Day 36 : Loire-de-dah

Clear night so outer tent soaked with condensation in the morning. Packed up wet tent, left the camp site.. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before..

Headed into the centre of the town and found a café for a coffee and and a boulangerie for some pain au chocolat to have later.

Rejoined the cycle route, for some more very pleasant cycling on a sunny day. Flat roads, mostly decent surface, though a half km stretch of unforgiving large cobbles that someone sneaked in.

After an hour or two I found a pleasant village square to eat my breakfast:

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Pain au chocolat – breakfast of champignons

Then things got a little hillier as I headed towards Saumer.

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Yes it’s a small bike, get over it

Found an appropriate place en route to get lunch. A kind of beef casserole with pasta. Good cycling fuel..

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Lunch

I cycled past a lot of grapes destined for Saumer Champigny:

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Mmm

The Loire is wide, slow and shallow. I wonder how it changes in Spring time.

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The Loire near Saumur

When I last visited Saumer over 5 years ago the town was a lot quieter. This time it was really bustling. Looks like they’re doing a bit of decorating on the chateau at the moment.

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Adding a new tower

The stretch along the Loire to the West of Saumer is interesting. Lots of nice villages. My navigation is entirely reliant upon looking for the little green and blue logo on the bottom sign of this picture, which I’ve been following for over a week now.

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Eurovelo 6

Some bikers were visiting a cave of the non-wine variety. All Harleys except one Triumph.

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I’d have leaned my bike against the end one for a photoshoot, but feared a Pee-wees Big Adventure scenario..

There are some interesting boats here with foldable masts and presumably retractable keels to navigate the shallow waters.

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Loire sailboat

I found a campsite near Angers. It has the hole in the ground toilets! But also some toilet seat less ones too, so spoilt for choice really.

The high street near the campsite had the option of  a 7-11, a pizza place, and a pizza and burger place. I got a half bottle of wine from the 7-11 and a takeaway pizza to have at a bench at the camp site. Happy with that!

Langeais to Angers, 112 km. Total so far = 3,321 km.

3 thoughts on “Day 36 : Loire-de-dah”

  1. James am on continent myself right now, Sorrento Italy, back Friday.
    Good to see you’re making good progress in enjoyable surroundings. Looks klike you’re heading towards Le Havre. Missed day 36! text. Best wishes Dad

    Reply
    • Sorrento sounds good, hope the weather is good too. Yep all good here! My only plan is to head West at the moment, then might skirt round the coast a bit. I hear the pancakes are good in Brittany..

      Reply
    • PS Published the blog too early, hence no text. The perils of blogging form a phone. Should be OK now. You might need to switch off data roaming on your mobile to avoid expensive charges

      Reply

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