Day Eight: La Charite to Nevers

April 4, 2017

Even though we find an increasing ability to converse with people in the street here, the television remains hard to understand and enjoy. One training ploy for that is to watch kids shows. But in practice that is not so great because the audio of these shows is of adults putting on squeaky voices to appeal to kids. It maes them hard to understand.

Today we got the exception, Shaun le Mouton (Shaun the Sheep). This one uses no words at all - so it's great. It was the same for us in Germany, with Shaun das Schaff!

Out on the trail we quickly ran into a whole pile of real sheep. These were followed by what will become increasing numbers of Charolais cattle.

As we left La Charite we were thinking that we might need a very long day to allow for stopping in to Nevers and going all the way to the next likely accommodation, at Decize. So rather than go into the town to find a bakery we just beetled off down the trail, assuming we would find a bakery pretty soon along the way.

In France, of course, there always is a bakery pretty soon along the way, but this was a little later than sooner. It took two items - a croissant and a chausson pommes to put us right. Even that was not quite enough and we spent the morning pretty much hungry.

Just before Cuffy is the official beginning of the Loire a Velo bikeway. 800km of some of the finest riding in the world! I often think of the work that must have gone in, to organize and develop the route, sign it, and develop the network of Welcome Bicycle accommodation, the maps, the tourist information support, etc. etc.

At the official start there is a small emplacement containing a brass "mile zero" disc, and also some slightly enigmatic deck chair type things. Every cyclist on the route presumably stops here, and makes a mile zero photo.

Our friend Michel (Popi) Fleurance made the trip from his home in Nantes to Nevers, and documented it in the famous blog "Popi Goes to Nevers"

Michel's photos from km zero give a good idea of what it is about. Milestones like that are important to the long distance cyclist.

I assume they expect exhausted cyclists to collapse here

We continued along the Canal Laterale a la Loire something that I think we will be following for a couple of days yet. However with the termination of La Loire a Velo, we were now on the Veloroute La Loire en Bourgogne. Cycling in France is well supported, and we have a super guidebook for this veloroute as well!

Even though things have changed a little as we have entered Burgogne, Nevers fulfilled the model that is standard for the major cities all along the Loire. That is, the old town is perched on the waterfront and from across the river presents an imposing image of huddled buildings and giant cathedral. There is a bridge that crosses the river and ends in the centre of town. It's kind of comforting that it is like this just as it was disconcerting for us to have come to Orleans "backward", from the not river side.

In the tourist information a plethora of cycle guides

Our first order of business was to find food, as were still unbalanced by the very short period of starvation in the morning. Much as we adore bakeries it is possible to eat too much bread stuff. We feel an increasing need now for protein and vegetables.

There was actually a restaurant that we ran into out along the trail. It was a typical French retaurant, with a menu out front written in fancy script. The script described a range of to us exotic selections: foie gras, escargots, and such, all prepared in mysterious ways.

So it just absolutely hit the spot when in the main square of Nevers we found a restauant almost with the air of a Denny's or something back home. That is, the menu far from being in spidery script, had bold photos of the selections, and these selections included otherwise unheard of stuff like hamburgers and fries!

I went for the plat du jour (even a French Denny's has a plat du jour!) and Dodie got a salmon filet. My thing turned out to be ribs and fries. The restaurant had departed from French standard only so far. That is, both dishes were excellent. The effect on our spirits and strength was most gratifying.

Next up was tourist information for a place to stay. It turned our that there is a major Nursing exam underway for tomorrow, and the town's hotels are jammed with nurses. The most logical place for us was the convent where Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes spent her final years and where there is a chapel and museumm not to mention her actual body. Despite our pilgrim status there was no room at the convent. It's fitting, maybe, since Bernadette herself worked as a nurse there. Later, when we went up to the convent and got our creantiales stampedm I asked them if truly they were full, Yes, they said, following with the French equivalent of "It's good for us but sucks to be you". Not being religious pilgrims, I did not want to explore whether they would scorn the exhortation of the creantiale for hospitality and throw us out in the cold. Still it seemed pretty mercenary.

