Day 48: La Rochelle to Coulon

May 13, 2018

Preface: To our daughters and daughters-in-law, Happy Mother's Day, and thanks for the good wishes Dodie has received in turn!

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From the window of the breakfast room at the B&B Hotel we looked out at a very wet rain fall. We decided to eat a little slowly, in hopes it would go away. The hotel, to our surprise and pleasure, for €6.50 had put forward a buffet with scrambled eggs and bacon, excellent rolls and croissants, and everything else one might want (except cheese). we were able to put a little away in the handlebar bag, and with the rain ending, left very happy.

While yesterday it had been impossible to go see the interesting parts of La Rochelle on foot, in the rain, today without rain and on the bikes, it was a piece of cake.

We began with a look at the inner harbour, with its boats and three towers. These are tour de la Chaine and Tour de la Lanterne, and the elegant tour St Nicholas over to one side.

A look at the buildings lining the harbour

The gate to the main street of town. looking from the inside, out.

When we were here last year, we pushed our way past lots of tourists, through the gate, and made our way down the street to the cathedral. There we criticized its lack of a tower and also its stained glass. Then we made our way back along the street and left town.

This time, no doubt seeing us coming and despite its being Sunday, they closed the cathedral. So we made a radical right turn, went down another street and discovered the market, both covered and outdoor!

Since we had those really nice buns from the breakfast, but no cheese, I approached one of the cheese vendors. This is usually dangerous as I tend to come away with a huge and expensive hunk. This time I took only 2 euros and asked the man for that value of something mild and firm. I got two thick slices of Port Salut. They weighed out to €2.26, but the man gave me a break, since I had already put my coin on the counter. Port Salut cheese, by the way, was developed by Trappist monks near Entrammes, which is on the Mayenne, north of Angers. It is now produced by factory somewhere on the Loire, but also by various monasteries. I did not know enough to ask my cheese seller where this Port Salut came from, but for 2 euros I guess a factory one is ok!

The now tourist free street down to the catherdal

The open air market and covered market building behind.

From the market, we did head out of town. The route initially is on a rail trail beside a canal. The canal, as is often the case, had swans. Swans are so terribly graceful, it is a temptation to make lots of photos of them. Somehow I feel I have done that enough, though clearly the inhibition does not apply to equally graceful cows, which seem to have an easy time getting into this blog.

But this time here was a swan floating along with its legs (or leg) casually crossed. That was a bit new. So here is the swan. At the bottom I have put a "painting" of the swan, made of course with software.

At this stage we were already on the "Velo Francette", which shares the route with the Velodysee until Marans. We just love these named routes, and though we have already cycled the Francette from Angers north to its end at Ouistreham in Normandy, we were thrilled to be on this unexplored section.

Even the Velodysee and the Francette put together did not avoid being fairly boring in this area. For example, we noted how at Dompierre sur Mer the path carefully circumnavigated the town, resorting to dirt path and turning a sharp corner when it reached a corner of town. We saw that there was a market in town today, something the cycle route would have had us miss. On the other hand, despite writing this sob story here, we ourselves consciously decided to circumnavigate the town. After all, we already had our Port Salut.

The paths, at the edge of Dompierre (see the signs).

Back on the canal, we came to dozens of that French phenomenon, the canal fisher. Here is one, depending on your viewpoint, sharing the fun, or indoctrinating his son.

At Marans the Velodysee and the Francette finally part company. The Velodysee is going to the coast to head up to the mouth of the Loire, while the Francette is going to the Loire too but inland at Saumur. It will then go to Angers and head north to Normandy. We will go along with that as far as Angers, but then we will stick on the Loire and continue downstream to Nantes.

The parting of the ways. It's the last chance for the Grampies to take the traditional route to Nantes. No? Ok, fine then.

Marans is a scenic fishing kind of town.

From Marans we were truly in the middle of the estuary of the Sèvre Niortaise, a river that runs (or I guess, creates) through what is called the Marais Poitevin. This is a very large marsh area, billed as the second largest wetland in France (presumably after the Camargue). As we passed through it, following the river, we knew we were in a Regional Park, but we were not aware of all the tourist hype surrounding it until later. What we mainly noticed was a lot of nice country houses beside the canal-like river. These were not grand structures at all, set back on manicured lands, but rather simple stone buildings lined up along the water, but still with some nice flower plantings. In most cases the buildings were two story rectangles made from obviously local stone (sometimes covered in stucco) and with painted shutters. They fitted in attractively with the river, and helped make the ride very pleasant.

The river itself was very tame, and the roads too. There were stretches of minutes to and hour, when we did not see any cars. The official route did a lot of snaking around, so we finally got tired of it and hopped on the D123. This took us smoothly and safely to our destination, the little town of Coulon an its hotel, Le Central.

It was in Coulon that we discovered that what had seemed just a pleasant ride was actually an excursion through something famous. At Coulon there is a Little White Train to take people deeper into the marsh. There is a section (somewhere) called the Green Venice, that seems to be something like the Everglades. Coulon has several souvenir and local products stores, with postcards extolling the marsh and the Green Venice. Also, in the little main street there are several murals depicting life here in the past. These photos will put you in the "picture":

The furry donkeys are apparently big in the Marais. There is at least one donkey farm one can visit, and see soap being made from donkey milk.

The Green Venice gets a lot of play in post cards too.

Local products include Ragondin - water rat. We'll pass! (Actually, let's apply that also to the frogs and snails. Mogettes are local white beans - hmmm, call that a maybe.)

The church in the centre of town was interesting for some slightly unusual stained glass. For example, this large piece behind the main altar:

A Mary statue too was just a little different from the usual church furniture:

We checked out the bakery too, of course. Though it will be closed tomorrow (Monday) it opened at 4 o'clock this Sunday evening. A sign outside listed local specialties, and we went for the Coulonnais cake.

The cake was the choice since we had earlier been talking about Basque cake, and looking forward to possible Bretonne cake. This one was good, though not very dense. It struck me that with only one bakery in this small town, it is easy to define and produce the local specialty cake

The hotel Le Central turned out to be a great find. Located just beside the church, it uses local stone, like everything else here. We are in a separate garden building, with a very large ground floor room, great bathtub and wifi, and doors and windows opening to a garden, and our bikes right nearby. 70 euros. Really could not be better.

Today's ride: 72 km (45 miles)
Total: 3,179 km (1,974 miles)

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