Day Seventy Five: Montreuil Juigne to Neuville: Life is a Branch of Cherries

June 10, 2017

We were actually a little bit chilly through the night, but by the time we got under way - late, at 7:30 a.m. it was already apparent that it would be a very warm and sunny day. The weather was important (as always) because the theme of the day was that of a quiet ride through warm and sunny country scenes.

The canal by our tent/house, early morning

Without doubt our most common view was that of the broad canal on our right, a hard packed good quality path under our wheels, and crops or cows to our left.

Sometimes the path was well shaded - very welcome on a hot day

A lock lady. I took this shot because Trica Graham had such a one in her blog. Maybe we got the same lady? (need to check)

One more representation of our country ride today

This boat is not really typical. In fact it was the only one like it. I took the photo because of the name of the boat: Laissez Dire, which could be variously translated. I think I like "Free Speech".

The town of Menil - cute, but no services except for one overpriced snack bar and a bread dispensing machine - somewhere near the town hall.

This poster shows this area for the linear playground that it is, lined with chateaus.

This background was enlivened by a "wealth" of private chateaus that came into view on all sides. There were at least a dozen over the span of today's distance. Here are just a few of the ones we saw:

This red trimmed house, sort of chateau like, had unique decoration.

One of the animal decorations of the red trimmed house.

Equal perhaps to the chateaux in adding interest were the locks spread along the canal. As we have seen with other canals, the locks and the associated lock keepers' houses become show places of flower boxes and landscaping. But in the case of this canal, at each lock there was a flour mill. So standing near the keeper's house is a three story quite lovely mill building.

Every lock had a mill building like this

Although we had had a nice breakfast in our tent cabin, with the great bread from the bakery in Angers, Vache Qui Rie cheese, jam, and coffee/hot chocolate, after a few hours we began to look for any second breakfast opportunities, and/or a grocery store. But the little towns we reached either had nothing or would have taken too much effort to go and verify what they had or not. So we just carried on, always hoping that the next place would be the oasis we wanted.

At the same time we were always on the lookout for cherry trees that might have strayed near the public path. The cherry season is still going full blast, though it may be a bit late now for some trees. and for some reason there are lots of trees in this area. Dodie is good at spotting likely subjects, since she rides with her head up, while I tend to ride head down, donkey like. We found enough trees to make a noticeable difference in our energy. Some were a little sour, some were yellow cherries, and some were regular red ones. However none were the giant black cherries that we know from home. All cherries are of course great, though.

A cherry tree branch - really helpful when the supply of bakeries dries up

In terms of animal life, we first noticed that there are a lot of frogs about. We became aware of this easily through their loud singing. They sound a lot like ducks, and are just as audible.

Asses were something else we encountered. There was a farm where they produced milk and made cosmetics. One mother ass had the cutest baby!

The farm owners and two of their donkeys in a newspaper article about them.

At first the cows did not make much impression on me, because here they are Holsteins, milk cows same as at home. But I soon recognized that I should record them, because they are the typical cow of this region and because as dairy cows they are central to region's claim to fame, which is in milk products. By the time I came around to wanting a cow photo, the cows (being French) were closed for the day. They had put in a morning of grazing work, and that was plenty. I had to photograph them lounging in the shade. I'm not sure when they will reopen and get grazing!

Normandy is dairy country, but these cows do not seem to be working hard at it.

Finally (in the animal realm) there are of course fishers all along the canal. They have lots of equipment and show no evidence of ever catching anything. But Dodie, temporarily suspending her cherry tree watch, easily spotted fish they should be going after.

Dodie spotted fish easily. Get the lady a rod!

The only town of significant size in our path today was Chateau Contier. This was our big hope for finding food, since now we were getting really hungry, and with tomorrow being Sunday we needed to fill our bags before France ran off and closed again.

From our position down by the water we could not get a really good feel for the extent of the town, But across the wide canal was the very large and important looking Urseline convent. And up the hill is apparently a chateau and battlements.

