Day 54: Ste Luce to Casson

May 19, 2018

Michel picked us up early from the Premiere Classe, for petit dejeuner over at his house. He had already been to the bakery and had come back with a large selection of ... everything!

Michel's daughter Stephanie and grandkids Jade (6) and Lynn (4) had arrived late in the evening from Tours. When we got to the house Jade and Lynn woke up, and greatly entertained all four grandparents, just by being so cute and sweet. They were dressed for the role too, Lynn in Unicorn pajamas, and Jade in Tiger.

Jeannette and Michel are Lala and Popi to the kids, and to say there is much love among the four would be a mammoth understatement:

Of course, it is easy to love grandparents who bring you chouquettes - a sweet puff pastry. I have never seen these before, but I have learned they can also be covered in chocolate. Oh well, Jade may not know this.

The kids love their Lala, and as you can see in the third photo, Jeannette even let them "dress" her hair.

The Grampies are indulgent as well. Here, Steve invited Jade to try out his camera. The focus problem may be hers, but actually the white flare is a scratch on the lens. Any residual dopey looks remain the responsibility of the Grampies.

We set off reasonably on time, to cover the 7 km into Place Royale in the centre of Nantes. This is where Michel was to meet up with the group heading off to the coast for the weekend. The route put us back on the Loire, always a pleasant prospect. But we also passed a situation that has been bugging Michel for a long time - a community of gipsies installed along the cycle way. Michel has no general beef with these people, but they seem to have a livelihood in gathering and recycling junk. When they pursue this by, for instance, burning wire on the path to recover the copper, Michel is not happy. He also finds the people threatening, and will often detour 4 km to go around them.

Just on the way into town there is an unmissable landmark that I have missed until now. It is one remaining tower from the former LU biscuit factory. LU, which stands for Lefèvre-Utile, the names of the owners, is a company famous for its Petit Écolier biscuits - which is a butter biscuit with a layer of chocolate. They invented this in 1897 and you can still buy them today, even in Canada.

The tower is very pretty, and has become a landmark of Nantes. It looks like this:

The LU tower. Michel calls this "loo" but we have always said "ell you". I will have to check which way most French people actually take it.

Nantes has a mixture of modern buildings and classics to look at, but this time we were on a mission focussed on Place Royale. Place Royale is the central square from which most of Michels rambles around Nantes are launched.

Members of the group, waiting for Michel. We feel much at home when surrounded by yellow clad people!

The others who were going for the ride were already waiting and eager to go, so there was not a lot of time to get to meet them. Bruno was there, however, so I was able to get a photo of him, something I mostly missed yesterday. We had to say a quick goodbye to Michel, which was a good thing. Less tears!

This is goodbye again for us and Michel. A la prochaine fois!

The Erdre ends (or for us - begins) right near Place Royale. It's a unique situation, as the river actually dives beneath the city streets before reaching the Loire. The path along the Erdre is the Velodysée, the 1200 km along the Atlantic Coast, from England to Spain. That meant we saw quite a few heavily loaded cyclists - always fun.

Our objective now was the nearby town of Sucé, fewer than 20 km up the river. We had arranged to meet Aurel and Chloe and their two children - Gabin and quite newly arrived Marceau - for a picnic. Aurel had come to British Columbia some dozen years ago and stayed at our place as a WOOFer. WOOF is a farm stay program known around the world. WOOF participants are usually young people just finished college, or perhaps taking a break from it. But now, Aurel is married and has two thoroughly delightful children.

Aurel and Chloe were scheduled to drive to Toulouse today for a family reunion, and they will still do it. But they made the time to gather together picnic stuff and come up to Sucé to meet us on our trail. We are so happy they did, not only because we love Aurel and Chloe, but because we could now top up our grandparenting tanks by meeting Gabin and Marceau. Like this:

Aurel really has not changed since Canada, still so bright and engaged. And now with the kids, he is a natural father.

Gabin did not make it into the above collection because he was having such fun beside the river. But we did catch up to him a bit:

Gabin took a tumble on the concrete and scraped his knee. This gave Dodie a chance to break out her cycling first aid kit and apply a bandage. The bandage met with Gabin's approval because it was a real adult one and not a lame kid's one with cartoon figures.

The picnic that Aurel and Chloe put together had many authentic regional touches. In the photo can be found the sausage androuille de Guémené, some ham, some typical dry sausage, a paté of chicken with lemon, and some garlic smoked sausage!

Thank you, Chloe, for diverting from the family gathering to meet us at Suce!

From Sucé it was a short jaunt on to the gite Dodie and Delphine had found, right on the Velodysée just before it joins the Nante-Brest canal. Called Le Nidouillet - the cosy nest - it is really a two level whole cabin that can sleep 8-10 people. We have a full kitchen, and lots of picnic leftovers, our bikes directly outside, and for once, lots of time left in the day. Tomorrow will be short and restful as well. Ain't Pentecôte great!

Bonus: Pigeons

Part of the art of writing a blog is to notice things that are unique to the trip but that may be so commonplace that one would normally not think to mention them. This could be anything from the cost of drycleaning (got that) to best supermarket chain (Super U). But since we first came to Europe there has been a background theme music that I think we have never mentioned. This is the cooing of pigeons.

Where we come from there are certainly pigeons, but they do not seem to coo a lot, are small, and seem to hang out in cities. But in Europe through the countryside the pigeons are large and are always cooing. Coo coo, k coo, they say. In spots there are also cuckoos, but they are rarer and they say, of course, cuckoo.

I know there must be zillions of varieties of pigeons and doves, but to us it is the one pictured below that is always heard. True? What variety is this? Are there actually a lot more types out there?

This pigeon is much larger and louder than the ones we are used to at home.

Today's ride: 47 km (29 miles)
Total: 3,589 km (2,229 miles)

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Scott AndersonLet me ace out Mr Shaneyfelt for a change. Common wood pigeon, I think.
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5 years ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Scott AndersonAh, so that would explain why they are out here in the woods, instead of on the streets of New York.
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5 years ago