Savenay to Nantes

June 24, 2019

I woke early to rain on the tent. It always sounds worse than it is, but I could tell it was pretty intense. I got out my phone (I love technology!). The forecast indicated that the rain should let up nearer midday but showers would continue. Spending the day sitting in a tent wasn't appealing so I made a booking for tonight at the HI hostel in Nantes (I'd already booked tomorrow night due to my early train to Paris) and worked on this journal for a while. I was packed and on the road around 1030.

I easily picked up the same route I'd followed for a while yesterday, which seemed to be an on-pavement route to connect to the Loire à Vélo. Coming into Cordemais, a distance to Nantes was also given, a bit further than expected but easily doable. Then I lost the signs! You can see from my RWGPS track that I searched around and then started in the wrong direction. I finally found the route again, only to abandon it a few km later when it turned to an unpaved trail. I wasn't going to do that right after a rain. I had finally learned my lesson!

I stopped at a bar for coffee in this village. I took a picture of what I think of as the "welcome to" sign, wondering if it means "muddy" since boue is mud in French. I looked it up when I got home. It means buoy. How did the town get named?

I detoured to St-Étienne-de-Montluc for lunch and picked up the marked bike route again in Coueron. Then it was a long, miserable haul into Nantes on a "route provisoire". Parts were okay, but much of it was along the M107 (D107 on my map), a busy road with (mostly) no shoulder. Not fun and very long!

I almost missed these signs behind the greenery. This is the beginning of the sometimes-unpleasant "route provisoire". Funny that they give the cycling distance in terms of time rather than speed since different cyclists travel at such different speeds.

In France, most bibliothèques are now called médiathèques. I'd seen directional signs for médiathèques but didn't know what they were!

Arriving in central Nantes, I tried both Garmin and Google Maps to find my way to the hostel. Why neither would provide a direct route, I don't know. Zoom in on the track below and you will see what I mean. I did these searches just near the westernmost bridge between the right bank and the Île de Nantes.

The HI Nantes Le Manu hostel is okay, but not nearly as nice as the one I stayed at last year in Banff. But for 22€ per night, it's okay. More important, it's very close to the train station for my early departure on Wednesday.

The day had become very hot and muggy, so I didn't want to go far for dinner. Even in Nantes, it was the usual dearth of restaurants open on a Sunday evening. I walked far enough to get real food and afterward, since I was almost there anyway, to the train station to check it out and back to the hostel so I'd know the way on Wednesday.

You can see how confused I got in Cordemais!

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Today's ride: 61 km (38 miles)
Total: 3,210 km (1,993 miles)

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