May 18, 2018
Day 53: Ancenis to Ste Luce
This was a day very full in terms of enjoyment but strangely weak in photos. We were very occupied enjoying the experiences and uncharacteristically forgot to document them graphically. I will try to make up the deficit in words, but of course replacing 25 photos would require 25,000 words.
The day begins with Delphine, the owner of Castel Magnolia B&B. We find that some people just have a magic skill or talent for doing what they do, even if that activity is just being a day to day person. Nowadays we may call that their "super power". Delphine's super power is in making people feel at home and at ease. It is not exactly anything special she did, though if you would tally the functions that a B&B host needs to do, you would find every box ticked. Rather it was that she achieved it naturally, without any apparent effort. The effect, for me anyway, was actually feeling at home. Dodie agrees, and I think from reading John Fleckner's 2015 blog in which he expressed regret in leaving here, he had the same feeling as well.
That feeling of being at ease or at home was continued as we cycled west from Ancenis. This may be the little corner of France that we know the best. Also, as so many kings and nobles of France have found, the Loire Valley is one of the most pleasant and welcoming places going.
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The plan for today was to ride in the direction of Nantes, while our friend Michel would ride from there to meet us. Based on when each would leave and our mutual cycling speeds, we anticipated meeting Michel within a couple of hours of our starting out.
Meanwhile we cruised first the north and then the south shores of the Loire. The main feature of the south shore stretch was an agriculture based on the sandy soil, which surely is due to Loire flooding in ages past. The first fields we came to were vast plantings of onions, but this gave way to even larger quantities of what appeared to be spinach. The plantings were done in sandy soil fine enough to be engineered into precise rectangular hills. After planting these were covered by neatly applied and supported shade cloth, and watered by spaced out impulse heads. It seemed enough planting to make salad for all of France!
We crossed back to the north shore at Mauves-sur-Loire and soon, very soon, were met by Michel. But while we expected Michel we were not at all surprised to find that he was accompanied by his friends Jean-Claude, Bruno, and Lucette. These are not just friends, but very close old time companions, stellar people, and ones that we could not have been more pleased to see. Jean-Claude had accompanied Michel on some of the longer journeys, and Bruno and Lucette participate weekly in cycle sojourns all around Nantes. And since we met Michel, just randomly here along the Loire in 2012, we have counted him among our best and most trusted friends. So this meeting was really something special for us.
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As normally happens with a Michel organized ride, our first objective in setting off again together was a restaurant. The one chosen was back (for us) in Mauves. No problem, a "Ballad Autour de Nantes" is more about cycling and being together than logging in mileage.
One of the images that I hold fondly is the rear view of Michel and his trike, looking like a tiny vehicle mysteriously moving along, since you can not see the legs pumping up front. But with John Claude and his trike there as well, it really begins to be a cavalcade.
This time around, since I am more knowledgeable than before about e-assist, I enjoyed talking to Bruno about his current bike. Bruno has a lung disease that robs him of almost all pedaling power, and he has been through five or more previous e-assist bike configurations. He has seen it all and understands it all, and it was fascinating to learn and understand why he made the choices he did in configuring his current bike. Without going into the details, I will note that it is a cadence activated system with 9 assist levels, based on a mid-mount small but powerful Bafang motor and "home made" 600+ watt-hour battery. I gave it a try, and it surely was not for me - too hard to control. Bruno summarized this by noting that our Bosch systems use advanced programming to give a normal bike like experience, while his more home made version requires actual brain power to operate properly. This was not at all a mean statement, but just absolutely true.
The restaurant in Mauves was called l'Art des Mets. "Mets" is food. Michel explained to me how this name is a play on words in several ways, but right now I can not remember the explanations. I need to put that in the research file.
l'Art des Mets had a very simple lunch menu plan, built around moules - mussels. "Moules-frites", mussels and fries, is absolutely the go to food in this region. Since I don't like the idea of boiled mussels, I am fond of thinking of this as fried mussels - which could be ok. But no.
