May 29, 2019
Bretignolles-sur-Mer to Barbâtre (Île Noirmoutier)
I was up early today and this time things were damp for a different reason: the wind had died right down and there was dew on everything outside and condensation on the inside of the tent fly. There was no rain in the forecast so the tent should be dry if I set it up soon enough.
Bretignolles is certainly a holiday town, or at least this area is. I rode down to the little place where I'd eaten last night to find the boulangerie open but the next-door café still closed at 0830. I bought a pain au raisins and stashed it away against finding a café before I got too hungry.
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It was a beautiful ride today, sometimes along the waterfront and sometimes through the woods, mostly unpaved. At one point Garmin told me I was riding on Vélodyssée but that didn't last long. It was soon back to "riding on cycle route" or similar.
I finally gave up on finding a café. I admit I wasn't looking all that hard, but the thing with these bike paths is they often carefully route you around anywhere that might have services you might want, like cafés and restaurants. In any case, I ate my pain au raisins sitting on the seat at the base of the lighthouse at the entrance to the harbour of Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie. The town itself didn't look all that great, but they are busy setting up for an international jazz festival that starts this coming weekend.
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The route led along the waterfront in Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez and I missed a turn. I noticed right away, but I also noticed a café just 50 m or so away. My large café au lait was delicious to the last drop! And decently large, I might add. That isn't always the case.
Saint-Jean-de-Monts wasn't really my kind of place, but there was a very long seaside stroll, bikes allowed, and La Vélodyssée went this way. Then back into the woods for the last few kilometres to the Pont de l'Île.
I had read that there was a nice separate bike path over this bridge, but unfortunately it's currently closed due to some "traveaux". There were many signs, clearly specially made, routing cyclists under and around to the other side of the bridge. The shoulder was quite narrow, but I took it, since after all those signs did look very professionally done, and sure enough it first widened, and when it reached the actual bridge, there was a rather narrow sidewalk (with a no-bikes sign that hadn't been covered). I ignored the sign, as did the two unloaded French cyclists I stopped to let pass, and rode across on short crosswise concrete planks that clattered as I rode over them. I didn't stop to admire any views.
I rode the cycle paths along the north side of the island as far as the Passage du Gois, which I hope to take tomorrow morning. Then off to find a campground reasonably close by. Since campground receptions are generally closed between noon and two or three, it was a good excuse to find a restaurant for lunch first. My first galette of the trip and I'm not in Brittany yet!
I checked in to a very fancy campground and set up my tent to dry. How do star ratings work with campsites, I wonder? This one has 5 stars. There is TP in the bathrooms, in the actual toilet stalls instead of dispensers in the lobby (if that's the word), there is soap by the sinks and an electric hand dryer, there are actually hair dry dryers (I've never seen those in a campsite sanitary block before), and there are washing machines in the laundry. Elsewhere, there is a swimming pool, a bar/snack bar, an entertainment stage... but no restaurant. There should be a restaurant for 5 stars, don't you think?
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Next up was a ride to see the rest of the island. As on Île de Ré, the salt marshes were my favourite part. I didn't care for Noirmoutier-en-l'Île, for whatever reason. I rode back to the fancy campground by way of the entrance to the Passage du Gois again, to see it a couple of hours before the evening low tide.
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After oiling the chain (my poor bike with all this bad weather and dirt and sand) and showering, I didn't leave to find dinner until well after 8. I went to the other restaurant in this small town this time. Very busy and extremely slow service! Maybe I should have stuck with the creperie?
Today's ride: 107 km (66 miles)
Total: 1,636 km (1,016 miles)
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