St Vincent sur Jard to la Rochelle: A day of 2 halves

August 23, 2013

We started the day extremely well. As we had a long way to go today we had decided to take roads for much of the day and this worked very well to start with. Travelling by road we were at St Michel en l’Herme in time for morning coffee and feeling pretty pleased with ourselves. Then we were on the track once again, this was Ok for a while. It deteriorated a bit then it became almost impassable, just a bumpy grass track the worse cycle route I have ever suffered. Things improved a little and we reached Pont du Brault where a decision was clearly needed. From here the route goes along a canal for 8km and at the beginning of it there was a notice saying that the route would be upgraded in September. This rang a bell with me as I had read a description of it in Joanne’s journal ‘Double, double en France’ and her description of it meant it was clearly not for us. We consulted with the other two cycle tourists who were also deciding what to do and we all decided to find an alternative. We had only to spend a short time on the very scary D9 and were soon on the D105 that would take us all the way to St Rochelle. Sounded good, and really it was apart from a now strong head wind and a puncture about half way along. Ken changed it and I decided I needed a sleep in a ditch (I was only allowed to sleep for 10 minutes, he is mean). On we pressed with a road which was now getting fairly busy. Ken was kind he didn’t use the ‘pathetic’ word and eventually we arrived in the Centre Ville of La Rochelle. We had a hotel booked so somehow we had to find it. The Office de Tourisme was what we needed and we saw some signs to it. This is a long way from the Centre down by the port so we had an extensive tour of Le Rochelle but there was not a sign missing. La Rochelle was humming as there is a big political rally on this weekend. We certainly were very relieved to have a reservation although I would be embarrassed to tell you how much we are paying for the night. The room is extremely comfortable with the most hi tech luxurious shower of all time, 2 TVs which need a University degree to operate, air cond and a nice balcony. Ken had to set off to find a bike shop as the tube is completely stuffed. He also had to find a shop as we had decided to eat in our room. He arrived back somewhat stressed but a CNN fix and a beer have brought him back to normal.

Tomorrow we are having a short day, only as far as Rochefort, 35km, so we will have a time to look around here in the morning and avoid any dramas.

Many of the churches in this area have low 'spires' like this which ane made of shingles

Lots of dead fish in the canal at one point

This is the first Styre Ken has seen on this trip

Today's ride: 86 km (53 miles)
Total: 1,525 km (947 miles)

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