Flowers

Flowers seem to be highly regarded here in France. They have a system where towns and villages that put on a good show get awarded a certain number of 'flowers'. So you might get a one, two or three flower town depending on how beautiful and extensive the flowers are. Most of the lock houses also have little flower gardens outside and sometimes they decorate the lock gates as well. They have also ceased to cut the verges along some of the tow paths in order to let the natural plants thrive. Today was a particularly flowery day and some of the photos below illustrate that fact.

We set off in the morning along the Nantes-Brest canal after visiting the local market to get some fruit for our daytime snacks. The fruit at the moment is excellent and cheap. We bought six apricots, eight figs, two apples and a punnet of raspberries along with some pastries from the boulanger. It was a bright day with some white clouds and despite the forecast we received no rain. Most of the day was spent by the canal, as the towpaths tend to avoid the towns unless you branch off them. The canal shared its route with a river or two along the way and so was very wide in parts. It went through woodland and an area with cliffs on the side. One of them was being used as a climbing and high ropes adventure centre for children. They had a via ferrata and some climbing aids fixed to the rock along with treetop ropeways and platforms. It looked like good fun.

We arrived in Malestroit fairly early and had plenty of time to look around the medieval quarter, the river and surrounds before having a few wines and then dinner. Now that we are in Brittany the choice of food has changed remarkably with lots of Breton food specialties and cider to drink. Apples are plentiful and we passed plenty of trees with fruit when traveling by the canal.

Redon from our hotel window this morning


One of the 'ecluse' houses


And its flowers:








Malestroit












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Location:Malestroit, Brittany, 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









Along the canal





Redon (this boat was used to help liberate France in WW2)


Down by the quay


Canal crossing into the river


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Location:Quai de Brest,Redon,France

Bastille Day celebrations in Nantes

After settling into our hotel we headed off into downtown Nantes to find a good restaurant for dinner before walking across to the island to watch the fireworks. We had a quick look at The Machine first. This is a place where they have made mechanical animals and other robotic mechanisms. The elephant was particularly impressive.

There was a mexican theme to the day and a twelve piece group were playing dance music. It sounded very much like the music Madness used to play and they had saxophone and trumpets along with guitars, drums, keyboards and several vocalists. All the songs seemed to end with all the band members playing as fast as they could and jumping up and down. It was great fun listening and watching everyone dancing along to the band which played from around 7pm to 11pm when it was dark enough for the fireworks. They were also themed to the music and very artistic. Thousands of people had gathered by that time and there was a sea of heads as far as we could see, over the bridges and on the other side. It lasted for around 20 minutes and everyone clapped and cheered at the end before drifting home.

La Machine



Enjoying the celebrations


The band



Waiting for the fireworks



Fireworks




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Location:Rue de l'Union,Redon,France

Bastille Day

Since my last entry we have travelled along the Loire from Ingrandes to Nantes, in order to be in a big city for the 14th July celebrations, rested for a day and travelled out on the Nantes-Brest canal to Brittany.

Our last day on the Loire was an exceptional one. It was perfect weather for cycling with clear skies and a cool breeze and we passed through several interesting places along the way. The cycle path moved away from the river, through woods, old hamlets and farmland, and there were several hilly sections which made the ride more interesting.





There were some special markets held on Bastille Day. This one was fairly typical, with lots of cheap clothes, although there was a stall selling hens, rabbits, guinea fowl etc. I wanted some fruit but there was none to be found. I could have bought a Homard lobster though or some other crustacea (still living!).


The rivers and canals in France were once the main trade routes and you can still see old boats on the Loire. Some are looked after and used for tourist trips and others are rusting away.


The last part of the trip into Nantes was along the riverside and we were glad to find a man selling ice creams. The day had been getting progressively hotter as the wind died down. We sat for a while watching the birds on the river before cycling into Nantes to find our hotel.


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Location:Rue de l'Union,Redon,France

Aiming for Nantes

Having booked into Nantes for two nights to catch Bastille Day, or 'La Fete Nationale" as it's called here, we had two days to travel the distance from Angers (~100km). It was overcast and perfect for cycling so we took it easy and had a leisurely ride to Ingrandes, leaving us around 60km to travel tomorrow. There was plenty to see along the way and this part of the Loire is very interesting, both with respect to the landscape, nature and the buildings. Just out of Pont de Ce at Ste-Gemmes there was a large psychiatric hospital built in 1710 that still operates today. It stretches along the quay and the old buildings have been maintained with new additions. Most buildings in this part of the Loire valley are faced with a pure white stone, called Tuffeau, which is easy to carve as it is fine grained and soft. We found an old machine that looked like an early steam engine, but it was an alembic, used for distilling fruit and invented by Arabs in the 10th century.


