Day 84: Nantes

October 13, 2015

Well, 4000 km may not be the greatest for a three month tour, but it is something. Michel helped us feel good about it by giving us the "Golden Wheel" award. This took the form of two packages of cookies from the biscuit factory in nearby (64 km by bike) St Michel Chef-Chef. The cookies are called Roudor, which might certainly be translated as golden wheel.

We set out today to add to our total kms by going in to Nantes for a look at the major landmarks. The first thing one notices while travelling along the Loire near Nantes is the number of new apartment and office buildings. As noted yesterday, these buildings collectively seem to be developing a sort of Nantes style. It is based on bright colours and odd shapes. I have not seen this discussed anywhere else, so it is just my impression that this is sort of an organized phenomenon.

There are many apartment buildings and offices on the south side of the river, many with clearly thought out design.

A lot of buildings are being constructed, again with the sort of distinctive Nantes modern design

There are other parts of the Nantes reality or experience that are slowly penetrating our consciousness. One of these is the former industrial, especially shipbuilding, prowess, which now can be seen in the form of buildings and sites which have been repurposed. This time, Michel brought us to a foundry, a place where propellers had been made for ships, including large ones like the aricraft carrier Clemenceau. What really remains is a large roof. Under this there is now a childrens' play area, and lots of benches - all protected from the rain. They call it Jardin des Fonderies

The next thing along these lines was large buildings near the waterfront that had been the dwellings of rich merchants. The merchants lived on the top floors and they had goods stored below. The goods included actual goods and also slaves. The slave trade is a well known and dark chapter of Nantes history. The houses were actually on an island, Ile Feydau, but the river has been filled so the island is no more. However the land is still soft, so the houses tend to tilt at interesting odd angles.

A half million cyclists have passed this point in Nantes this year!

The next thing we ran in to was not exactly a landmark, except for Nantes bicycle enthusiasts. It is the shop called Bo Velo. Here you find those nifty Dutch bulk carrier type bikes and also a stunning display of Brompton folders. Dodie got some new brake levers (since one of hers mostly died when her bike fell over sometime on this trip) and she was really happy about it. The new levers will not make their debut until next trip, though.

The St Croix church is the one in which Jules Verne was baptised. What intrigued me the most about it though were the fittings on the steeple. Without making any judgements on the "scientific" or "theological" basis for steeple design, you just have to suppose that some are better than others in conveying prayers to deities. The St Croix uses trumpets, which I thought was pretty cool.

a nice example of stained glass, in St Croix

The St Croix steeple, looks like it could be very effective

From the St Croix we were really in the centre of Nantes. It naturally has interesting buildings and low or no traffic streets, but the main impression for me was of lots of restaurants. Quite a lot of these featured crepes, since the Crepes Bretonnes are the most famous local food. Bretonnes is of course because here we are in Brittany. That designation is a little tricky, though, because the bulk of Brittany really is north and west of here. But the Dukes of Brittany had their headquarters in Nantes. So even if Nantes may be right on the edge of the territory, it can claim to be the capital.

Nantes has a good downtown shopping district

The Chateau of the Dukes of Brittany is the physical evidence for Nantes being the capital. This one was built prior to many of the other chateaux on the Loire, in this case in the late 1400's. Unlike those chateaux, though, this is a tough one - that is, a fort rather than an elegant pleasure palace. The chateau was built by Francis II and inhereited by his daughter (at age 10), Anne of Bretagne. Anne was twice queen of France due to marriages, and is a famous figure here.

Anne de Bretagne statue near the chateau.

The castle in Nantes, built by Francois II, the last Duke of Brittany and father of Anne of Bretagne

Anne made sure that there was a nice burial place for her parents, in the Nantes cathedral. Some material we read indicates that her heart (real heart, not just sentiments) is there also, but we did not see anything about that inside. The parents' tomb, though, was very impressive.

The cathedral has the expected tall arches

The tomb of Francois II and Marguerite de Foix, parents of Anne de Bretagne

There was a fire in the cathedral in 1972. Perhaps that is why much of the glass is modern, and in our view, not as nice as the old stuff

Just as yesterday we had cycled up a tributary of the Loire (the Sevre) on the south shore, now we cycled up one on the north shore. This one for today was the Erdre. It is interesting because while it looks like a normal river, as it approaches the Loire it disappears, actually diving under the cathedral. On the other end, the Erdre forms the beginning bit of the bike route to Brest, a major part of which follows a canal. When we get back from Paris, we are planning to head up that way a bit.

Strangely, the government developed a park along the Erdre with a Japanese theme. It is fairly large and gives a bit of a shock for tourists (like us) who thought they were visiting France and find themselves in Japan.

We head off into wooded territory north of Nantes on the Erdre

Chateaux built by the slave barons are lavish but not full blown royal stuff. Michel says they are rather known as Folies

While I went off to photograph the Folie, Dodie is left to answer UQs

Nantes is twinned with a town near where Michel's (and our) friend Franz lives in Oberreichenbach. Remember, here?

Yesterday, while we were aware that is was Thanksgiving in Canada, we were kind of too busy to do anything about it. We had jokingly suggested to Michel that he should go out and shoot a turkey. He went part way on this, finding sweet potatoes, cranberry juice, and cranberries. So today we acted on this, as much as possible in France. Michel cooked a canned duck - which turne out amazingly well and tasted a lot like turkey dark meat. And Dodie prepared candied yams. The brown sugar needed for this was actually found in the house, because Michel's American wife (Jeannette - currently visiting home in Colorado) uses it for chocolate chip cookies! Overall, it worked. A day late and 8,000 km out of place, but still good!

Tomorrow, we will train to Paris. We have fond memories of our one other time there, and are much looking forward to it. Of course our main reason for going is to meet up with our daughter Joni, who is coming in from Belize. We have not figured out what part of Paris we will want to see, but with Paris you can not go wrong. So check in and see what happens.

Today's ride: 26 km (16 miles)
Total: 4,070 km (2,527 miles)

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