La Loire à Vélo: day 5

SAUMUR TO SAVONNIERES

76.4km

280m elevation gain 

Everything pretty much worked out today. I'd decided to detour to see the Abbaye Royale in Fontevraud and was worried it would add a lot to the journey, but as it happened most of the riding after that detour was dead easy - flat and with a tailwind - so the extra few kilometres didn't matter.

Before Fontevraud the route took me past some troglodyte villages, which were interesting to see. After, it was through attractive countryside and the last bit was along the levée by the Loire, which was a great bit of path. 

Fontevraud was interesting. It was an abbey for many years, before becoming a prison in the 19th century until the 1960s when they started restoring it to former glory. It's kind of modern in some ways, accentuated by there being a modern art trail going on with random art in random places. Some of it worked and some of it didn't. Fontevraud is also the last resting place of Eleanor of Aquitaine, all-round badass medieval queen and a many many great grandmother on my dad's side. So it was cool to see her tomb.

I then rolled along for 50km with a break for lunch before stopping again at the Chateau de Villandry, very close to my campsite for the evening. This is another castle dating from the medieval era before they added bits later on; these days it's largely known for its amazing gardens. They're stupendous. They have ornamental kitchen gardens where they plant vegetables by colour to create patterns best seen from the chateau itself. It rained, but mostly when I was inside, and anyway the rain is needed.

I then zipped along the last little bit to the campsite, set up, and after a wander am having more pancakes for tea by the bank of the river at a great little outside bar, where there was also a decent piano recital. Life could be much worse.

La Loire à Vélo: day 4

LES PONTS-DE-CE TO SAUMUR

54km

276m elevation gain

I had firm plans to leave early today but didn't really wake up until 8am. I slept with the door to my tent open to let air in as it was so very hot, but evidently managed to get a good night's sleep in.

Anyway I was on the road shortly after 9am with a pause to grab a pain au chocolat for breakfast - and I discovered there was a tailwind. It was glorious spinning along before it got too hot and I covered plenty of kilometres nice and quick. I took advantage of two of the extremely well-equipped rest areas en route - the one in Gennes even had showers! 

I chose the route away from the river for a bit which had some steep little climbs to enjoy. Took a little detour to see a museum in a cave of sculptures of local landmarks, which was fun albeit maybe a bit pricey for what it was. 

I was in Saumur for lunch, and then checked into my campsite where I have a huge pitch which is mostly a sandpit; found a spot which was basically level for the tent, and washed all my stuff as it smells terrible after the hot weather!

But I was early enough to then hop back on the bike and head over to see the castle - it's a proper fairytale castle in Saumur with an epic position above the river. There was an interesting exhibition of art by a female Afghan artist which worked quite well in the old rooms.

Then to finish the day, I'd booked on to a tour of one of the local wine cellars. Saumur has 1000km (!!!) of underground galleries and a lot of the wineries use them to mature their wines and store them. The Maison Grenelle was founded in 1859 and makes primarily fizz - Cremant de Loire and Blanc de Blancs. They have 3km of tunnels and keep a couple of million bottles underground, from anywhere between six months and nine years. The place is huge with so many bottles! Then we had a tasting of five of their wines, including the most expensive one which is a bit like champagne, and a fizzy red which was very pleasant.

Am having dinner on a boat opposite the castle and planning tomorrow; there are thunderstorms forecast and I have a longish day, which I'm considering making longer by going to Fontevraud Abbey which is 15 minutes out of the way but where the tomb of my (long, long, long ago) ancestor Eleanor of Aquitaine can be found. 

La Loire à Vélo: day 3

ANCENIS TO LES PONTS-DE-CE

75.3km

298m elevation gain 

Another hot day today. Ideally I'd have set off earlier, but I wanted to get the Ancenis stamp in my 'passport' and the tourist information office only opened at 10am. 

Much of the first 30km today were on paths of very fine gravel, which was nice to ride on but dusty as hell. My bike was covered, but it dusted off just as easily as it stuck on. I rolled happily through pretty villages and marvelled at how the river keeps changing as it goes - here, sandbanks and narrow channels; there, a strong stream flowing towards the Atlantic.

I detoured briefly up a steep hill in Montjean-sur-Loire for a view, and a short while later detoured in Chalonnes for another passport stamp and a baguette from the boulangerie. I was feeling fairly good after lunch, but then the headwind really kicked in and it got hot, so hot that despite fresh cold water in my bottles at the lunch stop they were warm and nasty very quickly. The 25km or so to Angers seemed to take forever, although the scenery remained worth looking at; it didn't help that I saw three 15km to Angers signs in a space of about 2km ...

