| Day # | 10 | State of Legs | :-) |
| Distance (miles) | Distance (km) | Ascent (feet) | Ascent (metres) | Punctures | |
| Today | 54.8 miles | km | 1014 feet | metres | 1 |
| Trip Totals | 513.5 miles | km | 15069 feet | metres | 1 |
| Today's Route |
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| Route So Far |
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Travelogue
As we left the campsite this morning, the sky was blue and the sun was shining and within about a minute we were cycling in woodland. We followed this woodland trail for about 10 miles. It was a very nice start to the day.
After leaving the woodland, the route ran right by the coast again and we were soon in the seaside resort town of Saint-Jean-de-Monts which has an enormous sandy beach.
By 10:00 as usual we were thinking about coffee. About half an hour later we found an open cafe bar in Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez. It's Sunday today so we weren't totally optimistic that we'd find anywhere open, but we were lucky. As we walked up the steps to the bar's terrace we were surprised to see a baguette vending machine! Presumably it bakes the bread as you wait just as the pizza vending machines cook your pizza on demand. We can only imagine what the general French public think of the very idea of a baguette vending machine!
We passed through a number of sea-front towns. They were all relatively busy with both pedestrians and cyclists and that made life interesting. In fact there were a lot of cyclists out today. Only a few looked like bikepackers like us so we assumed these were local Sunday cyclists out for a nice bike ride. That said, the number of cyclists and the number of pedestrians in some places gave us an idea of what this route (known as the La Vélodyssée locally) is probably like in peak season. It's probably heaving with families on bikes and we can imagine it's very slow. We're glad we chose to come early in the summer.
In another forest section we caught up with and then squeezed past a very unusual vehicle indeed! It was a "bike caravan". M1 spoke to the "driver" as he took a photo. He spoke no English but it seemed that he was the contraption's inventor. He gave M1 a card with a website and YouTube channel on it. It has to be said that whilst the man's passion and commitment is to be admired, it didn't look like a very practical idea. Only about 1 km later there were barriers across the path that are intended to stop anything but pedestrians and bikes from going through. There was no way he'd have been able to continue.
Once again, we cycled across an area of wetland. It was nice but not as good as yesterday's treat. There wasn't nearly as much wildlife and not a single battle between bovine and bird was witnessed, either.
Just before the large seaside town of Les Sables-d'Olonne we spotted an open patisserie and so screeched to a halt outside, went in and bought lunch. M1 had a vegetable tart and M2 a quiche Lorraine. Both had a raspberry crumble tart for dessert. All good. Proper yummy.
We were nearing our destination now and thoughts turned to groceries. We'd identified a Proxi convenience store on the map, not far from the campsite. But on arriving at its location we were dismayed to find that it had gone out of business! DISASTER!!!!
Well OK, not exactly a disaster. More like SLIGHT INCONVENIENCE!
M2 spotted what looked like a market in full swing a few hundred metres away. We investigated but alas, there was no food to be had there. Google was consulted. Supermarkets were several miles away which after already cycling 50 was not an appealing prospect. M2 took to googling and voila! She found an open patisserie not far away. We cycled there and bought a couple of tuna and egg filled baguettes and M1 also bought a pear tart. Saved from starvation. Hooray!
We checked into the campsite and had a very nice welcome from the team. They were very friendly and even brought a table and chairs over to our pitch so we had somewhere to eat dinner. The showers are hot and everywhere is clean. Like.
That's it. Another day done and over 500 miles cycled so far this trip. Chapeau M1 and M2!
We also took some photos.
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