Yesterday, Sept 2nd, we had breakfast in Bordeaux then caught a train to La Rochelle.
There was no space on the intercity for any cycles (vélos) so we had to travel on the TER train, which basically stops at every station, but is free for vélos!😀.
Great; but everyone else likes “free”, so are trying to get their bike on board. It was a very stressful bun fight; trying to board two laden electric bikes onto a pretty full train!!😡
Lifts weren’t big enough so you either had to push bikes up stairs or wheelie them into lifts!
2hrs :30 mins later we arrived in La Rochelle.
A much nicer grand station. With a 3 hour wait for our next train. We had a pedal around the pretty town and had a great lunch. We even managed a trip on La Rochelle Eye!
On route to Nantes, after another chaotic boarding. The young vélo controller badly tied our bikes up with 2 others and after a few miles they all came crashing down it the aisle🤬 Sue’s was badly scratched and my mirror popped off.
At this point we decided that trains and laden electric bikes don’t work!!
After a 1:30hr ride, we finally arrived at our starting destination: Nantes, exhausted!
We finished our day in a nice Irish bar in the centre, by the cathedral, where the best bars are usually found!!
Day 3
Recovery day.
Nantes is a lovely city with nearly as many bikes as Amsterdam!!
Another hot day forecast so we decided to take our bikes to the Animal Machine site on the Isle de Nantes in the middle of the Loire.
A fascinating place, where we ended up riding a huge mechanical 50 ton elephant; instead of a bike for a change!
Other animal machines were also interesting, but the jumbo was the best.
Tomorrow we start cycling on the Euro Vélo 6 towards the east. Unfortunately it’s forecast to be a strong headwind and hot again, so we plan on an early start.
Euro Vélo Route 6 