Day Seventy Two: Angers to Saumur

June 7, 2017

We are beginning to clue in to how best to get our bikes out of hotel prison earlier in the mornings. Like this morning - we were assured that we could only get the bikes at 7:30. So we dutifully showed up downstairs at 7:30. There we found lots of people already happily eating their breakfasts. To get those ready, the lady just had to be there at 7. Had we been there too, she surely could have interrupted her preparations long enough to simply hand us the garage key. for next time, our plan is to show up when we are ready, and to engage the first staffer we see, no matter the hour.

With our bikes loaded we shifted over one door to the fabulous bakery. We say fabulous not because it was larger or had greater selection than average, but because the quality was so high. for example, we got a little bread - dark, with almonds and raisins inside, sesame seeds outside. When we ate it at lunch time it was amazing - so flavourful and moist, yet crunchy. We had put Caprice des Dieux on it too. So good.

In the bakery beside the hotel, this large poster presumably depicts the family tradition. French bakeries take this very seriously. So do we.

With a last look at our hotel, the castle, and the bakery we set off through the town. We had arrived by coming up the Maine, but it would cost at least 15 km to just go back down it. Instead we would take a "short cut" route that is still part of La Loire a Velo but not necessarily all that well documented or supported.

The shortcut route. Rather than back down the Maine, we took the diagonal - which can be seen here in grey.

To get on the short cut we passed back through a bit of the newer part of the old town. This put us on roads, but we never encountered broad avenues with dangerous traffic, or anything close. In fact, we ran into street scenes like the one coming up to St. Joseph church. Really nice, and interesting. And St Joseph is not even a major church in this town.

As we moved farther from the town centre, naturally the city scape became less pleasing. But unlike in many cities it never (at least on the route we followed) descended to ugly industrial or mindless suburban. Rather it just sort of faded from glorious back to crumbly white.

One of th attractions of the shortcut route, that we knew well from having followed it in the reverse direction in 2015 would be the Park of the Slate Quarries. This large area on the east side of Angers contains a large but now unused slate area - covered in slate bits of all sizes, plus a quarry pond.

We followed Loire a Velo signs toward the quarry, until they disappeared. Then we followed our GPS track. But the track lead us directly up to a construction fence, beyond which a new road was under construction. Now what?

Someone had cut a hole in the fence, but it was small enough that we would have to unload all our bags to put the bikes through. And of course we did not know what we would then find on the other side.

Stunning scene as we approach St Joseph church.

A slate wall. Every wall east of Angers looks like this.

Instead we just started scouting around, like dogs, trying to sniff out a way. We passed down a path that used to be signed, but now was not, and we skirted behind some allotment gardens, because a path there seemed to be heading in the right direction.

Finally we came out to a slate park sign, saying welcome to the Park, this is the Rabbit Entrance. That referred actually to the nearby Rabbit stream, but we rather felt like it was the hound dog entrance.

As soon as we were inside we came to a Loire a Velo sign. In the smug way these signs have, it seemed to say "Hi, where ya been?"

So we made our way through the park, largely ignoring the trailside info panels, explaining things like which plants and animals are thriving in the arid conditions of the slate piles. We ignored these both because we now wanted to make some progress and also because at a certain point trying to rapidly absorb too much information presented in French makes our heads hurt.

Next we came to what had been the scene of a major debacle when we came through in 2015. The situation is actually fairly simple, though it did not feel that way the first time around. There is a small tributary of the Loire that the bike path runs up to. At that point there is a choice. On the one hand, a tiny ferry is operated by the nearby town of La Daguenierres. So one can take that across and carry on. On the other hand one can follow along beside the river until reaching a fairly dangerous road (D952), and on that road is a bridge.

Last year from the other side, the ferry was not running (since this is France). But a sign gave a "hot line" number for such cases. We phoned it and got a clueless young lady at the La Daguenierre city hall. "Ferry?" "Problem?" "Hello, hello?" "The ferry man will come, sometime". to get to the road we had to bushwack through nettles and mud for a long time.

That was last time. This time we just went straight to the dangerous road. On this side of the river the path to the road was good. Also we always enjoy the sign they posted: "WARNING. You arrive on a way at high traffic. ALL ARE EYES!". This would become a family classic expression, except that we seem unable to memorize it properly.

