in Flers was a quick affair and we were away by 0900 for the first time on this trip. Glad to be away from Flers after a very noisey night. The town is a dedicated to traffic and all the noise seems to echo around the streets. Add to this a few drunken residents and those who enjoy playing rap to the town at 0200 in the morning and you get the picture.  However it was good that we got away earlier than usual - it was a long hard day.

To reach the Channel at Arromanches rather than Ouistreham meant that after the first 10km we had to leave the V43 and move across to catch a path heading for Bayeux, and then leave this path to bypass Bayeux to reach Arromanches. I had spent a lot of effort planning this route but in the event I had made a few errors and a couple of times we ended up on roads that were much more main than I had wanted, and a couple of times a put us into very rough unmade tracks that were too rough or overgrown to cycle down - how can you tell when reading the map? 

Apparently from the first day when we had lots of ups and down on the coast in the foot hills of the Pyrenees, this was the only day when we had significant hills. We had to cross so called Suisse Normandie which was rolling hills similar to Devon.

We made good progress and had lunch in a very pleasant Normandie resto in Villers-Bocage. But the last 8km had been along the D6 and a motorway junction with a 1km 1st gear hill straight up into the town. We were thirsty and drank two bottles of Cidre Bouchė. We got our table at 1225, when the place was half full. By 1235 the place was full!  

We made it into Arromaches at 1700 where we are staying at the Hotel de la Marine which is right on the seafront at the very centre of the famous Mulberry Harbour, and has a well regarded restaurant. We have a sea view from our bedroom window.

The Marine Hotel in the centre

selfie on arrival!

From the window you can see the surviving outer harbour walls and a piece that is left of the landing pontoons.

Toasting our safe arrival in the resto!

There was a sunset to remember that night😀

Distance 90.3

Average speed 16.28kph

Ascended 827m

GPX of actual route taken

For the record, our total distance travelled is 1161km so far

Saturday 7th was a rest day and after walking around the bay at low tide we spent most of it learning about the importance and construction of the Mulberry harbour at the excellent local museum. Su much excited by the Engineering and wishing her father was still with us to share this with.

Outer harbour walls

Pontoon floats

Road bridge sections

This is what it looked like in use

And the layout of the whole harbour. Our hotel is just where the middle pier lands.