La Loire à Vélo: days -2 & -1

I'm writing the first bit of this on the ferry from Portsmouth to Saint-Malo, which is gliding past the naval harbour ancient and modern on her way across the Channel to Brittany. I am ridiculously excited about the prospect of my first overseas bikepacking trip, and my first proper holiday in a while. It's all very well travelling for work but you rarely get any time to see anything, and work - while often fun, and a privilege - remains work.

So here I am, off for a pootle down the Loire. The Loire à Vélo is a well-ridden 600-900km route (depending on how many detours you take - my route is about 650km long) running between the Atlantic coast and Nevers, in central France. It's mostly off-road as far as I can work out, passes numerous chateaux and historic sites, and is pretty flat. 

Departure day started late as the ferry only left Portsmouth at 20:15. The train was uneventful - once it had cleared up in Woking and there was somewhere to sit. Then it was a short spin to the port, a bit of a wait to check in amongst the cars, a nice chat with the other cyclists waiting to board, and I left my trusty steed with the friendly Frenchman in charge of securing the bikes. I booked a four-berth cabin and appear to have it to myself, a win; a decent dinner and a couple of wines have happily whiled away the time while the boat has been heading out to sea. Tomorrow: a long day of trains down to Saint-Nazaire. 

Thursday opened with some relaxing wake up music on the ship and an easy disembarkation. I dumped my panniers at a left-luggage place and locked my bike up outside the old town of St Malo before finding breakfast and then having a pleasant mooch around the ramparts encircling the old town. I popped into the cathedral to find a choir rehearsing Handel as part of the St Malo Festival, which was a nice extra. Then with a bit more time on my hands I hopped on the bike and tootled along the prom by the beach, which was delightful. St Malo is a great little town, I wanted a swim in the 1930s lido and would have been perfectly happy to spend a couple of days there.

But the onward journey called. The first leg was to Rennes, a fairly straightforward 50 minute journey, and with a couple of hours to kill I found a café in a park for lunch and then rode back to the station through the centre of the city. Another nice place - the capital of Brittany, and it was nice that the signs were in Breton as well as French.

Then I had another two legs on the train; first Rennes to Nantes, including the last bit along the Loire from Ancenis which was my journey home from work on my year abroad when I lived in Nantes but worked at a lycée in Ancenis. Then Nantes to St Nazaire. All the trains have been bang on time, there's been space for my bike and generally it's been a very easy journey.