La Tranche to La Rochelle

May 9, 2023

The race for La Rochelle.

The pitter patter of raindrops are our first conscious impressions in our small but not so perfectly formed camping ground cabin. By the time we’ve packed up and found our trail, the rain is over its worst and we settle in for a fairly easy if longish ride. The path is well sign posted and much of it is sealed, if a little lumpy in places. Marans, by lunchtime is our goal and at about 40kms on it’s quite doable.

It’s a wet but clearly delineated path for the start of the day.

Once again marshlands and small waterways mark our route.

Oysters and seafood are readily on sale.

The path has these odd parts reduced to a track. They fortunately don’t last too long.

At Marans, it’s lunch, and we opt for a PMU doing galettes. Simple but tasty- ham, egg and cheese.

We find the sign to the Francette, heading up to Niort and the Marais which we recall fondly from our 2018 trip when we were headed for Caen. At that stage we had a further 3 months on the road ahead of us. How did we do it? Looking back we can see it was a route with great variety- Suisse Normandy, Severn Bridge, Hadrian’s Wall, Strasbourg and Italy. It does make a difference.

From Marans we cut out a few kilometres by getting onto a quiet road, losing the bike trail, then finding it again, hidden in the foliage right beside the road. This leads to the Napoleonic canal- a deep and long canal which eventually disappears into a tunnel.

It leads us into La Rochelle and the old city where we’re staying. Our host, Agnēs is really kind and helpful and takes us through everything from bike lockup to details of the apartment.

Later that evening we dine out with New Zealand friends, Barbara and Brent who have come up from a stay In Bordeaux. The fish soup and poisson de jour are excellent.

Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 847 km (526 miles)

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