Day 52: Les Ponts de Cé to Ancenis

May 17, 2018

We went from our hotel back to Decathlon, now closed of course - good thing! This Decathlon is quite remarkable, because to foster sport development (and sales!) they have a lot of play space in and around the store. Here is one shot from yesterday that I neglected to put in:

Decathlon at Ports de Ce, near Angers. Customer in training.

Behind Decathlon is the passerelle that puts us directly back on the bike route, after crossing the small Authion river. I wanted to put in a Google Map to illustrate this, but Google absolutely will not recognize the bicycle bridge. That's why we were lucky to find the Decathlon ad, with map, yesterday.

We did not stay on the bike path for very long at all, because in truth our first objective was the post office in Les Ponts de Ce village. According to Google (yes, the same Google of passerelle fame) that office would open at 8:30. But when we got there, the time turned out to be 9:00. We pulled out the computer and found the next post office down the route. But by the time we had achieved this, it was already 8:45. So we took the grand tour of Les Ponts de Ce - three times! The main feature of the town is a little chateau, which was built to take advantage of the strategic location at the southern gates of Angers. We also found a three star hotel on a back street, that also claimed to be listed in the Michelin guide. "But, no stars", I sniffed.

From when the post office opened it took a half hour to get the parcels on their way. That is about par for the course. We were not really worried about the time, because Ancenis, our destination, was not really all that far and especially - we knew the route to be dead flat.

Because this is the Loire, the route is necessarily beautiful and restful. We were often just beside the broad river, with its sandbars. Of course there were the usual annoyances, like turnstyle type arrangements, designed to protect the path from what? elephants?

If not right by the river, we were on small roads, passing cute cottages, usually with a lot of flowers. Stone walls, usually formed from slate are popular here, so there were lots of examples of flowers along walls, like this:

The flowered wall theme was extended when around Ste Gemmes we came to a little Mediterranean garden. This featured mediterranean type plants, most nicely labelled. One particular one that we liked might be called (in French) Laurier Rose. Does anybody know this one?

Peaceful trail side flora continued as a theme for the day. We came to one area that was designated a community pasture, a "Common" I guess, in British usage. This had a very relaxed small herd of Charollais cattle. It also featured pollarded trees, where the branches are cut from a main trunk for continual production of fire wood. It was all billed as very environmental.

Specially pleasant was an area between Epire and Savenierres. The path was a bit elevated there, offering views of the river and passing through vineyards. We found the vines above and river or houses below made for some nice scenery.

The section culminated at Savennieres, a very pretty village that boasts the oldest church in this Anjou region. This St Pierre church has parts that stem from the tenth century, with others added up to the fifteenth. It is most known for its brick and slate walls, which are very attractive indeed.

Inside - a Norman church, with mostly roman arches

While we were outside the church a woman walking by stopped to talk. We learned that she lived in Paris but had recently moved from here. She was back to clear out her house to get it ready to be sold. We have found this kind of casual and friendly sharing by people of what they are up to to be common. Strangers, at least in small towns in France, very easily converse with each other, and surprisingly, with us.

The path takes a run down a long island, called Ile de Chalonnes. This is a fairly unremarkable area, except that along the way is a something called the Lenin Cafe. Each time we pass here, it is closed. But it still catches our attention for the large poster of Lenin on the front, and for wondering what is in its always closed "free museum". Here are our latest, if unchanging, photos of the Lenin cafe.

Lenin seems to be offering a beer, while Marx looks on.

As soon as you cross the bridge off the island, you come to another weird artifact. It's a giant arch accompanied by other holes and arches in a cliff face. A sign indicates this is the entrance to a coal mine, plus lime kilns. Residences have been built all around this relic, making a very strange scene.

...and not to be outdone by the coal mine, we found a group of women in Montjean wool bombing a chicken!

Churches can be very attractive, in many ways. To the one in Savonierres we can add this striped beauty, Notre Dame du Marillais.

Something about the location of Ancenis, just 30 km from Nantes, seems to catch us every time we go through. In the past we had discovered only one really viable place to stay - the Brit Hotel - over on the "wrong" side of the tracks. For some reason, Dodie does not like this perfectly normal spot. So this time we looked a little harder, and came up with the Castel Magnolia B&B. This was made famous by fellow France cyclist John Fleckner, who stayed here in 2015. He wrote about the high ceilings and the gracious hostess - Delphine.

We found it all true. Especially Delphine, who greeted us most warmly, including with a kiss. (That would be a French kiss - no, not a French Kiss, what kind of a blog do you think this is!)

Delphine also came to the rescue, helping to save us from Pentecote. Pentecote is the 5 day weekend, from today (Thursday) until Monday, on which everything is closed and all accommodation is full. Delphine put in a lot of phone time, and found us a place to stay Saturday night, when we will be on the way toward Brittany.

The Magnolia after which the place is named is right in front of the house. Here is Delphine up in the tree, working on pruning.

And, one final image from today's ride:

Bonus:

Ride with us for a few seconds. Here we are joyously coasting downhill into La Possonierre.

Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 3,496 km (2,171 miles)

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