Day 15: Les Rosiers sur Loire to Angers-Joe's comments now up

August 24, 2024

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The early part of today's ride consisted of very pleasant cruising through "typical" French scenes of boats on the Loire, stone buildings, and unique roof designs.

Way out on the river, can anyone ID this duck?

Some of the sights were familiar from past trips, such as the little 19th century chapel with the outdoor statues.

The real highlight of the day came as we reached the Authion river, near Trélazé, on the threshold of Angers. Twice before we have come to this river, which is crossed by a little ferry that you pull across on your own with a chain (bac a chaine), and twice we failed to make it. The first time, the ferry was out of service, being moored in the middle of the river, and the second time the road to the ferry was barrée. So we approached the crossing this time with some anticipation (trepidation). It turned out that the ferry was there in good order. However, there was still the "fun" of balancing the bikes on board, and pulling across, despite a cross wind. A sign said if the wind is too high, forget it. But we only read that once the crossings were done!

Need to pull the bac as close as possible to our shore.

Get some bikes on board. Amelia points the way to go next.

Pulling the chain draws the bac to the other side.

The next big thing is our arrival at the slate quarry park, a site where for years slate was extracted from the ground for roofing and walls, leaving pits that later filled to become ponds.

This kid is really just trying out the slate slab, but today we have also cycled the furthest of any on the trip.

The former slate quarry area is full of bits of slate that were not used. There are actually some quite high mountains of them. The kids were able to sort through looking for souvenirs.

The slate is still very much visible in this area, in buildings and in walls, cleverly constructed without mortar.

Entering Angers, here is the St Leonard church, made of slate.

Once we were in Angers we took the opportunity to stop at a bakery (of course), and a grocery. I noticed some boxes stacked outside, and a window poster, and these give a bit of an insight into current French culture. The box displays a militant approach from farmers, who ask for your support by buying their fresh harvest. Similarly, the poster asks that you support the local bakery that you love.

Our hotel in Angers this time is near the train station, convenient for when we will need to train on to Nantes, day after tomorrow. However we did take a walk into downtown, looking for a restaurant. Once again, on this walk, we noticed how lovely, and sort of Parisian, the town is. Tomorrow we will go out for a real tour around, and will have some photos to illustrate how nice the place is.

Joe: (Joe had commented on his photos below, but the hotel internet lost it. Tomorrow we'll get him to re enter!) See how he has some of his own shots of the bac crossing, with salutes from the crew.

look some randome strangers in a boat!!!

Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 355 km (220 miles)

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