D952 took us into La Daguenierre, which turned out to be a pleasant town. We passed right by the city hall, and I briefly thought about going in, finding that young lady, and shaking her warmly by the neck. If you want to see more of what had me so "exercised" that time, click ---> here.

can you see the hole in the fence? But should we try going through?

Here is another example of a slate wall, wth a mountain of slate beyond.

Dodie wards off cars as we cross the river on the dangerous highway

Daguenierres city hall - now we know where they live!

Especially beyond La Daguenierre La Loire a Velo began to increasingly take on the magical properties that have us and many others coming back again and again. We rode by more and more classic cottages - with stone walls, slate roofs, and flowers everwhere. We cycled though fields of blooming calendula and sweet pea. And we speculatievly eyed loaded cherry trees, ready to pounce on any branches that strayed over the public path.

Finally, at St. Mathurin we crossed the Loire, onto the "left" bank. This was the start of a really dreamlike ride. On that left bank, all the way to Saumur, there are village lined up one after another. The are just a couple of streets deep, squeezed in between the river and hills just behind. The villages have beautiful, scenic houses, with flowers all around. Caves are dug into the hills behind, and these house wine cellars. We don't kow much about wine, but these companies her in Anjou on the Cotes de la Loire are sure to be world famous. We also saw some orchards growing pears. Anjou pears, of course.

a roadside chapel dedicated to St Joseph. It has been often repaired, especially after Loire flooding, and is under restoration right now.

More fields of flowers. We did see some lavender rows too.

We searched out any and all cherry trees with stray branches near the path.

This section is full of beautiful houses and flowers

Suddenly we ran into these little black flying beetles. They chased us from one picnic site, but seemed to be everywhere, even into Saumur. They especially liked dodie's yellow/green wind breaker.

One of our favourite spots on this bit is the Cave aux Moines. This is a very extensie excavation into the hill behind, in which they store wine but significantly also grow mushrooms and raise escargots. It is all possible because of the constant, cool temperature in the cave. La cave aux Moines also has a restaurant about 100 metres into the cave. This serves a menu based on mushrooms. We would like to try it out, but usually it seems to be closed. Today it was open! But we had just eaten lunch, and besides a large group that had arrived in a big bus was occupying every table. Maybe next time. If you can make it out, have a look at the menu.

The cave was dug out to mine the tuffeau stone. The resulting area has constant, cool temperature - very useful.

While on the right bank, near Angers, buildings were commonly made with slate, on this side they are made with tuffa, the soft stone of the hillside. The use of this material will continue on this side, and reach an apex at the Chambord chateau, which is made all of tuffa.

Beautiful place to ride, along the Loire. Lots of cyclists come here because of it.

A townscape near the church Notre Dame des Tuffeaux

This peleton had a protective chase car. It seems to be mostly made up of kids.

Our lovely ride ended well, as we made our way into Saumur with a minimum of getting lost. (A minimum, thanks to the GPS. Loire a Velo track signs were totally confusing).

Saumur turns out to be arranged on the plan that we find with so many cities along the Loire. The town sits on the bank of the river and there is a bridge to the other side. The bridge is located at (or has created) the main street of town. So if you are opposite a town, cross the bridge and bingo you are automatically in downtown.

Since Saumur was on "our side" of the river, we only had to go to the bridge to be able to turn onto "main street". But first we stopped at tourist Information for their hotel advice. They advised the Hotel Le Volney, 57 euros, beside the large post office. They also booked it for us, though it was just 10 minutes away.

It took a while, but I slowly remembered that we had stayed exactly here in 2015. What triggered the memnory was a Canadian flag and Quebec flag sticker in the front window. I asked the man about these - had he been to Canada? "No", was the reply, "the stickers were put there by a previous owner". That was exactly what this same man had answered two years ago when I had asked him exactly the same question! Partial memory of places is so freaky, and kind of disturbing as your mind struggles to bring back information from deep storage.

As soon as we were in our room, I looked up the Grampies to see what they had said about the hotel and the town. They said we actually could have gotten a cheaper room in the place, since Booking and TI are pedalling the higher priced ones. Darn, should have read them earlier!

Downtown Saumur is mostly pedestrian streets or with much restricted traffic

We finally found soe St Michel cookies, made at St Michel Chef Chef. Top quality. 1905 is the year the company was founded.

Today's ride: 59 km (37 miles)
Total: 3,435 km (2,133 miles)

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