Barbâtre to (just south of) Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef
Passage du Gois!
When I checked the tide tables posted at the entrance to the Passage du Gois yesterday, the time of the low tide for this morning was an hour later than I had expected, based on an Internet search when I was planning my route. I decided to get up early anyway since there are both a boulangerie and a café in town. It's a good thing I did, because when I had my bike all loaded up and left my campsite to ride to the sanitaire to fill my water bottles, I discovered the back tire was flat! So I wheeled it to the concrete area outside the sanitaire and replaced the tube (and took advantage of the location to wash my hands after). Good thing I had allowed lots of time. I bought my breakfast pasty but skipped the coffee.
It seemed that just as many cars were parked along the Passage as driving across it. I'd forgotten that it's a national holiday today (Ascension Day) so maybe that's why there were so many people out digging for clams (or whatever they were doing). It was an interesting experience and I'm glad the low tide time was convenient for me.
On the mainland, I saw a sign "vers La Vélodyssée" so I went that way. I might have been better off just finding my own route with the map, but eventually I found myself in Beauvoir. A café, a market, and a bank machine later, I discovered that there is more than one Vélodyssée route! A paper map showing the various options would be useful; I don't know if such a thing exists, but I do know I have no need for the book with its overly large scale maps.
Wall and flowers, Beauvoir. If I hadn't gone the wrong way, I wouldn't have seen this.
It seemed like a very convoluted route, but eventually I got to Pornic. I'd never heard of it before, but clearly lots of others had! It has a small port and a château and lots of services, but it was far too soon to stop.
Notre Dame de Gourmalon, just across the bay/estuary from Pornic.
It was the modern stained glass windows that caught my eye as I rode past. They really suit the Art Nouveau structure and are part of its recent restoration.
The ride along the coast north of Pornic was beautiful, though almost entirely developed. I didn't have a goal for today, but decided Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef would be suitable. I ended up stopping a few km short, since I decided so look for a campground once I hit the long beach development south of town. It was a good choice; the first campground I tried was full, but the second (not very far away and even closer to the beach) was only half full.
I walked to the beach and turned south, a bit of a gamble since I knew there was only one restaurant in this direction. The menu was 29.80€, so a bit of a splurge, but if I went à la carte, a plat would be about 22€ alone. The place even had a strange waiter (Al will know what I mean as an Italian restaurant we sometimes go to in Burnaby has one too) but he brought out the bottle to pour my glass of wine and tipped the bottle with a wink to give me quite a bit more than the allotted amount.
The meal was good too, much better than the last couple of nights. Strangely, a couple I spoke with on my way our said they were disappointed with their meals. I guess I had something the chef did well and they didn't. Once again the photos came in rotated. I'll fix at home.
They passed me in their car as I was walking back to the campsite and invited me for a coffee, but I had to decline since I could hardly keep my eyes open. Too bad; they seemed like interesting people.
These things put me in mind of a book I read in elementary school. Day of the Tryffids? Why, I have no idea.