The huge Urseline convent at Chateau Conti

What we did notice, just out of the corner of an eye was a Carrefour supermarket. Dodie dove in, leaving me as usual to watch the bikes. This time no one approached me, leaving an opportunity to write a couple of emails. Dodie just could not handle buying the kind of stuff that is stable in a hot bicycle pannier and came out with a lot of yummy fresh stuff. We would have to use it or lose it.

We found a shady stone bench and ate tabouli and little cheese cubes with italian herbs plus chocolate mousse. to our great dismay one of the chocolate mousses was moldy (though before its best before date). We shared the good one and tried to be happy.

Another great distraction along the route was a spot called on our map le Petit Lourdes. Built around 1898, this was an exact replica of the grotto at the real Lourdes. So that is the second replica we have run in to, the first being at Nevers. This replica had a sacristy built beside it, so presumably services are held here (from time to time?). To add to the authenticity, there is a rock from the real Lourdes set into the wall. But unlike a cargo cult I do not think that people felt if they built a grotto then Mary would come. On the other hand, I am not sure just what they are getting at with this.

(As an aside, I have been listening to some proponents of String Theory on my iPod - like Brian Greene. In an 11 dimensional universe, who is to say that Mary could not find a way to put in an appearance. And if so, maybe she needs a grotto (or portal) to do it, and maybe this replica could work. There is no evidence to that effect, but then there is no evidence for any of String Theory either, but universities continue to fund the research.)

One other aspect of Petit Lourdes that struck a chord for this blog - there was a Camino direction indicator there. Beside it was also a sign from the Chemin de St Michel. We assume that Mont St Michel, which is up this Velo Francette and over west on the Veloscenie is a Camino starting point, which makes Petit Lourdes a way station from there to Santiago.

A genuine stone from the original Lourdes grotto. This replica has the blessing of Lourdes central

Our different maps disagreed on whether there was accommodation at any of the tiny villages that lay before us now. The next major town, Laval though was reasonably distant. With the temperature climbing, Dodie still claimed to be ok, so maybe we could make a try for Laval.

Quite soon though we came upon a perfectly lovely creperie. This is what we had searched in vain for all day on Pentecost! But now we had just eaten our tabouli and stuff, so we were ready to push on. Before we did we noticed a sign about a B&B. We asked a waiter in the creperie about it and were soon introduced to Evelyne and Lucien, the owners of the B&B, which was in the adjacent former mill building of the lock at this place, which was Neuville.

Evelyne and Lucien showed us around the place, which had last funtioned as a mill in 1958. They themselves had lived in it for 20 years, and were the founders of the creperie, which they sold after three years to Jean Pierre (who is still there).

Not only did it turn out that Lucien is the mayor of the minute town of Neuville (population under 300) but the pair are the lock keepers. That means just outside our door when a boat comes, one or the other must be on deck to operate the gates.

On the ground floor of our mill house there is an original 10 foot long beautiful oak table, which I am writing at now. Overhead are heavy beams, underfoot - solid tiles. All doors are solid wood. To my left and right as I sit here I see the upstream weir and the downstream wide canal, since the building is essentially out in the middle of it all.

Whether or not we could have made Laval, this was the place to be. We have just come back from the creperie, which as the only place for kms had a nice evening crowd. We found Jean Pierre a mixture of nice, and grumpy. That figures, since he is about our age.

Whenever we get into a really nice situation I am sorry to think about how soon we will have to leave. There is usually an intense period of trying to write the blog. After that and a day of cycling, you close your eyes and bang, it's tomorrow. At which time you have to cycle for many more hours and try to find another good place to perch. I guess that's the name of the game. But right now, if I can just add the photo captions I can go for a bit and look at the water all around "my" house.

Our house for tonight - we have it to ourselves!

Lucien shepherds a boat through our lock.

Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 3,653 km (2,269 miles)

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