October 11, 2015
Day 82: Ancenis to St Luce: Reunited with Michel
The hotel in Ancenis got high marks because it was the first so far that had decided to turn on the heat. If our excuse for not camping is to stay warm, it is helpful for the hotel to have heat!
It is very clear that the breakfast offering in France, at a typical price of €9.50, is not worth it. But we have developed a way to avoid firing up a campstove in our room and risking burning down the hotel. We just bring our thermoses to the breakfast room and ask for boiling water. Then we can make our instant coffee/hot chocolate, eat our yesterday's baguette, and we are ready to go.
While we are reviewing the hotel, Dodie wants me to tell the story of the spider (l'araignee). Despite the fact that the room had a heater, Dodie noticed that there was a shade that could be pulled down to cover the skylight. So she gave it a yank, and this revealed a giant yellow spider. Normally, while we are not big spider fans, they don't bother us much. But this one was not only a strangely threateningly yellow/orange but it was very fast moving and jumpy. So Dodie screamed and I scrambled to find the plastic container from our tabouleh (thanks, LIDL). I jammed the container over the spider, dumping tabouleh on the carpet (so much for not being supposed to eat in the room). Then I slid a tourist brochure under, and case solved, right? Wrong. It escaped and started running around again. Dodie screamed. Somehow I think I got ahold of it and got it out the skylight. The movements were swift and I could not guarantee it was really out. Dodie made me put all her stuff up on shelves, a job I objected to because I wanted to start the blog. Then to prove my courage, I sat with my bare feet on the floor and started typing. Wow, touring sure is exciting!
We somehow decided that Ancenis did not have much to look at, but we did that without (and I guess this makes sense) looking at it. We did see the statue of Joachim Du Bellay ( a local poet) which stands watching the bridge in Ancenis. This statue is only famous (to us) because Michel pointed it out as a possible meeting place. Meeting in Ancenis became a non-issue when it turned out that we had reached the town the previous night. So now we would set out in the direction of Nantes, while Michel would leave from near Nantes and try to find us.
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The Loire in this area is quite popular with walkers and cyclists, and we were intrigued to find two new signs. The first was a variant on the "Share the Road" series, except that this was "Share the Path" - cyclists and pedestrians. We rather enjoyed being the vehicle with the upper hand for a while, and we liked the sign's portrayal of the cycle starting off by apparently getting ready to knock off a pedestrian. The second sign contained some general cautions, but saved the zinger for last. Watch out for falling in the Loire!
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On the matter of trying to meet up, we knew that we were starting at 40 km apart. Michel's average speed is 12 kph and ours is 10 kph. Based on that, Michel computed we would meet at the bridge that crosses the Loire at Oudon. But Michel assumed we would take some time to look around Ancenis. Wrong. Consequently we reached Oudon well before Michel. We could not just carry on, because there is a split in the track there, and we wanted to stick on the north side of the river. On the other hand, we were sure Michel would be on the south side.
This is where cell phones are really valuable, and yes, we finally were able to raise Michel on his. We decided to wait at Oudon (and debate which side of the river to proceed on later). Fortunately Oudon has a Sunday morning market. Perfect.
The market at Oudon was not super big, but it had the essential elements, like a cheese truck and a chicken BBQ. There was also a bonus in the form of a galette truck. This all gave us a great way to wait for Michel, and a cycling break. We would soon find that cycling breaks would not be at all rare this day.
We went back to the bridge, and soon Michel did arrive. But it was not just Michel. It was Michel and six friends! Oh, make that seven - Bruno had already zoomed over to the cafe for a break. So after a lot of good greeting and introducing (we have not seen Michel since last year) we headed on over to the cafe for a break! Even though I had instant coffee still in my thermos, I asked for a cappuccino. I turns out that in France, or maybe just this region, cappuccino is an unknown term and product. Just like with Henry Ford, who said you could have any colour Model T as long as it was black, here you can have "coffee" (cafe), which is a shot of espresso (about 1-2 ounces) or you can ask for "rallonge", which may be a double shot or may be a shot of coffee plus a shot of hot water, both at extra cost. I tried some negotiation, asking for "cafe au lait", but this too seemed unknown. On the other hand, Dodie's request for "chocolat chaud" struck gold. They seemed to have hot milk for her, but not for me (typical!).
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Michel dug in his pack, and brought out one of two giant loaves of Brioche, which we seemed to be ok with for eating in the cafe. I had fun exercising my limited French explaining ability, pointing out that the brioche was much like the Jewish "challah". From there the discussion branched to "bagels", and of course quickly fell apart since no one had any background for understanding what I was blithering about (typical!)
We all set off after a while, and it was great to once again see Michel travelling along the Loire in his Scorpion trike, with the Rohloff hub. There was a new addition this time, a colourful wind sock. I especially liked this, because at least when the wind was right, the thing would blow in car drivers' faces.
Before very long at all, we stopped for a picnic. Michel dragged out the other giant brioche, plus baguette, apple sauce, pate, chestnut paste, and any manner of other delicacies. The baguette got me going on the subject of Banette (see first Banette rant - here). I was surprised to find that the eight genuine French people present had basically either never heard of it or if they had heard of it had never paid any attention. They tended to think of Banette as most likely some strange product that was not "baguette", and all they care about (admittedly passionately) is baguette. On the subject of guarantees of baguette quality, they would acknowledge that a bakery would typically sell a regular baguette, for 85 centimes, and a baguette "traditionelle" for €1.15. They were split on whether this was worth the additional 30 centimes.
All this is in the context of the fact that if a place is called a "boulangerie", then by law the complete production must be done on site. Baking from frozen or selling industrial bread is not permitted. So once you are in a real "boulangerie" you are almost guaranteed of a good bread, whether or not you feel like springing for the extra 30 centimes. And Banette? Meh.
We continued on the short-ish jaunt toward Nantes, and Dodie and I were thinking how different this group tour (with provided picnic) was from our usual daily struggle. We no longer had to worry or think about where the route was going, because we had so many expert guides. We no longer had to decide if we needed a break, because lots of breaks were built in. And we no longer had to really worry about getting hit by a car, because we had enough riders to clog up and control the road. It was a lot of fun, because it was new and because we were with friends. But we would not want to do a real tour like this - not enough challenge. Like Captain Kirk said in Star Trek V (The Final Frontier): " Damn it, Bones, you're a doctor. You know that pain and guilt can't be taken away with a wave of a magic wand. They're the things we carry with us, the things that make us who we are. If we lose them, we lose ourselves. I don't want my pain taken away! I need my pain! "7We did get a slight bit of pain when Bruno declared another coffee stop, this time at a posh golf club. I thought another coffee sounded good, and even was ready for the 1-2 ounce shot variety, but that is too much coffee without a pastry. So I asked for that too, and got some apple flan. I knew something was amiss when it came on a large plate with artistically drizzled caramel sauce. 7 euros. Now that's pain!
Near St Luce we said goodbye to our new friends, which incidentally included Michel's twin kid sisters. (He is one year older). We thought it great that they still come out to play with him, on something like this.
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For our part, we are comfortably installed at Michel's place. Tomorrow we will set off looking for adventure with Michel and the bikes, in this region. But first I will hope to go with Michel to the local bakery. I am pretty sure it is not "Banette"!
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Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 4,004 km (2,486 miles)
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