Angers to Montsoreau

October 3, 2021

On the road again

I think we made a good decision to stay in Angers until the bad weather subsided. We could've soldiered on, we would've made progress, but would it have been fun? Probably not.

We purposely started late today so that the sun would have a chance to begin its work battling the clouds for dominance above us. We wore cold weather gear plus our rain jackets. That turned out to be the perfect combination.

Ready to give this bike riding thing another chance

Last night I started to plot a scheme to put us in Amboise in two days. I managed to find campgrounds that were open, so until we get sick of it again, I think we're going to keep trying to camp. It's a shortish day today and a longer one tomorrow. As long as we continue to have a tailwind, it should be fine.

The city streets were quiet. We soon found ourselves in a suburb, then on bike trails, then in this crazy quilt of slate. A former quarry had been turned in to a sprawling, somewhat creepy park. I'm sure the locals are familiar with it and enjoy its trails. As for me, it was unsettling.

The puddles weren't nearly as bad as they could have been. Lots of debris on the trails due to yesterday's winds.

Things suddenly got a whole lot creepier when we came across the carcasses of three burned-out cars. Then the creep-de-resistance:

Feeling a bit like Orpheus here. Where is Charon when you need him?

I was vaguely aware of the existence of this contraption. A couple nights ago I thought it would be a good idea to search Cycleblaze to see if other members had visited Angers. The Grampies wrote about the death ferry in 2o15, but I thought they had taken a different spur of the route, or that it had been replaced, and that we had somehow avoided it.

The one saving grace of the death ferry is that it is in fact operational. They just don't give you any instructions on how to operate it. I had no idea how to keep it from floating away as we loaded the bikes. I wrapped the flimsy chain around the little loop that keeps it centered. It worked fairly well. I didn't know how strong the current would be, how to bring it to a safe landing on the other side, or how on earth we would get my heavy bike up the steep bank. Sunyoung was more gung-ho about it, providing enough forward momentum for me to set aside my qualms about the rinky-dinkiness of the whole affair just long enough for us to get across.

Testing the seaworthiness of the vessel we were about to entrust our bikes and our lives with

Can I do this without either me or the bike slipping into the water? Also, notice the car-cass in the background.

Three young mountain bikers pulled up to the opposite bank as we set sail. They were kind enough to help us get our bikes up the steep slope. The guy helping me said, in English, "It's heavy". I could only agree with him and thank him profusely.

It was all smooth sailing from there, yuk yuk. We wanted to buy a drink to accompany our lunch, but the owner of the only market we could find had decided to take the day off. It was cold and windy. We ate quickly and didn't dawdle afterwards.

We spent some time on quiet roads set back about 1km south of the Loire. Much of it was gently rolling hills, adding variety to the ride.

There is a super cool bike rest stop in Gennes. It has electricity, restrooms, and even showers!

The idea of a beer and pommes frites had gotten into our heads. I'm sure that Saumur has a lot to offer, but seeing no promising bars that might serve what we craved, we pushed onward towards our campground for the evening. We checked out the cave houses just a little bit:

The official EV6 route sends you on a wild ride up and down the hillside in search of more of these cave dwellings We quickly decided that we had seen enough and stuck to the levee road.

We reached our destination at 4pm. After checking in and paying a reasonable 16 euro for a site, we discovered that it was quite a bargain considering the amenities offered! This was like that bike rest stop in Gennes! Pretty cool. They even have refrigerators, a loft, and bunk beds to sleep in -- all covered!

I don't mind shilling for this campground a little bit

Sunyoung mentioned that the campground has a restaurant and bar, so we checked it out. They shut down their food operation last week, so our french fry bubble was burst. We got beers anyway. Jan, a Dutch retiree, struck up a conversation with us, and we were soon joined by the camp groundskeeper, Patrice. English dominated but we spoke enough simple French, and drank just enough beer and wine, to help break down the language barrier somewhat. These are the times I really love Europe.

Tomorrow will be a long day. With an early start it should be no problem.

Had an afternoon coffee here. Sometimes you can't tell if a place is even open until you pull on the door handle.

Decent weather, a tailwind, and few cars

Today's ride: 69 km (43 miles)
Total: 1,544 km (959 miles)

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