Going With the Flow: Day 3 - St Luce sur Loire to Angers - Get It While It Lasts... A Big Loop Through Europe 2017

August 10, 2017

Going With the Flow: Day 3 - St Luce sur Loire to Angers

Today we started to get the feel of what the Loire Valley promises. From Nantes downstream to St B / St. Nazaire, the river and surrounding towns had a working / industrial feel. The towns were basic and not particularly scenic, the facilities and amenities either non-existent or Spartan.

That changed today as we started to get into the more classic Loire Chateau environment. We had another very pleasant day of cycling. For the most part we were on dedicated bike paths or almost deserted rural secondary roads., with a mixture of hard pack gravel and asphalt. Once again there was a steady stream of bike tourist going in both directions.

We stopped in the small town of Mauves for a quick breakfast (i.e more than bread and jam) and while we were sitting in front of the church eating our yogurt and bananas there was a continuous stream of older gentleman decked out in their Tour de'France lycra speeding through on their carbon road bikes. We don't see too many of them along the Eurovelo 6 route as there is a reasonable amount of gravel, just fine on a touring bike with 50 mm tires but not for roadies.

From Mauvres the ride kept getting better. No really stunning scenery, just a mellow pastoral feel, helped by riding along with only bikes as accompaniment. When we came to the town of Oudon we knew we had arrived.

Our first fortified Chateau, a quaint town with flowers and cafe's and a lively town center. The really interesting thing though was alongside the river where there was a group of artists, mainly sculptors, working on large installations to add to the already impressive number of works dotting the river banks. This was just the start, for the rest of the ride to Angers nearly every town and village would have a similar feel.

The angst and frustration we'd felt from the previous day was washed away and we just enjoyed the ride.

Then the belt broke.

Just as we were leaving St. Florent-le- Vieil, Kirsten lost all motive power and her drive belt was laying on the path.

Merde.

We knew this was a real possibility. That's why we had a new cog and belt and an appointment in Nantes to get them replaced!

Putting on the new belt was a piece of cake (far easier than dealing with a broken chain) and a call to a (Rohloff authorized) bike shop in Angers for tomorrow had us back on the trail.

We had decided to book a hotel in Angers since we hadn't had any wifi or power for two days. This journal needed to get written, and our Garmin needed to be charged (it died a short while latter but Kirsten's Strava kept a log of our route). When we realized that our need / desire to book a hotel was largely driven by our perceived need to be 'plugged in' that got us into a discussion of whether it would be better to just ride on, take mental pictures and notes, and ditch the technology.

When we got pelted with pretty heavy rain about 10 km out of Angers those thoughts were washed away and we were glad to see the lobby of the Ibis and the promise of a real hot shower and a dry bed!

Our focus turned back to getting Kirsten's drive train issue sorted. Although we had an appointment the next morning, we were both pretty sure that the outcome would be the same as we had in Nantes .... best intentions but missing a simple, but specialized tool to do a 10 minute job. That's when we decided we would take the next day off to have a better chance of getting the issue sorted, and to spend some time in Angers, which looks to be a beautiful city.

Heart

Comment

Link

Song of the day:

1,2,3,4 by Fiest

This came on the Boom as we were approaching St Florent. The mellow, happy feel to the song was a stark contrast to my feelings the previous night. Even the broken drive belt a few minutes later didn't change that.

A real honorable mention has to go to perhaps the cheesiest song ever recorded - Bonnie and Clyde by Serge Gainsbourg and Bridget Bardot. It is sooo bad it's good. Kirsten hates it (maybe 'cause I play it every once in a while and laugh hysterically) but guess what, as we're checking into the hotel, there is music playing softly in the back ground .... you guessed it .... Bonnie and Clyde!

Viva la France!

we have now entered the classic Loire. We came through the Village of Oudon around lunch time (more food thoughts?) and it was the quintessential French Village. Lovely patisseries, flower bedecked houses, ... and a community sponsored sculpture project by the river.

Several artists were commissioned to produce sculptures for installation along the river. This one had a particular resonance with a couple of Canadaians

We needed at least one 'bike shot' today!

This was the coolest piece we saw today (maybe ever).Made out of rebar and sheet iron, it was beautifull with the light shinning though it. It was by a Quebec artist from the St. Lawrence south shore and when we saw this it reminded us of our day riding through Kamarouska almost exactly two years ago where there were lots of great art pieces along the St Lawrence.

Looks like a 18th century boat that Batman would have used

This one is for you Callum. Mom spotted this and said that it's your favorite chicken!

Our home in Angers. We've found the Ibis chain in France to be extremely good value. They are usually in the center of town, clean, modern and very reasonably priced. This one even had a bike rack ... inside the lobby ... cycle tourism is a real economic force here!

Today's ride: 102 km (63 miles)
Total: 241 km (150 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	3
Comment on this entry	Comment	0