Tourist information found us a place nearby, also with a Chemin St Jacques plaque on the door, so no harm done. We ditched our stuff there and set off to find Bernadette.

Our hotel. Pilgrims welcome. Frankly it's a bit of a dump but the wifi is good and the room is clean and dry.

Bernadette was born in 1844 in Lourdes. Her family was very poor, and she therefore had no social standing. At the age of 14, as she tells it, she was with some friends and came to a stream in a grotto. The friends went on ahead and Bernadette paused to take off her socks to cross the stream. With one sock off, she heard something and then saw an apparition of a lady in white. Paralysed with fright at first she succeeded in having a conversation with the thing. Either then or later it revealed itself to be Mary. Bernadette had 17 further experiences with this, all in 1858. She told others what had happened. Not sure what the initial reaction was, but in 1862 the bishop of Lourdes certified it as all true.

Meanwhile Bernadette, always sickly, entered the hospice of the Sisters of Charity in Lourdes. In a couple of years she decided to join the order, and arrived at their mother house, in Nevers. Bernadette remained here until her death at age 35 in 1879.

It is said that her body remained uncorrupted something certified by three successive post mortems. She was beatified in 1925 and canonized in 1933.

The whole thing has spawned a huge industry at Lourdes and it is very important here at Nevers as well.

We visited the body of Bernadette in a chapel in the convent. Her face and hands, they say, are covered by a light amount of wax because they were turning black.

The convent also has a gift shop, coffee machine room, and museum. Even so, it was quite low key, and no admission charges. And oh they have a presumably full size working model of the famous grotto. On the side of this is affixed an actual stone chipped from the real grotto. One thing not available here is genuine Lourdes water. We will have to wait until the real thing for that.

Sounds good, but no offer of a place to stay for us

A shelf of miscellaneous Bernadette souvenirs

Just a few of the Bernadette books available

Bernadette snow globes! But no claim that they contain genuine Lourdes water.

Leaving Bernadette behind, it was time to deal at last with my dead keyboard, It seems on every trip the Bluetooth keyboard that I bring to connect to my tablet finds a way to die. Each one has its own death throes. Making multiple repeated keys has been a favourite. Then there is simply not responding to any keystrokes. And the perennial hit - refusing to communicate with the tablet. That was the crime of my current one. It would flash its pairing light, but not communicate. I think the flimsy on/off switch is the culprit.

So every year there is a visit to the FNAC store - the equivalent of Best Buy. There I lay down the euros for the keyboard that will be next year's failure. Dodie did a great job of navigating the town to find FNAC. This involves traversing the back end - not at the river. But to the distance back that FNAC is, there was not any real ugliness at all. Nevers is quite a nice place everywhere. We passed by shopping streets that were very pleasant, housed in 18th and 19th century buildings rather than medieval ones. A surprisngly low 30 euros produced the desired keyboard. If you notice that I am blithering on a bit, it is because this keyboard makes it easier to ramble!

Steve on his annual return to FNAC for a working keyboard

In a chocolate shop. French readers: what's with all the fish?

Our final stop was the cathedral, which is suitably large and ornamented outside. Inside are some modern and really attractive windows. Of course the church itself has no obvious staff around. But we got our creanciales stamped both at the tourist information and at Bernadette's convent, so we are cool.

Four photos of beautiful stained glass from the cathedral.

A grocery stop on the way back to the hotel produced some good chocolate and also Bon Maman creme caramel. So far we have not really found or focussed on buying any fruits or vegetables. We need to run into a farmers' market. That is coming, we know.

Our route tomorrow. We again will have the choice of stopping short or shooting probably impossibly long.

Today's ride: 50 km (31 miles)
Total: 412 km (256 miles)

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