The Bikepacker: Bikepacking 2024 - Esnandes to La Rochelle via Ile de Ré

Day #

State of Legs

:-)

	Distance (miles)	Distance (km)	Ascent (feet)	Ascent (metres)	Punctures
Today	64.8 miles	km	928 feet	metres	1
Trip Totals	629.7 miles	km	16578 feet	metres	1

Today's Route

Route So Far

Travelogue

The plan for today was a little different to the usual "cycle to the next destination along our route". There's an island called Ile de Ré that can be reached from La Rochelle by a bridge that was only about 10 miles from Esnandes. We'd read lots of good things about it so rather than try to progress another 50 miles or so along our route, we decided to cross the bridge and explore Ile de Ré and then stay overnight in La Rochelle itself.

What was it that attracted us to Ile de Ré? Well, we'd read that it was a cyclist's paradise, with towns and villages closed to cars and mile after mile of lovely cycle paths. We'd read that it was a haven of tranquillity. We'd read that it was full of the prettiest villages. And we knew that at the north-western end of the island there was a large wetland nature reserve that promised to be absolutely teeming with life. It was hard to resist.

M1 cycled to the local boulangerie nice and early and came back with two Croissants aux Amandes and a Pain au Raisins. M1 once again claimed to be starving (literally) and thus justified starting the day with two breakfasts.

We then left the studio apartment and cycled south, passing through several villages before reaching the bridge to the island. The bridge itself is the second longest in France and is over 3 km long. It's quite an interesting ride, cycling over it on the dedicated cycle path! You're high above the sea by the mid-point and getting there involves cycling up a fairly large hill! Somewhat disconcertingly though, there was a lot of traffic on the bridge alongside us, including some huge and noisy trucks. Not so very tranquil at that point then.

After descending the other half of the bridge and arriving on the island, we set about figuring out how best to get to the nature reserve and in the process see as many of those pretty villages as possible. We decided to cycle to the nature reserve via the southern side of the island and return via the north. We saw that we could cycle right across the nature reserve as well, so the route as a whole that we conceived looked a bit like a figure of eight.

The first few miles were fraught with difficulty. There were no cycle paths or lanes that we could find and quite a lot of traffic. Worse, the car drivers seemed unusually aggressive for France and not at all sensitive to the plight of the cyclist. When we tried to use zebra crossings to cross the road on foot, it was a good ten cars before anyone would stop. We'd been accustomed everywhere else to drivers immediately stopping and letting you across. Apparently things are different on the Ile de Ré compared with other parts of France.

After braving the roads and traffic for a while we did eventually find ourselves on cycle paths. Along with lots and lots of other people on bikes. Ile de Ré is it seems, a paradise for people who do not normally ride a bike but fancy a go and so hire a bike or eBike so they can ride slowly around the island. They were everywhere and we often found ourselves stuck behind other cyclists. It felt like being at a Centerparcs resort at times! And we dread to think how busy it must be in summer when schools are closed for the holiday. It must be absolutely heaving with tourists, wobbling around slowly on their rented bikes.

We passed through a number of villages and it has to be said, parts of each were quite charming. We had coffees in one of them.

Eventually, we reached the nature reserve and cycled across it along with millions of other tourists. There really weren't that many birds and certainly there were fewer than in the wetlands we'd passed through in recent days. Could the cycling hordes have something to do with this? Hard to say.

We did see birds though. Amongst them were Buzzards, Black Kites, Avocets, Black-winged Stilts, Herring Gulls, Swans, Shelducks, Little Egrets, and the small hovering bird of prey we'd seen before and been unable to identify. We now think that it's a Lesser Kestrel. It was enjoyable spotting and trying to identify all these species of birds but might have been better with fewer cycling tourists around.

We cycled back from the nature reserve via various other small villages. In Ars-en-Ré we stopped and had something to eat. And further on in La Flotte we stopped at the harbour and had ice cream.

We cycled about 40 miles on the island which is more than we'd expected to! So, I think we were both ready to head to our studio apartment in La Rochelle after finishing our ice cream. We cycled over the bridge and then onwards on good cycle paths and lanes into La Rochelle, stopping first at a Carrefour supermarket we'd identified in advance to buy bread, cheese and tomatoes for dinner. The Airbnb studio apartment was only half a mile from there and easy to find.

In fact we were met by the host who lives in the remainder of the house. She welcomed us, mostly in French, helped store our bikes safely at the back of the house and told us everything we needed to know before leaving us to our evening.

We'd cycled nearly 65 miles in the end and on a fairly hot day! Not the easy day that M1 had for some reason been expecting. But was it worth it? Did Ile de Ré live up to those expectations?

The truth is, we both thought that Ile de Ré was "OK". But I don't think we'd ever enthusiastically recommend it to anyone. It's not a haven of tranquillity. There are just too many of those day-tripper cyclists on their rented bikes everywhere. The villages are pretty in parts but there's quite a lot of traffic in some parts of the island and it's definitely not a cyclist's paradise. The nature reserve was a bit disappointing, being fairly sparsely inhabited, at least when we were there.

But... it's all part of the adventure and tomorrow's another day.

We did, however, take some photos!