Velofrancette 2026 - Entrammes to Angers

 

Stats

Today's Route 

Route So far 

Travelogue 

It was overcast when we left this morning and we thought we were probably in for a wet day. M1's solar panel was packed away in a pannier. There wasn't much point in mounting it on the bike and in fact very little solar energy has been generated on this trip. It's been very sunny but we've spent most of the time cycling in the shadows cast by avenues of trees.

We left the residential area within  Entrammes where we'd stayed the night and cycled back towards the river and La Velofrancette, largely on cycle paths.

On turning a corner, with M2 leading, imagine our surprise when we saw a not insignificant snake slithering across the path! I was too slow to get a photo but it must have been approaching a metre in length. We're not sure what species it was but it neither bit us nor wrapped itself around one of us and squeezed, so that's the main thing!

Back on our route, we cycled alongside La Mayenne river all day. It's a picturesque river, green in colour and with locks and weirs at intervals. Each lock has a photogenic building next to it and in a way, these were the visual highlights. That said, there were also a few remarkable châteaux.

As always, wildlife spotting enhanced our cycling experience and we saw White Storks, red squirrels, just possibly a kingfisher, and several snowy white Little Egrets. 

We stopped for second breakfast at Chateau Gontieres but this turned out to be only coffee. We're failing dismally to secure a daily intake of French breakfast baked goods on this trip for some reason. No PaC or PaR or any other abbreviated, tasty breakfast delight.

By midday, having been forced to do without second breakfast, we were hungry. I was carrying bread and a full pack of Boursin soft cheese, left over from the previous evening, so we stopped at a bench by the river and made sandwiches. Yum. 

Once again, La Velofrancette included an artificial looking detour to a nearby town. We'd been underwhelmed by Flers but maybe the interestingly named Lion d'Angers would be better?

It wasn't. Getting there was a huge waste of effort, requiring us to cycle along muddy paths for some distance until we reached a horse racing course on the edge of the town. Apparently this is the tourist highlight of Lion d'Angers. Perhaps if we'd actually seen a horsey or two. But we didn't.

We bought cold drinks in the town and sat on a bench to enjoy them. And that was Lion d'Angers.

We cycled back the way we came and got the bikes even muddier.

Back on route, we continued to follow La Mayenne, both feeling a little tired now. It had rained in the night and the gravel path had become much softer, adding rolling resistance and requiring more effort. But we only had about 20 km to go now.

It started to drizzle. Lightly. And as we got closer to Angers, with more determination.

Finally we arrived in the city of Angers and found the address of our Airbnb. 

Getting into the apartment wasn't straightforward. When we'd stopped for coffee earlier, we'd had to fill in a series of forms on some website that had nothing to do with Airbnb. This included giving personal information such as our home address. If we'd declined to provide this information to this system and its operators, about whom we knew nothing, the lockbox code for the apartment would not be provided. Blackmail. Lovely.

Access was allowed from 4 pm. We were 15 minutes early and of course the stupid 3rd party system held onto the access details until exactly 4 o'clock. This is a corporate owned property of course rather than a place owned by a normal homeowner as always used to be the case when Airbnb was new. These corporates, with their systems, data harvesting, automation and complete lack of any kind of personal touch have ruined airbnb. Rant :-)

The access details were finally revealed and what joy, the lockbox containing the key was not at this address! I had to walk to a bike rack a couple of streets away to find it padlocked to the rack, get the key and walk back.

Next came the fun of getting our luggage and the bikes into the second floor apartment. M2 stayed with the bikes. M1 made three trips up and down the stairs to carry bags up. Then the real fun began. To reach the apartment, each bike had to be carried physically up a tight, winding, steep, rickety wooden staircase. 

I've done this many times (four floors in Lucerne!) but this was the toughest yet. With so little space it was a struggle to get the bikes around the corners and to not become unbalanced with catastrophic effect!

But finally we were in and the bikes parked in the main room. I was exhausted! It won't be the cycling that gets me, it will be hauling bikes up flights of stairs!

We did a little grocery shopping. We're to be here for two nights with tomorrow a rest day.

The apartment is more or less above a Thai takeaway restaurant. We thought we'd give it a try, bought food to eat back and the apartment and were not disappointed. Delicious!

M1

Photos