Day 10 - La Rochelle to Ronce-le-Bains - France, Top to Bottom

May 4, 2023

Day 10 - La Rochelle to Ronce-le-Bains

Today we left La Rochelle and followed eurovelo 1 all day. It led down the seaside to Rochefort where the highlight of the day was supposed to be a crossing of the Charente River on a transporter bridge or pont transbordeur. A transporter bridge is a like a cross between a ferry and a bridge. There is a gondola that carries people (and bikes) across the river. The gondola is suspended by cables from a very high bridge deck allowing boats to pass under the bridge. See the photo below. The pont transbordeur in Rochette is one of only a handful in the world.

We knew that the pont transbordeur was being refurbished, but it was scheduled to reopen in April. But alas, when we arrived at the transbordeur, it was not yet open. The backup plan was to go over the large and busy traditional bridge near the transbordeur, but there were signs forbidding bikes. The backup plan to the backup plan was to bicycle five miles up river to a bridge that was part of the Velolycée rail-trail and so that is what we did. This increased our mileage for the day from 52 to 62.

The 62 miles took longer than it should of because Doug kept stopping for birds. This has been a recurring problem all trip. It helps if I ride in front to shoo the birds away, though sometimes it is effective to sneak up behind him and scare away the birds while he is trying to photograph them. But often, I’m off snapping photos of some field or flowers while he’s looking at birds, so it balances out.

I have been a casual birder since childhood, but recently Doug has become an avid birder. But when he is looking for birds, he cheats. Rather than studying the birds with binoculars, bird book in hand, he snaps photos with his super-telephoto-camera, and then runs the pictures through his Merlin app that identifies the birds for him. Using this technique, his bird list has quickly surpassed mine. Now my primary method for finding new birds is to look at some distant bird with him while he snaps photos, and then ask him later that night what I saw. It’s kind of like cheating off your neighbor’s test in a class I suppose.