2022.05.14 – Saint-Nazaire ==> Nantes (71 kms | Total: 1039 kms)

During the night, I dreamed of crossing the Saint-Nazaire bridge over a dozen times. Luckily the actual crossing was much better than expected as we managed to cycle the entire length of the bridge (3kms). Once on the other side, we did a small detour to the official starting point of the EuroVelo Route 6 for some photo opportunities. Our road to Nantes was flat, but we faced head winds throughout our cycling day. On the bright side, we were pleased that the forecast for rain had disappeared. We saw more touring cyclists today than the entire previous week in France. At 50kms, we took a free ferry to the other side of the Loire river. We were glad to arrive at our hotel after a fairly long cycling day. We continued to struggle to find affordable restaurant options. We reverted to buy food items at a local grocery store for our evening meal.

2022.05.15 – Nantes ==> Nantes (0 kms | Total: 1039 kms)

We both had very sound sleep. As previously planned, we took a day of rest in the large town of Nantes. We stepped out of our hotel at 9:30am to have breakfast at a nearby McDonald’s. It provided a very different offering than the one we were familiar with in Canada. Needless to say, it was a very disappointing breakfast experience. The streets were very quiet on Sunday morning. It was only around noon that folks started to show up for walking, cycling or running. On our way back to the hotel, after walking 10+kms, we stopped at a fast food crêperie restaurant for a light lunch. During our afternoon rest in our hotel room, we updated our travel itinerary once again. We managed to find a good value South East Asian restaurant for our evening meal.

2022.05.16 – Nantes ==> Ingrandes-le-Fresne-sur-Loire (66 kms | Total: 1105 kms)

After a quick breakfast in our room, we retrieved the tandem from the hotel’s parking lot and loaded our panniers once again. We cycled a few kms against the morning rush hour commuter traffic before returning to our peaceful cycling environment. We covered a lot of distance in the morning as the road was flat and we were not slowed down by the wind. We stopped in the town of Ancenis (40kms) for a rest and shared a two course daily lunch meal at a restaurant nearby a local castle. The cycling continued to be easy and enjoyable right up to Ingrandes. We bought some grocery supplies before checking into our hotel – a full hour ahead of schedule. We had a delightful three-course evening meal at the hotel’s restaurant.

2022.05.17 – Ingrandes-le-Fresne-sur-Loire ==> Loire-Authion (60 kms | Total: 1165 kms)

After eating our usual breakfast staples in our hotel room, we promptly left our hotel and cycled up to the nearby bridge under construction. We walked and cycled across the bridge which was closed to car traffic. We found the cycling slower than usual as we faced a constant headwind while the sun shined strongly. After 40kms, we stopped at a deli in the town of Les Ponts de Cé for a light lunch while cooling down in the air conditioned environment. We were quite tired when we finally reached our gîte accommodation for the night. The true highlight of our day was joining our B&B hosts, Catherine and her husband Lionel, for an evening meal. Catherine spared no effort to prepare a wonderful home-made three-course meal. We enjoyed the good conversation and exchanges throughout our meal. We felt a bit more immerse into the French family life. Catherine and Lionel were exceptional hosts at making us welcomed and at ease.

2022.05.18 – Loire-Authion ==> Beaumont-en-Véron (67 kms | Total: 1232 kms)

Our B&B host, Catherine, surprised us this morning by presenting us with fried eggs in addition to all her homemade breakfast staples: baguette bread, croissants, cake, jams, juice and coffee. We were honored to have such a delicious “petit déjeuner” (breakfast). After taking a few farewell photos, we started our cycling day on quiet country roads. Early on, we felt the cycling was much easier than yesterday as the kms seemed to fly by. At mid point of our day, we stopped in the town of Saumur to check of a few bicycle shops. I had noticed during my tandem maintenance in Saint-Nazaire that the sidewalls of our front tire had suffered some abuse during our cycling on various gravel roads/trails in the UK. Although we could have waited until we get to Germany, Jenny was quite nervous about cycling without a backup tire. Hence, we managed to find a correctly sized tire at a Decathlon sport store. We continued to come across dozen and dozen of cyclists along La Loire river cycling route. Some cyclists had fully loaded bicycles while others barely had any luggage. It seemed like more than 50% of them were riding e-bikes (they were the cyclists always smiling!). The remainder of our cycling was enjoyable. Unfortunately, when we arrived at our hotel at 2:00pm, we learned that the hotel reception door only opened at 5:00pm. In order to kill some time, we cycled to a grocery store for some refreshments as the temperature had reached once again 30+C. Later, we found refuge in a nearby cafe/bar while having a light lunch. After finally checking into our room, we appreciated a good shower to wash away the many tiny flying bugs (moucherons [f] /gnats [e]) we collected along our way. Although our hotel’s restaurant was closed, we managed to have our diner at a nearby restaurant.

2022.05.19 – Beaumont-en-Véron ==> Tours (56 kms | Total: 1288 kms)

After enjoying our hotel’s breakfast, we rejoined our cycling route after a few kms. Cycling was quite pleasant. We had some light rain shower along the way. We encountered even more cyclists on the road today. We cycled into Tours in early afternoon and checked-in to our hotel by 1:00pm. We went to the grocery store for some snacks and fruits. We learned that our hotel’s A/C was out of order until the month of June. We walked over to a busy restaurant/pub district for our evening meal covering another 8kms.

2022.05.20 – Tours ==> Tours (0 kms | Total: 1288 kms)

After a relaxing breakfast at the hotel, I finally replaced our front tire and did an extensive cleaning of the dirt grim on the tandem. Later morning, we walked over to the town’s botanical garden – while stopping along the way at a H&M clothes store. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at Portuguese restaurant to make reservation for our evening meal and indulged ourselves with some gelato. We took a rest in our hotel before heading out for our evening meal. We walked over 17kms throughout our day in Tours.