It’s getting easier! A good porridge based breakfast, croissants for mid morning and a baguette with cheese and tomato for lunch is all that is needed.
I set off from the campsite through tiny lanes and I needed to stop and navigate at each turn which took nearly an hour for the 10km to the Voie Verte. There was lots of interesting villages often with massive churches which also acted as a distraction. Once on the cycle track things picked up, it was tarmac all the way to Questembert. There seemed to be some steady climbing, so I’m not sure whether the disused railway saved me some horrors on the roads. The Voie Verte was very quiet (but even the weekend hadn’t been that busy), met a guy coming the other way on a really trick looking mobility hand cycle, he was lying completely flat on his back and really going for it. Couldn’t think of anywhere in the UK he could do that – over 40km of pretty much un-interrupted tarmac, and he could even get under the barriers without stopping!


My route then put me on the D1, which was a really nice road and had plenty of options to divert into small towns and then back on the main road. Headed to Arzal and Le Barrage, which was unsurprisingly a dam! There was a dam and locks across the La Vilaine estuary. I haven’t got into the french time zone yet, and with most (all) the food shops shut at midday and I hadn’t picked up any lunch. I had a hunch that the “Epicer du Port” that I spotted on the online mapping would be open, it paid off. It served the yacht harbour, and provided suitable supplies for a picnic by the barrage.
After the barrage, there were a whole string of small roads, eventually led me to a number of kilometers of stoney farm tracks. One of the advantages, and disadvantages, of google mapping is that it can lead you well off the beaten track by setting a straight line, but with no regard to the surface.
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I made good time into Pornichet – a beach resort to the west of St Nazaire and I adapted the route to go past a Carrefour supermarket for food. I found a site (not exactly the one I was heading for, but very close) and the gardener told me it was €10 (reasonable as last night was €9) and to pay in the morning. Had a massive pasta dinner, and a very large bottle of beer, which I managed to knock over on myself, calling for some late night laundry!


