FRANCE - LOIRE ATLANTIQUE

MAY 2015

IDEAS

My expedition to Polstead in April confirmed the practicality of travelling by car with the bike on a rack and using a tent as accommodation and base from which to make day-rides (in fine weather).

So I was now clear to make a real start on my new life and plan where I was going and how long to stay there. My thoughts turned towards Brittany but I decided against that for a first foray into France for two reasons. Firstly I thought it might make me sad to revisit places enjoyed in earlier years with my wife and youngest son and secondly that there might be too many hills to climb before I had increased my fitness a bit.

But the idea of riding near water was still attractive and the existence of the Loire à Vélo route caught my eye. This has some on-road sections but also many miles of dedicated and specially constructed cycle paths. It runs from the mouth of the Loire at Brévin Les Pins right across France to Mulhouse at the border with Switzerland and is the first section of the EuroVélo 6 route from the Atlantic to the Black Sea that continues through Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and Serbia, to Romania and Bulgaria.

Initially I had in mind the idea of trying to complete the entire length of the French section in a series of camps and visits to France so I thought I would first find a site near the mouth of the Loire. In the event I soon found my ambition exceeded performance and abandoned that idea during the first couple of weeks of being in France.

But that is why I chose to stay first at “Camping Boulogne” in the town of St Philbert de Grand Lieu some 30km south of Nantes.

RIDES NEAR ST PHILBERT DE GRAND LIEU

A literal translation of Grand Lieu is “Great Place” and the name Lac de Grand Lieu is probably derived from ancient Celtic legends believed to refer to fearful events in the area and rivers around it. It is the largest lake in France in winter (and second largest in summer).

The town is named after Philbert who was a member of the Benedictine Order in the 7^th century and had a turbulent career as Bishop, Abbot and Monk.      He fell out from time to time with his superiors and moved on frequently to other religious houses founding several new ones in the process. His last move was to a monastery on the island of Noirmoutier where he died in 688. 

The monastery survived his death and monks lived and worshipped there until raids by Vikings from Normandy compelled them to leave, carrying Philbert's venerated remains with them to a church they had built as early as 819.     Parts of that church still exist and are celebrated as a rare example of Carolingian architecture. 

Today, the town named after Philbert is not very large and has a centre dominated by a 19^th Century church with a high spire that can be seen for miles around – it makes a good landmark when out for local rides. 

Town Centre Church

The campsite is on an island between two branches of the river Boulogne that runs into the Lac de Grand Lieu some way downstream but which has a small lake of its own on one side of the camp. There is a pleasant foot/cycle path that runs around the camp and near the water's edge.

Path by the River Boulogne

A familiar car and tent can be glimpsed through the boundary fence next to the path.

Despite its modest size St Philbert de Grand Lieu is the largest town for several miles around and is at the centre of a network of minor roads radiating from it in all directions to nearby villages and small towns. I enjoyed several day rides to some of these along fairly flat roads through an agricultural countryside.

Church at St Hilaire-de-Chaléons

Judging by the number and size of churches in these surrounding villages, always in the centre of town and usually on the highest point, the area must have been prosperous for a long time and the Church authorities insistent upon large contributions being made to their construction budget.

Some of the agriculture is devoted to grain but most is laid out with vineyards – this is after all the area where Muscadet is produced from Melon de Bourgogne grapes.

Ancient and Modern Growths

The roads were mostly quiet and some very much so with hardly any traffic.

A quiet country road

There were several placards in fields promoting natural agriculture and avoidance of chemical pesticides and fertilisers. One welcome sign that this was indeed being practiced were the number of wildflowers in wayside hedges and verges.

Wayside Wildflowers

AN EXPEDITION WITHIN AN EXPEDITION

To save the effort of changing camp for just a few days I decided to book a room at a BnB near Frossay and make a couple of expeditions from there, meanwhile leaving the tent still erected at St Philbert de Grand Lieu.

My first move was an exploratory tour by car to that section of the Loire à Velo route from the river bank near Frossay through Paimboeuf to Brévin les Pins. This was sufficient to make me change my mind about riding that section by bike.

Enthusiasts might think it important to do so for completeness but for my taste, just riding for pleasure, I found it far too developed with the path passing through many suburban and semi-industrial areas until it reached the sea front at Brévin les Pins. In the resort it did at least have the merit of being at the edge of the beaches with the sand and sea to look at as one went along.

