May 6, 2023
St Jean de Monts to Les Sables del’Onne.
Ideal morning, gives way to thunder and lightning
Extracting our bikes carefully from our apartment, we load up at the entrance and head for the water front. Most of the day’s ride is along easy tracks down the coast. There are massively long areas of beach for camping villages and sea activities and we see keen participants carrying boards of various kinds, heading for the water. It’s reasonably sunny and warming.
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Our route for the day continues south and we’re awed by the sight of huge rollers in places and contrasting small working fishing towns like St Gilles Croix de Vie where we stop for lunch.
The apartments and hotels along here are a mix of late 19th century villa style and some fairly tatty and brutal 1970s boxy high rises.
Meanwhile out at sea, weather is threatening. Will it catch us?
Indeed it does. There’s a crack of thunder a little distance away. Is it heading towards us - emphatically yes ! We no longer prevaricate over jackets and rain pants. We stop and put on the lot. Then it’s all on- thunder cracking overhead with that special explosive whaaaack! that you only seem to get in France. And the rain is heavy- really heavy. We have about 20 kilometres to go to Les Sables and it’s through forest and small tracks. The good things are- the track remains hard no matter how much water seems to be covering it, the signs keep coming- some with encouraging distance indications. The bad things are the rain is relentless, the lightening is overhead ( do cyclists ever get struck?) and it’s dark.
Occasionally we come across other cyclists going the other way, and two French chaps pass us going our way. The bit through the forest is the worst. It’s undulating and gritty. I’m conscious that the water and grit seems to affect gear change a little but the bar end shifters never falter. The bottom bracket, though, doesn’t seem to like water too much and loses its smoothness. I’ve noticed this before in rain. Must Google it.
Once out of the forêt we come to a sign referring to canals. Is this what we want? We go with it because we’ve caught up to the French guys and they are going with it. A sign says 4.7 kilometres! But we’re practically at the seaside! Doubts descend. Is this just a plot to make us King Lear ravers.
Then we’re there. The sign to the gare, the hotel with the warm room, the garage for bikes. The thought crosses one’s mind: what do refugees do on such nights? As always the bard reaches out : ‘Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you From seasons such as these?’
At our hotel, the receptionist tells us not to worry about our wet clothes and gritty shoes, but in our room, we lay down our blue drop sheet and all is good. Shrugging off our wet gear, we let the dry wash over us.
Today's ride: 67 km (42 miles)
Total: 733 km (455 miles)
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