Total distance: 235.3 km

Villandry to Angers: 121.6 km, Angers to Nantes: 113.7 km

Writing this post from the quirky and eclectic city, Nantes. Once the capital of the province Brittany, Nantes reflects a collision of old and new world; industrial and artistic. After two very serious (but very fun) days of riding, we decided to spend two nights here and take a moment to rest and recoup before hitting the Atlantic.  Nantes has a reputation for being a city of innovation and industry. Today, after some minimal re-con, we were able to experience this first hand. With a quick cycle from our hotel we crossed a small bridge to the Les Machines de L’Ile, a massive art project/installation that is the brain child of two french artists, and is meant to reflect Jules Verne’s “invented world,” Leonardo da Vinci’s mechanics, and the industrial narrative of Nantes. A handful of machinists, builders and engineers work to create large scale mechanical animals, that with a few operators can move quickly and realistically through the space, which was previously a shipyard and can accommodate the creatures. The piece de resistance was a 40ft tall elephant that functioned on 62 cylinders and sprayed water from its trunk. Along with a throng of other visitors, we deked and ducked around it as it stomped and sprayed through the square.

Being back in a metropolitan city puts into contrast the range of places and land that we’ve covered. Two days ago we left the quaint and historic town of Villandry and headed for Angers. The incredible little Troglodyte we had been lucky  enough to stay in a few nights before suddenly felt a little less unique, as our bike route carried us alongside and directly through thoughtfully carved limestone passageways. This leg of the trip saw quick and furious climbs, met with almost immediate descents. Needless to say we were exhausted and spent by the end of it! We held it together just long enough to hobble to a new burger joint around the corner from our place, then collapsed.

protective watch dog

We woke up the next morning and, whoa hey whats that!? THE SUUUUUUN! Blasting a solid 15 degrees warmer than the day before, we shed some clothes and biked off into the glorious heat of the day. Lucky ducks that we are, there was an outdoor jazz fest that scattered  for about 4 km along  the bank of the Loire. We rode past trios of strings, an entire choir, ambitious one man drummer bands and snazzy sax players, each playing different (some very not jazzy) styles. And man were people picnicking! The “bonnheur de vivre” was in full fantastic french effect.

This day was a long one because, common, that relaxed lets sit along the river bank with a glass of rosé behaviour is very contagious! So we stopped once or twice, or thrice. We rode past fields and fields of white cows and their calfs and saw a handful of week old foals.

Its been fascinating to watch the actual landscape of the river transform as we move further west. For long stretches yesterday, there was nothing more than the odd fisherman, camped along the bank with a rod and a beer in hand. We looked like a bunch of stupid sunburnt kids when we finally arrived (we lost our sunscreen and got wicked burns) and Steve says his mouth hurt from all the “bonjours!” he said to the other cyclists.

We’ve come to realize that no matter what time we leave, or how many patisserie stops there are, or how many or few afternoon roadside beers we have, 95% of the time it is 9hrs from door to door. C’est la vie.

Walking through the streets of Nantes today, it was impossible not to notice that the vast majority of banks have been boarded up. We’ve been conscious to the amount of security and police details that we’ve seen both in Paris, but also in the smaller hubs we’ve visited. At first we assumed that the men roaming the streets fully equipped with semi-auto assault weapons were in response to the recent attacks in Paris, however, when we arrived in Nantes and saw the banks and did a little back checking, we now know the people are up in arms over a recent proposal for sweeping new labour laws. The feeling in Nantes is that violent protests are imminent! Aaannnd ergo so is our departure.

On a lighter note…..

Here’s a quick video of riding the Loire à Vélo through the troglodyte village in Souzay-Champigny.