Day 78 St Hilaire to St Michel Chef-Chef

October 4, 2013

We cruise by sea side housing in our early morning start.

There are an insane number of campings all along this coast.

We continue to pass through the greatest imaginable density of camping places, though almost all are closed now that it is October. This many places could only exist if people are coming from all over France, I guess they are, because it is warm here, and the beaches are sandy.

When we passed into Bavaria, we were watching the house styles slowly change, from flowered windows to flowered balconies. At one critical point we photographed a house with half flowered windows and half balconies. We rightly or wrongly declared that the turning point. Now, in Vendee region, but heading toward Brittany, we think that moules will be declining as a favourite dish, and that crepes will be taking over. We see some moules restaurants and some creperies. The photo here where each is given equal billing could be the turning point.

The turning point in the moules vs crepes wars?

Whether offering moules or crepes, most restaurants in this region are closed for the season. There are many of them though, often linked to a camping. Campings, which were so scarce for us in other places are here one after the other. In fact, camping seems to be the only activity, supplanting even farming.

As mentioned by Tricia the houses are often white with blue shutters. This is except in towns, where it is common to have row houses of uniform dull white.

These roads were described by Tricia Graham as being jammed with campers in August. Now we are alone here.

The typical orange tile roof and blue shutters of this region.

Churches have attracted our attention, for being very low and very plain, but also very old. In St Jean, though, the 12th century church has relatively new stained glass. A pamphlet they have about this, describes stained glass as a 19th and 20th century "fad". What they have in this church is a series of 12 windows all done by the same artist in 1936. The windows cover various stages of the story of Jesus, and look quite "modern". Also in the glass area, quite recent windows in the St Philbert church in Beauvoir tell the story of moving the saint's relics around. Sorry, I forgot the exact story, however I do also recall that the statue of the saint outside escaped being melted down during WWII.

The style of the church in St Jean is typical of this region, and so different from other areas.

Note the unusual captioning of the stained glass.

This unique drawing shows the age of the various portions of the church.

We had generally decided to use roads and bypass the Velodysee track as we headed for St Michel Chef Chef. However early on Dodie felt the road was too busy, and headed for the beach, where Velodysee would be wandering around. We got onto the track, but after 2-3 hours of not drawing much nearer our target, a more direct route seemed in order. Out here, though, routes are not all that direct, and we did some sampling of various D roads, trying to find a good and safe way. Finally we wound up on a four lane affair, the D213, the obvious main line to St Nazaire. It was noisy, but had a reasonable shoulder. So after 99km, we did at last pull in to St Michel.

The Chef-Chef part of the name is a bit puzzling. Apparently it is a distortion of Saint-Michel-de-Chevesché, but what Chevesché signifies will take further research.

From a distance we could see the St Michel church, and also a biscuit factory. A little closer and we could smell our way in. We passed in front of the biscuit building, but by then were too intent on finding camping to check it out. Maybe tomorrow.

The camping by the water was open, though the reception was closed. So we just chose a spot and pitched. Tomorrow, if the operators decide to,wake up in time they will earn a fee. If not, they'll miss out.

We hope to meet up with Michel Fleurance tomorrow, and stay with him and Jeanette near Nantes. Michel has written a number of Crazyguy blogs, covering this area and his two trikes. Michel will try to find us on the trail and lead us in. It will be great fun if it works out!

We bypassed Noirmoutier island, famous for salt.

Dodie finds more grapes just growing by the roadside. They tasted great. Appellation Controlle "roadside"!

Does anyone know what is being fished for in these tidal channels with the round nets? Note the gravel bike path (not our route, though). There is a sign proudly announcing the path as a joint region and EU project. With loaded touring bikes, we are not so impressed by it.

Noodling on the Velodsyee near the beach

In the Guestbook, #216, George White identified our unusual rodent as a Coypu. Is this larger thing a Coypu too, or something else?

In the middle of nowhere, we have the start of the "Velocean" track. This seemed to supplant the "Velodysee". We have no idea right now what this is all about.

Look Dodie, in 19 minutes on this road you could be in St. Nazaire!

The biscuit factory in St Michel Chef Chef. We missed checking it out. Waaah.

Today's ride: 99 km (61 miles)
Total: 5,313 km (3,299 miles)

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