The BnB owner commuted daily to work in Nantes and had told me she would not be able to welcome me until mid-evening so I had decided to buy dinner before reaching the accommodation. 

Brévin les Pins is a seaside holiday town with many restaurants and fast food outlets but I was disappointed to find that in May, before the French holiday season starts, they were mostly closed. I didn't go to France to eat Pizza which seemed to be the only food available so I used my iPad to search for proper restaurants that might be open and found one down the coast associated with an hotel. 

So it was that I found myself at the Hotel-Restaurant “Anne de Bretagne” near Pornic. This turned out to be a two Michelin star establishment with an entry in the guide - “Les Plus Grands Table du Monde” - and I enjoyed here the most expensive dinner of my life. The best way to convey my impressions is to reproduce another excerpt from an email to family.

“Investigated St Brevin les Pins. Great difficulty finding anywhere to eat that night and ended up before realising what I was letting myself in for at a place with the highest of Haute Cuisine and enjoyed the most expensive dinner of my life! - Appetiser with five different types of Oyster preparations (all minute portions but intense flavours), Entrée of four Langoustine tails in a clear but heavenly liquid, main course of Turbot in Sauce du Limon à Beurre followed by a Strawberry and Avocado dessert with a very intricate architecture. Welcome and Goodbye to how the other half live - given guide book to other similar establishments though, so may be tempted once a year”.

Dinner was a leisurely affair so it was 10 O'Clock by the time I turned up at the BnB and met Christine Piltant.She was an interesting character having trained at the Sorbonne and adopted Public Administration as a career. She was now working in Nantes in that field after a spell as one of a team in Kiev trying to bring order to the Ukraine after the recent deposition of the elected president and the chaos that followed.

Christine had been married but was now divorced and living in a rambling old and renovated farmhouse in the country near Frossay. It was far too large for her on her own so she was trying to sell it before embarking on a career move to Kabul (or Albania), or as a Sous Prefect in one of the French Départements. 

BnB near Frossay

In the meantime, letting a room through BnB brought in an additional income that helped to meet the costs of maintenance and the loves of her life – two horses and a donkey who lived in a paddock behind the building. 

The animals also figured in an alternative plan to return to Ukraine by making a horseback journey across Europe if the career moves didn't work out! (what dull lives some of us have in comparison with such ideas).

I made two rides whilst staying with Christine.

The first was to return by car to Brévin les Pins and ride the cycle path beside the sea. This was enjoyable in fine weather but quite short though it was good to be beside the sea once again.

Pont de Saint Nazaire from the beach at Brévin les Pins

The second ride was along the towpath beside the Canal de la Martinière.

Nantes was an important port for many years before the middle of the nineteenth century when the increasing volume of trade and the increasing size of ships threatened to strangle its commerce due to the many sandbanks in the Loire estuary between the city and the open sea. The idea to bypass these difficulties by constructing a canal was conceived in 1861 and construction started in 1882. 

The canal was opened for business in 1892, used intensively for 20 years but then became less important as the first and second world wars changed conditions and priorities. The canal was closed in 1959, restored in the 1960s and has been used since for recreation (mainly angling) and in management of the water flows from Lac de Grand Lieu and Breton marshes.

There's a lock connecting the canal to the Loire at each end and one half-way along. I made an allez y retour ride from each end to the central lock.

Western Lock Gates

Lunch beside the canal

Upriver Lock near Le Pellerin Village (Ferry across the Loire)

An unusual craft adorns the lock walls

RETURN TO ST PHILBERT DE GRAND LIEU

I stayed at the campsite for a few days after the estuarial expedition and had one or two more local rides and an experience recorded in this way in an email to family - 

Returned to camp today after an 18 mile cycle ride - longest yet - to an unwelcome sight. 

Rear Tube deflated and back of tent collapsed! 

Found small diameter feeder tube disconnected from last valve - presume pressure in tubes increased by sun and blew joint apart. 

Reconnected, pumped up again - stayed up 2 minutes then poof!

Repeated with reduced set pressure - OK as I write - hope it stays together overnight.

Will try to buy tool tomorrow so nut can be more than hand- tightened.

(Reflections as I write this blog many months later) - I did later find a tool and successfully tightened the nut so the connection didn't blow out again. But in doing so I may have inadvertently caused another and more serious problem – after taking possession of the tent my son found a mesh containing the inflatable tubes had torn letting the tubes expand beyond their intended diameter, possibly stretching the fabric of the tent to the point that it leaked slightly when raining).