Day Seventy One: Ancenis to Angers

June 6, 2017

We took advantage of the 24 hour desk staffing at the hotel to have our bikes and leave around 6. We did not try to eat anything before leaving, an easy decision because we had nothing. But with the weekends, goofy holidays, and such behind us, we were confident of finding something out there.

Leaving Ancenis, we will cross the bridge to the south side of the river.

Our confidence was so high we were even dreaming about a sit down breakfast. Well that was not on - cafes or restaurants remained resolutely closed. But we did find a bakery soon enough. It had been open since 6. Part of that sit down dream included having cheese, ham, and egg. That partly came true as the bakery had a ham and cheese croissant on offer. My other choice (since one item only just doesn't do it) was for a chocolate almond croissant. Dodie did the ordering on that one. Maybe the lady just couldnt believe that was what we really wanted, because she kept reviewing the other choices in the case. Dodie persisted for me, so the lady tried switching to English. But our French was better than her English, and Dodie said lookit, I just want one of those. Finally the lady relented, it was a really good almond chocolate croissant!

The river Evre, a tributary of the Loire, enters at St Florent.

This is all abut something that happened in wars associated with the French Revolution. An army from Vendee crossed the Loire and had battles with the Republicans. See here for more info. This is an area of history that is quite unknown to us.

Pentecost is over and there are eclairs galore!

This all happened in St. Florent le Vieux. The next thing was to run over to Montjean. The road parallels the river and would be a quiet country road except that it has a little bit too much traffic. More than that, the drivers are universally going too fast on it. There is a marked bike lane, but this is really just a fairly narrow shoulder. So someone had the idea of slowing traffic not with speed bumps but with periodic implacements that narrow the road.

These implacements take the form of an island with vertical posts on one side, followed by a similar island on the other side. Now French drivers, like the Italians, have a creed of never slowing down. Their response to a problem on the road is to swerve, or if a serious problem, to speed up and swerve.

With thhese speed obstacles they probably felt like they were back on the ski slopes, and every one would attempt to slalom through. The effect of this was that every one ended up swerved onto the meagre bike portion of the road. It was amusing in a dark sort of way watching each driver screw up with this. But we also had to be very sure not to be in the "death zone" when one went through.

Fortunately after Montjean the authorities stopped trying to help us, and things returned to normal reasonably safe cycling.

Just before Montjean there were a lot of signs for Super U, all urging us to turn right at the bridge. We thought about it. Some fruit would be really nice. But we had no idea of how far the Super U might be, so we did not take up on the project.

At the bridge corner there was a bar/tabac with five cyclists seated at one of the outdoor tables. What I noticed right away was that they had bananas. So I stopped to ask where they had got them, expecting to then learn if Super U would be close enough for us. They gestured to a van parked across the street. "Marianne, she has everything we need." they said.

Marianne turned out to be the driver of the sag wagon that was following them. Incidentally she was also watching their parked bikes, relieving them of that worry as well. Looking at the van and its UK markings, it seems possible they also got driven here directly from England.

We were as polite as reasonably possible, but in fact we think this kind of touring is the bottom of the barrel. Later when wind and heavy rain started, we assumed they hopped in the van and just drove to their next booked hotel. Maybe we underestimated them. Snort.

We sort of enjoyed watching the poor drivers swereve through the speed reducing emplacements.

A town across the Loire. The Loire has lots of sand banks, as seen here.

The five intrepid cyclists (with bananas)

After Montjean the route hops onto a large island in the river, called Isle de Chalonnes. Here we began to notice the beautiful flowered houses and well tended gardens that are one signature of the Loire region. We also passed an interesting place we had spotted before - always closed of course - called the Lenin cafe. The poster on the front features an image of Lenin, apparently holding up a beer, and identifies this as a place for music and debate. Weird. Don't know anything further about it.

All through the day (but not early morning) we had been running into touring cyclists. They usually come in ones and twos, but on the island it happened we encountered at least a dozen oncoming ones in a clump. Since leaving the Velodysee, for some reason, we have the cyclists not much willing to shout a greeting, let alone stop and chat. It was the same with these. But a clump going our way then passed us.

