May 16, 2018
Day 51: Montreuil to Les Ponts de Cé
Montreuil has its own chateau (doesn't everybody), giving us something to look at as we breezed out of town. We descended to the Thouet river, and for the first time since we started "Le Thouet a Vélo" at Niort, the path behaved itself and maintained a pretty much level course mostly following the river.
We would not call this too little too late, but it was rather little, because it was just 20 km to Saumur.
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Following the path in order to reach Saumur was not difficult, but we did pause to scratch our heads once or twice. On one of those occasions we simply said, "Well, let's just follow those guys".
Our entry into Saumur was hampered by a Route Bareé. This time they were actually working, but in a city there is normally a way around. We did not go to Tourist Information for a plan of the town, but quickly decided that the Place St Pierre, by the St Peter church was the centre of the old town, while there was the Chateau up the hill immediately to the south.
Since the river had given us a break by having such a do-able path, we felt we had time for a peek at both downtown and the Chateau. A peek, though, meant really only a peek. We were not into either something like cruising the covered market that is off the Place St Pierre, or paying to go into the Chateau, even if it does have a really terrific horse museum.
We did, however, buy two tartelettes and being careful to choose a table belonging to the bakery and not any nearby bar, sat and absorbed the square for a while.
Although we like to deny any superpowers for our e-assist bikes, they definitely got us up to the chateau without any tears. That is quite a change from the past, when we would generally pass on seeing something that is up high to avoid a long push up with the bikes. Up there with the chateau we shared its commanding view of the river below and the houses on the opposite shore. Then zoop, we were down again and on our way downstream. The view from the top alone would not justify the big euros put out for the bikes, but it was a nice benefit anyway.
Speaking of the big euros, we stopped downtown to take some out of an ATM. It was difficult for a pleasant reason - too much sun to see the screen. While we were parked near the ATM a young man with a bike came along. He was having a problem not because of a flat but because of just not enough pressure in the tires. We were glad to be able to help him out, with our handy pump. Any time you are stationary, you are legible to be asked the UQ's by all sorts of people. So at the same spot we entertained two ladies from England, before being able to resume or westward journey.
It felt good to be back on the Loire and the Loire a Velo bike path. This was the first thing we started with in Europe, back in 2012. At that time the route had just been finished, and we got interviewed by a newspaper, explaining that we had come to France just for this.
Starting west from Saumur, one follows a fairly narrow road that first passes a number of "caves" - wine producing and tasting establishments, and then some "tourist attractions", like the mushroom museum and the Caves aux Moines. Both the wine and the mushrooms (and escargots too) are all there because of caves excavated in the soft white rock of the hillside (tuffeau) in the area. The caves give the constant cool temperature needed to both store wine and raise mushrooms and snails.
We have found one or more of the places closed on past tries, so I was happy to see the cave mouth open at the Cave aux Moines. We pulled our bikes up near the entrance and waltzed in. At first the place seemed deserted, but as we went a little deeper, a buzzing and growling was heard around a corner. Something was coming!
Dodie opted for a refuge like hole in the wall, while I favoured simply pressing my back up against a wall. The growling thing turned out to be a little forklift, carrying a huge tray of spent mushroom soil in front of it. Fortunately the thing was operated by a man, rather than being some sort of autonomous cave monster. The man explained that the cave was closed and that the door was open only because he and the machine were leaving. Oh well. we got more of a visit than we had at other times. We do know that Trisha Graham, who writes on Cycleblaze too, had even gotten to eat in the mushroom restaurant here on one of her trips.
What follows next along the road, which leads to Angers, is a string of beautiful villages, arrayed along the river. As we pedaled along, we experienced these mainly as a line of houses and a fair number of churches, all basically facing the riverside road (D751 and D132) until St Remy. It's about a 25 km run.
We did along here what we have done before - and to be fair, what we always do - admire the houses and dream about buying one, and dropping in on the churches, admiring any special features each may have. What we did not do from the standard list was to stop at any bakeries, as these seemed rare, and we did not spot any markets.
The houses and churches were still fun. For example, let's buy one of these (not that they are for sale!):
In the church department, there was the Priory Church of Cunault. The main thing here was possibly the very old and fading frescoes. The fading is understandable, since the current structure - begun around 1100 - was finished in the 1300's. The church is also big on Gregorian chanting, though of course we can not be around long enough to hear an actual performance. There were many panels up in the back of the church, giving more detail that you would ever want on the history and practice of the chants.
Outside the church we ran into a German cyclist, Elena, from Berlin. She had started in Tours and would go up to Brittany before following the Atlantic coast back south. We found that Elena had lived also in Leipzig, where we have some friends, and we enjoyed impressing her with our vast knowledge by mentioning the little known Leipzig suburb of Markranstadt.
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Another good church was the priory in St Remy, with its medieval gardens and 12th century fresco, and the massive St Mathurin church, across the river.
Once we did cross the river at St Remy we had 20 km of somewhat boring travel through more newly constructed suburbs, or generally uninspiring housing. The exception is a dramatic change in construction materials from the stone houses we had become accustomed to on the Thouet. Here, tuffeau (soft limestone) is king, followed by slate. The slate is her because on the east side of Anger is a huge slate deposit, which fostered much extraction industry. If you go through the former quarries, you are in a world of slate. This turns up in stacked slate garden walls, and slate walls for houses, not to mention slate roofs!
Dodie temporarily lost the location of our booked hotel, but she had noticed that it is near Decathlon. So when we saw a sign for Decathlon, with a map on it, off we went.
We never need much excuse to visit an outdoors store, and this was a nice big Decathlon. Dodie talked the security guard into watching our bikes, inside the store! That a gave us a great chance to cruise the aisles, commenting on everything. Something we really liked was kids' bikes already equipped with fenders and racks, ready to hit the trails. But the best was probably a rain cape, well designed to be held in place at the wrists and legs. A cape can be good, because it solves the problem of condensation, and can also be made of really impermeable fabric. Dodie was in the market for something like this because her "Rainlegs", bought with much enthusiasm in Holland last year, had completely failed - the waterproof coating just flaking away.
From Decathlon it was easy to find our hotel, the Bagatelle. This is a business type hotel, in an industrial park type area. At 44 euros, the price is right. But I think this one establishes the standard for how small a hotel room can get. From the double bed, there is two feet of clearance on either side and at the foot. I "commented" on this and Dodie said quit complaining. That is, until she found herself tripping over herself trying to move about. Dodie has to trip over herself, because I have been scrunched in a corner, staying out of the way!
Today's ride: 69 km (43 miles)
Total: 3,421 km (2,124 miles)
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