Day 66: Fromentine to Pornic

April 13, 2024

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Someone asked whether our breakfast gamble with Clemenceau's entry fee money worked out, at the Kyriad hotel yesterday. Yes, we were lucky. 24 euros brought in a six or more jammer breakfast - so unusual in France. There could have been more varieties of cheese, some cake, fried eggs, better pancakes, and etc. , but overall, it was great.

Today, by contrast, 16 euros would have netted a standard French breakfast at the Cap d'Ambre- croissant, orange juice, coffee, maybe a little cheese. However just out in the street were not one but two bakeries, so no worries.

Our hotel was not fancy outside, but it was really convenient and quite perfect inside, except for the standard French breakfast offering.

Just down the street from the hotel, the blue bakery and the orange one!

Almost immediately after we left Fromentine, we found ourselves in marsh land, where we remained for most of the day. A little unlike marshes on our days just previous, this one had very many birds. This was a mixed blessing, because after some hours we had gone almost nowhere, given that we stopped so frequently to look out over the ponds!

There were a lot of these carrelets on the various channels. We see how one would lower the net into the water and raise it once fish had swum above. But how do you get your catch out of the net?

This of course was prime ragondin territory, and we finally got a photo of one. See his beaver-like teeth?

Now well into the marsh, we began to spot all sorts of birds, some in quite large numbers.

Spider webs like this were scattered all throughout the grass. We see large webs at home in Fall, but we have no idea who is making these here and now.

Ww came to a spot where the birds were really quite concentrated. They were mostly Avocets, and we enjoyed watching and photographing them.

Black Capped Avocet - that curved bill is a giveaway

We were really enthralled with all the birds, and it was a bit of time before we moved on a bit. That move was only several meters, because then we stopped watching the birds long enough to realize we were right beside a bird watching blind! In fact it was a whole emplacement, with the blind and several descriptive signs.

Inside the blind there were a couple of young men, not very talkative, intent on shooting with their long lens cameras. I looked a little silly with my small point and shoot.

Black Headed Gulls got our attention next. The back of their heads is white, while there is a Tern we have seen in flight with an all black head.

This silhouette of a man on a pole must have some local significance, but what?

We came to a field chocked full of Black Tailed Godwits. It was hard to get them all to look up at the same time! Here is my best try:

A look back at the hide and its surroundings.

This fellow had a longer lens than the guys in the hide, but at least he does not need a cart to transport it!

Our attention shifted momentarily to some other wildlife - a tightly packed group of humans. Like those on the sandbar yesterday, they were clearly going somewhere - but where, and why?

Our attention returned to birds, like these dancing Stilts.

These are a special type of cattle, that were described on a panel back at the hide. But we missed reading it!

We briefly passed through the town of Beauvoir sur Mer, which had a bit of a central square, but no wow.

We already had lots of Avocet photos, but I thought I would try another. The thing about birds is that they spend a lot of time picking under their armpits. I waited for this one to look up, and when he did, I pushed the shutter - just in time for him to be back under his armpit. He did this amazingly three times. The photos below are not copies of each other! Finally, I pushed the button when the bird was looking down, and managed to get him

We continued through the marsh, which we found to be a fascinating, if low key, environment.

Here we see some of the ponds clearly set up for producing salt.

But now we entered a special coastal zone, one in which oyster culture is stressed.

More than oyster works at first, one sees numerous tractors. These are used not for tilling the soil but for hauling boats ad equipment around with trailers.

As we rolled by the oyster producers, it was hard to make out what was going on, and things looked rather messy. But by bridges across the ditch were the names of all the producers in each section. There were many names posted.

A pile of oyster shells in the foreground.

One of those tractors with trailer, oncoming.

Also in this area we passed by a wind turbine farm. Although they looked a little small, these were 2 megawatt (about) units, and there were about 10. That is not a huge amount of power, but it can power in principle 8,000 homes. There was (hooray!) no wind today, though.

These colourful buildings stood out when seen from the distance, but they were not special housing or even warehouses. We were not quite sure just what their use was. Pretty though.

We are not sure how these traps and mats are used.

I really like the size and colours of the Shelduck

A sort of interesting bicycle themed sculpture.

We were finally passing out of the marsh area. Velodysee took the opportunity to try putting us on a single track. But we balked, and found a road! In the end, the track did join the road.

At the other side of a large field, Dodie spotted a big bird. It's size helped te camera zoom in for a shot. We took it to be a Golden Eagle! but were later corrected by Michel's friend, JeanYves. It is in fact a Marsh Harrier.

We had been noticing standalone signs for the "Velocean", and assumed this was yet another of the glitsy French long distance routes. It sort of was, but only by being a name given to the Velodysee route from Pornic or so, north.

As we approached Pornic, we saw some change in the housing styles. The common white walls, blue shutters, and orange roofs were still there, but how about one like that below - still with the shutters, but a little Soulac styling.

There were also a few examples of fieldstone replacing the smooth white walls.

We turned a corner, and came to Pornic harbour - another one where is looked like someone had pulled the plug.

On the opposite bank, the town looked very attractive, and included a small chateau tower.

On our side, a plaque gives the distance to Santiago as 1564 km. Hey, we could do that!

Our stop for the night is at a "Brit Hotel". This chain is not related to being "British", although the desk lady did speak English, a bit. We found that French worked better overall, but a mix was helpful too. The main subject of discussion was surrounding the bicycle lockup. It's not a very deep subject, but for us it's a very important one. We appreciated the fact that this place had such a thing. For tomorrow, after a series of cagey non-replies, the place in Nantes admitted they had no place. This earned them a cancellation.

Tomorrow, Michel will come down from Ste Luce and meet us halfway, and we will then cycle to Nantes together. We are really looking forward to that!

Today's ride: 69 km (43 miles)
Total: 3,248 km (2,017 miles)

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Keith KleinHi again,
I stayed at the Brit hotel when I was last in Pornic. Lovely staff. I don’t remember the breakfast, though.
Cheers
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7 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Keith KleinWe liked it also, but had supplies already for breakfast so gave theirs a miss. Michel says Hi to you.
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7 months ago