At Montjean sur Loire there were lots of sculptures by the road. It was an old industrial town and had several ruins of coal workings and kilns from the industrial revolution era. This sculpture was constructed by welding together reinforcing rods.



Montjean sur Loire



After we arrived in Ingrandes we had a look around the village. They had a famous church which was destroyed several times, the last time was during a bombing raid in the second world war. They completely rebuilt it in the 1950's in a modern style with abstract stained glass windows. It did not look particularly interesting from the outside, but inside was a different story. These are a couple of pictures of the windows but the whole effect from inside the church was serene, with classical music playing in the background.







It is light now until quite late in the evening and when we walked along the quay there were children swimming on the opposite shore, fishermen sitting on their boats with several rods and terns diving into the river also trying to catch fish. The riverbank is littered with old broken glass bottles, from a glassworks that used to be here and exported to the USA. We found a small bottle intact and will take it home as a souvenir.


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Location:Rue du Pont,Ingrandes,France

Saumur

We have been traveling through France for over a month now and the wheat and barley that we saw early on in the trip is now being harvested. The sunflowers are in full flower and the corn cobs are starting to fill out on the stalks, which are now taller than us. The grapes are still green and the fields around Saumur are full of vines. We cycled through them yesterday, on our way from Chinon and arrived in the mid afternoon of yet another hot day. The castle here is very prominent, but we have seen enough now and only stop for a few minutes to take in the view. You can have too much of anything.

Today started off wet so we decided to get our hair cut in town as it was forecast to clear as the day went on. It was interesting trying to explain what I wanted, so I tried drawing my head with suitable annotations. It did not turn out too bad, but is a little on the short side.

On the way to Saumur from Chinon






Saumur






The day was overcast, but perfect for cycling, as we set from Saumur around midday. The track wandered around away from the river and was a little hilly at first. We have been traveling along the Loire for so long now that hills are a rarity, but a pleasant change from the flat cycle paths that follow the river bank. We enjoyed the fresh weather and made good progress despite the late start. There were more cyclists on the road today, perhaps now that the peak holiday time is approaching, but the countryside is still very quiet. Some days we hardly see any people in the villages. All he places we passed through today are built from a white stone which is common in this area and gives an affluent look to the buildings. Most have gardens with vegetables and fruit trees, sometimes across the road from the houses and facing the river. We took a side trip and came across some standing stones by a lake before cycling through a wood. In the villages we passed through there were churches with centuries old frescoes and artwork. Crossing over to the north side of the river the cycle route took us back into farmland and towards the outskirts of Angers, where we are now staying.

Standing stone and lake






Overcast day on the Loire





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Location:Saumur, France

Vinci!

Two characters feature strongly in these parts, Leonardo da Vinci and Jeanne d'Arc. Travelling on from Montrichard we arrived in Amboise an hour later after taking the road instead of the cycle path. It was a dream run with no traffic and a smooth road and so we made time to visit Clos Luce where Leonardo lived for the last three years of his life. It must have been an enjoyable time for him as the house was spacious and well furnished. He also had beautiful gardens to walk in. The king paid him a large pension and they talked together and discussed science frequently. We ate apricots in the old vegetable garden and walked around the grounds looking at the models and contraptions that had been recreated.

Leonardo's bedroom and the house viewed from the garden











We carried on to Tours, which was much busier than expected but a city we took an instant liking to. It's very vibrant and has some outstanding buildings plus one of the best restaurant and cafe areas we have seen. We ate at a traditional place in the medieval quarter which was thronging with people, accompanied by our usual jug of wine!












It seems to be the tradition here that people who are about to get married get dressed up and walk around town wearing outrageous clothes. This is one man we saw with his mates posing in front of a fountain.






Today we continued our way west, although we had some trouble finding the route out of Tours initially. There were several castles on our way to Chinon, and another one there as well. Joanne d'Arc had also made her presence known. There was a sign on a wall saying that she had ridden her horse down the street and put her foot down on the step below. That must have warranted another huge statue being erected in the square outside our hotel.

Chinon is another town with a significant medieval centre and well worth visiting if you like that era. It is also proud of its wine and there are several caves in the area. We tried a glass or two of the rose before dinner and lked around the old part of town.

One of the old boats on the Cher





Village flowers






Chinon





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Location:Place Jeanne d'Arc,Chinon,France