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Monday 29th August 2016 Angers to Ancenis Today was quite cool, pleasantly so after the excesses of last week, and the day was overcast to begin with. Breakfast at L’Europe was ok, standard stuff, and we got away at about 9.20 or so. Angers is a big place so I set the GPS to ‘goto’ the nearest point on the Loire á Velo track and we rode to it with no trouble, then continued down the trail past ‘the Point’ where the Maine meets the Loire and carried on along the north side of the river, over a rough bit for a kilometre or so, through La Roche aux Moines to the bridge which crosses the river to Chalonnes sur Loire.
At this point there is a large island in the river, the Île de Chalonnes, with a smaller island beside it, and the river actually flows through as three separate strands, each one spanned by its own section of the bridge. There is no settlement at the northern end of the bridge so we rode across all three bridges to Chalonnes where we stopped for a cup of coffee. There wasn’t much passing room on those bridges so I upped my speed a bit to get past them as quickly as possible. After a coffee at ‘Le Bistrot des Quais’ cafe by the riverside we retraced our route across the nearest bridge section to the island and had a nice ride of about 5 miles to the western end of it, all very quiet and smooth, before crossing back to the south bank of the river at Montjean sur Loire.
It was time for lunch so we entered the nearest greasy spoon, a cafe right next to the bridge, and looked at the menu. Andrew opted for a cheese sandwich. I didn’t fancy that much so I thought I’d have the ‘tarte aux poireaux’ instead, assuming this was a pear tart. The lad behind the counter then asked if I wanted it with chips or salad, which seemed a bit odd but after some head-scratching and linguistic grappling he took up his phone and using Google translated poireau for me – it’s a leek. So I ended up with leek tart, chips and a bit of lettuce, and very nice it was too. It made a change from cheese omelettes anyway. The day was a bit warmer now and with the occasional break in the clouds as we headed on towards Ancenis, our destination for the day. Very easy, quiet, smooth roads made the ride quick and comfortable and we were in Ancenis shortly after 3.00.
The girl at the Tourist Information office then got us fixed up at our first B&B (chambre d’hôte) of the trip, the ‘Loire Sejour’ run by an Englishman from Bexley (Andrew) and his French wife (Ayleen?). €68 for the two of us, including breakfast. The proprietor of the B&B kindly arranged for us to have a veggy meal at one of the two restaurants open tonight in Ancenis, ‘Le Bouche á Oreille’, run by Richard and Emily. We got down there by 7.30, the time arranged by Andrew, and were welcomed by Richard, a bloke with suspiciously good English and accent despite putting on a French accent when he remembered and saying ‘d’accord’ every now and then. The veggy meal was ok but more show than substance – the main bit was tempura veg and for the two of us, including one 50cl and one 25cl beer, it came to €70.40. A bit of a mark up there, but live and let live, eh, everyone has to make a living.
After the meal we decamped to a bar by the bridge, 'Le Joachim'. It was already closing at 9.15 but this one seemed happy to take our money for as long as we wanted to give it to them. The drinks bill there when we came to leave was €35 so it was an expensive night really – what the hell, eh.
There were a lot of those same suicidal moths about again, going mad around the street lights and expiring on the floor. Andrew looked them up on the internet and decided they were a kind of mayfly, Ephemera Danica.
I took a couple of pictures of them in flight and the camera, choosing a slow shutter speed to suit the dim light, shows them as winding threads with small tabs attached at short, regular intervals – the mayflies’ beating wings. They look like short strands of barbed wire.
Average speed: 10.4 mph Miles today: 42.2 Total miles: 357.4 Ancenis elevation: 52 ft | ||||||||||
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