We noticed several had ebikes. So when they stopped up ahead, we stopped to see what their bikes were. They turned out to be from Strasbourg and had rented the bikes in Nantes. The one we focussed on was called a Beregamont - a German production. The lady was very enthusiastic about it, saying that it had a very long range and that newer models were even better. She mentioned 150 km! As for why she had the bike, the lady described a skiing accident that had ripped her knee ligaments. They had been braided together and stapled back in. The ebike was a major boon, no doubt the reason she was able to be out here. I think my photo of the bike name and Bosch drive inadvertently also included the suspect knee!

Interesting house, with flowers. Ile d'Alonne

This seems to be a good ebike. Notice the bad knee also in the photo

At Savenierres we ran into a small but beautiful church. But this was just a warmup for Angers. Angers actually sits not directly on the Loire but on the Maine, a major tributary. The bike path comes up the Maine and crosses into Angers right in front of its imposing castle.

The castle has the unique feature of a surrounding wall with seventeen towers. The towers are of grey stone, but with horizonal white stripes. Quite striking. The castle was started in the 9th century and mainly built in the 13th century. Of course it has a long and complicated history. One thing, in the early 15th century, the dauphin who, with the assistance of Joan of Arc would become King Charles VII, had to flee Paris and was given sanctuary here.

Our first chore on entering the town was to find a place to stay. We turned towards the Tourist Information, which is by the Castle, but also noticed a hotel, the Marguerite d'Anjou. This was named so of course because the castle was the residence of the Dukes of Anjou. The hotel price may have been a little higher because of its location, but otherwise it was our favourite type - unpretentious.We stashed our bikes in a storage room (we will have to wait until 7:30 to free them) and set off to look at the cathedral and old town. It is very pleasing to be in a place in the old town, like this hotel, rather than being stuck out by the autoroute.

We strolled to the edge of the castle moat and looked down. No water. In fact we read that there has never been water in it, just animals and gardens. today there is a nice formal French garden there. Admission to the castle, at 9 euros or so was too steep, particularly since we were very late in the day. Inside the walls are further gardens, plus the feature display of the "Apocalypse Tapestry".

"The Apocalypse Tapestry is a large medieval French set of tapestries commissioned by Louis I, the Duke of Anjou, and produced between 1377 and 1382. It depicts the story of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation by Saint John the Divine in colourful images, spread over a number of sections that originally totalled 90 scenes. Despite being lost and mistreated in the late 18th century, the tapestry was recovered and restored in the 19th century and is now on display at the Chateau d'Angers. It is the oldest French medieval tapestry to have survived, and historian Jean Mesqui considers it "one of the great artistic interpretations of the revelation of Saint John, and one of the masterpieces of French cultural heritage."

The castle overlooks the Maine river and provides a fine viewpoint. Across the river is a quarter called the Doutre, with 19th century fine buildings and behind, the Trinity church and Ronceray Abbey - from the 11th century.

Turning into the old city we immediately felt the enjoyment that comes from narrow, quiet streets and pleasing architecture. The streets quickly took us in front of the rather trim but elegant cathedral, with two tall towers flanking a shorter one. Inside was rather plain, but as usual the stained glass, lit from behind, was beautiful. Posters explained some of the complicated images and stories portrayed by the glass, but it was of course too much for us to absorb.

Around behind the cathedral is a continuation of the old town with newer, maybe 18th and 19th century, buildings. It made for a pleasing commercial district. Among the newer buildings, though, was a little corner with 15th century half timbered buildings. Dodie really liked the blue one. There are apparently 40 buildings like this around Angers.

Down in the commercial section we went to the Monoprix supermarket and came away with essentials, like Caprice des Dieux, and yes, bananas. We are also pleased about a fine bakery right beside the hotel. So we are all set, with memories of near starvation yesterday fading. We are in an old hotel by an old town and beautiful river. That's the way we like it.

The castle of Angers - as it looks for our hotel

The castle entrance, with flags - as it should be. But admission was too high.

Looking out from the castle, over the Maine river.

The Saint Maurice cathedral at Angers, is from the 12th century.

Nice composition of buildings beside the cathedral

Stained glass at St Maurice is from the 12th, 13th, and 15th centuries

Thhis cycle policeman in Angers is looking at me a little suspiciously. I am mainly interested in his Bionx rear hub.

Cheeky carving on the 15th century half-timbered Adams Home.

Today's ride: 68 km (42 miles)
Total: 3,376 km (2,096 miles)

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