Europe 2014: Up the Loire River valley..

Yesterday and today's distance: 150km (94 Miles)

We camped out last night and were not able to put a Blog post out (sorry). Figured it would better to combine it with the next day anyway.

We left Nantes yesterday (Thursday) morning using our human GPS systems to figure out the best way to get out of the city and onto our route. The good part of our route for the next several days is that will not be too far from the Loire river. Navigating in a French city with French drivers is a lot different than Holland! My experience in the past driving in France is that the "leading fender" rule prevails; he who's fender is in front has the rightaway... We have found that they do respect bicyclists and give you plenty of room, even when you didn't exactly obey the posted road signs as Linda kindly pointed out I did several times.

We finally found the official "Loire Valley" bike path with great signs and directions so far on our trip. The road condition was pretty good in general other than the occasional "shake the fillings from your teeth" cobble stone roads left over from Napoleon. It typically was a combination of asphalt or crushed gravel on mostly dedicated bicycle paths. We did have to share the road with cars at times, but they were good about giving us plenty of space. These were mainly country roads with few cars or trucks anyway. And... so far the weather has been good, although a few degrees warmer than Holland.

The scenery has been nice, although a lot different than Holland. We were trying not to compare this part of our trip with what we had already done since we knew it would be so different. I will say that the French really seem to want to make their roads more bicycle friendly for locals and tourists, but have a lot of catching up to do to get to the level Holland has gotten with that infrastructure over many more years. The scenery in general is "wilder" and less organized. The homes and buildings typically have a sort of "unfinished" look to them whether a few hundred years old or relatively new. It has its own charm with painted shutters and wild flowers in the gardens..

Oh..., the other big thing we noticed is different is that they have hills here in France! Yes, some of those thigh burning, put it in the lowest gear possible kind! They are never very long, but do test the limits of steepness, especially for loaded bicycles. We have found them when the route leaves the river and goes into the nearby villages with surrounding vineyards. So far we haven't had to get off and push them up the hill, but you never know what is around the next corner..

One aspect that we really have liked is how friendly everyone has been, whether greeting us as we ride by or at the restaurants/stores. Linda has had lots of opportunities to use her french so far, and that has been well appreciated by the locals. I, on the other hand do lots of head nodding and smiling this time..

As I mentioned, we camped our first night out of Nantes in a town called Charlonnes-sur-Loire. We did our usual "put up the tent and then eat" routine only to discover that most of the restaurants in the smaller towns don't open for dinner until after 7pm. That left us plenty of time to loiter around until we found one that would atleast let us sit down and allow us to order drinks.

The meal was delicious along with the two carafes of red wine we had because it took so long. Anyway, we made it safely back to the tent in the dark with our trusty lights ablaze on the bikes.

Today we decided to make it a shorter day when we found a neat little town on the banks of the Loire in a town called Le Thoureil. Checked the local Information Center who directed us to a Bed & Breakfast nearby, where we are now. Great place right next to an apple orchard and a vineyard. We hope to taste some of the local wines tonight at dinner.. Our B&B hostess kindly offered to make a reservation for us at a nice restaurant in the village and a loan of her car since it is starting to rain.

Till tomorrow (or the next day)..