Cycle Touring in France: Nantes-Brest Canal

The last two days have been spent mainly on the canal towpaths along the canal from Nantes to Blain, where we stayed the night, and then from Blain to Redon. It has been a hard couple of days, firstly due the difficulty in finding our way out of Nantes and secondly due to the rain, which drizzled for most of yesterday and showered on us a couple of times today. We also had a very strong headwind to contend with and gusts that moved our bikes to the side on occasion. On the upside the canal goes through some lovely countryside and is banked by woodland for most of the way. The path, however, was compacted stones and the vibrations make traveling at anything other than a slow speed unpleasant. At Blain, the rain was so bad after we changed clothes that we went in the closest bar/restaurant and drank wine for an hour and a half until they were ready to serve dinner. This happened to coincide with a wedding reception so we were treated to some drunken singing and dancing in the next room. It was early to bed with no heating in the room, nor any TV or Internet! Today we made our way to Redon, which is a much larger town and has some interesting history. It was a place where the masted trading boats sailed in from the Atlantic and transferred their goods to barges on canals which crossed the river using locks. It made the area very rich and the merchants built large houses by the quay. Today it is mostly pleasure craft that use the river and canals but the old warehouses and trader's houses are still there, along with information boards that have photos of how it used to look. We have now left the Loire-Atlantique department and are in Brittany. The change is noticeable with the food and drink. At the creperie we visited tonight the menu was also printed in Breton and cider was served in jugs and teacups.

On our way from Nantes to the canal