In this case, the "frites" was mysteriously missing from the description and instead there was a term like "marinieres", or something. Lucette had not been able to come to the restaurant, but the three others - truly French, easily went for the moules. Dodie and I chose from the more expensive regular menu, carefully bypassing escargots or other stuff there you would never find at Denny's. We chose a sort of turkey stew. The salad offering came with "gesiers" - chicken gizzards. OK, hold the gizzards!
Our French friends turned out to be picky in their own way. When the moules arrived, they just totally were not right without the "frites". The kitchen was pressed into making this right, with two side orders. The diners were surprised then to find that the moules were actually resting on a bed of boiled potatoes. Well, at least that was potatoes, but listen - you should not mess with "Moules-Frites", at least not in this region.
After a suitably long time, we sauntered on back to our bikes, and the cavalcade resumed on its way to Ste Luce, where Michel lives. Ste Luce is a suburb of Nantes to be sure, but it is also its own community, with a chateau, mairie, and bakery.
Because Michel has family staying over tonight, we arranged a room at the very nearby Hotel Premiere Classe. For the record, this is really the most stripped down operation imaginable. The even nearer Ibis Budget would have been a better choice.
At Michel's house we were greeted by Jeannette, his U.S. born wife. Michel and I took time to look at the stand on my bike, which has one of its two fixing bolts broken off. We moved the stand to a different mounting point to allow two new bolts to be fitted. But that mounting point may actually be an used brake fitting and not strong enough for flexing by the stand. The stand is an important stress point for a loaded touring bike. If our fix works, it will join a string of others that have happened in the past at Michel's place. Repairs by Michel are becoming a tradition.
Jeannette came up with galettes, which are thin pancakes made with buckwheat flour and filled with savoury things like ham and eggs. She followed this with an amazingly tall stack of crepes, which are eaten with various sweet things like jam or Nutella. Jeannette says she has prepared crepe feasts for 40, so this evening's production was not such a big deal. Wow.
Tomorrow, Michel will leave with 15 friends for an overnighter tour of Moirmoutier, on the coast west of here. The departure point is Place Royale in downtown Nantes. We will go along to say hello to the group, and when they leave for the west, we will go north, toward Brittany.
It should be a sad goodbye, but we will feel much heartened by having been among friends in this familiar and pleasant place.
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Keep safe
Tricia
5 years ago
5 years ago
Today's ride: 46 km (29 miles)
Total: 3,542 km (2,200 miles)
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Took me days to catch up on the journal but I'm finally here! Wow, do you two ever take a day off? We wear ourselves out riding too much and get to the point we can hardly move! You two recover so fast and you do twice the mileage you used to each day!
We head out Sunday for Germany. I will take my rain gear. At first I was going to go light because you mailed all your cold wear home but it seems ever since you have been cold! We will be in the Black Forest which looks like it will be cool in there too.
Oh hey, we are cycling up to Tofino in August! We will be riding through Duncan. I will wave to Cobble Hill as we go through. You probably won't be back home by then. We leave here on the 6th so we will be in Duncan the night of the 7th. Then Nanaimo, then Port Alberni. We are going to hop on the Lady Rose to catch a ride out to Ucelet. From there we will ride up to Tofino and spend two days before we return to ride the Freighter back to Port Alberni. Once we are back in Nanaimo, we sail on the ferry to Horsewshoe Bay and ride to Surrey. Surrey to Bellingham, Bellingham to Anacortes, Anacortes to Port Hadlock and then back to Poulsbo.
The summer is filling up with adventures! Happy trails. I'll keep checking in. Janet
5 years ago
We are having bad luck ever getting together. We will be back home in July, but August 6-10 we are scheduled to go cycling with the Seattle kids.
Will you be doing a Germany blog?
5 years ago
I won't be doing a German Blog but I will post pictures to Facebook. Janet
5 years ago