Velofrancette 2026 - La Moussandière to Entrammes

Stats

Today's Route 

Route So Far

Travelogue 

Weird night. M2 slept like a log as always. M1 lay awake listening to the spookiest, weirdest, indescribable sound made intermittently by some kind of creature in or near the lake we were camped by. A bird? Didn't sound like one. But what?

We spoke to the nice guy who runs the campsite as we left. He asked if we'd slept well. I mentioned the weird noise. He said it was like an otter but not an otter. Like a beaver but not a beaver. Like a large rat..... But nice! We think we know what he meant. It was probably a Nutria. We've seen them before in France but never heard them until now.

We cycled back to La Velofrancette. Once back on the route, despite having eaten bananas for breakfast, our thoughts turned to second breakfast. Pastries. Coffee.

We detoured into Ambrières-les-Vallees, pedalling up a big hill to get up to the main street with the boulangeries and patisseries we imagined would be there. Sure enough there were several and all sorts of other shops. But apart from a small supermarket, everything was closed! Disaster! Well, not exactly.

We got some almond flavoured cakes and a can of coke from the supermarket. Good enough.

We rejoined our route, cycling on a section of former railway line again. Fine gravel. A nice surface. The sun was struggling to peep through the clouds but it didn't matter because on all of the railway line sections, we've been in the shade of trees on either side. Nice for us. Not good for generating solar energy!

We saw a couple of red squirrels. Always a treat. 

Our route took us through a small town and then alongside the river La Mayenne. We stayed by the river for almost all of the remainder of the day's cycling, which was a delight. It's a scenic, green river inhabited by grey herons and cormorants. On the opposite bank, the scene was of autumnal colours, trees on the hillside already shedding leaves thanks to the climate change driven drought much of Europe has been experiencing.

In Laval, about 15 km from our final destination for the day, we stopped and had a late lunch of couscous,. vegetables and a piquant source at a food hall near the river. We then bought groceries and cycled to our accommodation, which today is an Airbnb apartment. It's actually part of the host's home but with its own bathroom and kitchen and separated from the host's part of the house by a locked door. It's very comfortable and lacks Noisy Nocturnal Nutria. As far as we know.

Photos