In Angers I'd planned to leave my bike at a secure lockup at the station, but it was not functional when I arrived. I detoured back to the tourist office and discovered they had bike boxes - big secure lockers - so rather than risk leaving my bike and luggage on the street I paid my €3 and had more security. Sadly I left my phone in there too, but happily I remembered I could pay for stuff with my watch so I had a full two hours without any messages or anything.

I enjoyed going round Angers castle, particularly the Apocalypse Tapestry. This is apparently the largest medieval tapestry in existence and it's HUGE, three long walls of intricately embroidered panels in a room kept at a blissful 18°C. I also enjoyed popping into the cathedral, where someone was practising the organ. 

Still, it was good to get to tonight's campsite, set up and go for a swim in the large adjacent pool, and then have a supermarket tea of salad, pâté and goats' cheese with some red wine from the Loire Valley to wash it all down with.

Tomorrow I reach Saumur, sparkling wine country.

La Loire à Vélo: day 2

NANTES TO ANCENIS

43.7km

143m elevation gain

After the pause in Nantes, a short day to resume the cycling. Maybe too short in retrospect but the way the campsites worked out it kind of made sense.

After stopping by the Nantes tourist office for today's stamp in my 'passport', it was an easy run out of the city and on to the cycle paths. Everything today has been great cycling, very flat, with tons of other cyclists and barely any traffic.

The route stayed roughly close to the river most of the way; after about 20km it crossed over and then back again 10km later at Oudon. I stopped at Oudon to see their medieval castle, which has a very good keep where they had a few exhibits from a local (late) stonemason and excellent views from the roof. 

There was a small market in town and I bought some apricots and hoped for something lunchable, but most of the stuff was more ingredients and the boulangerie didn't sell sandwiches on Sundays. I ended up with a generous plate of meat and cheese and a diabolo menthe at the heaving café, which was excellent if more than I really needed.

It was then only another pleasant 10km to Ancenis, where I'm camping tonight. The lycée I taught at is here and I cycled up to look at it earlier before then going to the chateau, which is only an outside visit, and then dinner: another galette, and some Muscadet, as I will be leaving galette-and-Muscadet country shortly.

Next stop, Angers. 

La Loire à Vélo: a pause in Nantes

Okay, I know I've only cycled one day so far, but I didn't want to sail through without properly stopping in Nantes. 

During university I spent my year abroad - the third year of my French degree - in Nantes. It wasn't actually my first choice of city, but I didn't get assigned that one (Strasbourg) and ultimately I didn't mind in the end. Nantes was, and is, a great city. It has plenty of history and these days is leaning heavily into its old industrial heritage, as a centre for trade and the production of ships, sugar and biscuits among other things. I had a good year abroad, working 12 hours a week at a lycée upriver in Ancenis (more of Ancenis to come), and spending the rest of my time rowing, swimming and singing in a choir. When the school job ended I moved on to selling baby clothes and swimwear at a Decathlon for a few months. 

But I've not been back since leaving in summer 2001, which in retrospect is a mistake. Nantes in 2025 is buzzing, there's tons going on and frankly a day hasn't been long enough to see it all.

After a mooch around the area I used to live in yesterday evening, and dinner in a crêperie in the old quarter near the castle, today I set off to see new stuff. I started at the memorial to slavery, which is a moving monument built underground, the river flowing fast next to it. 

Then I crossed the river to the Ile de Nantes, which used to house the city shipyards and now houses restaurants, flats, the handball arena (sadly no matches on today) and the Machines de l'Ile. The Machines are a sort of steampunk artists collective, making vast puppet animals that move and interact with their audience. I'd left booking too late but did have a ticket for the Carrousel des Mondes Marines, where all the things moving are sea-themed - you get to pick what you ride on, I wanted a boat but a family got there first so I rode a dragon instead. Then I queued for a while to get into the Galeries des Machines, where they show a bunch more animals - the concept is that eventually they will build a "Heron Tree" with giant flying herons and other things, and there's a concept branch outside, but I have no idea if this will ever actually happen. Anyway, the machines are extremely cool and clever and it was worth the visit.

The best machine of the lot is one you can see without paying for, the great elephant that tours the site spraying water from its trunk at people. It's awesome. 

Next stop was the chateau, which was renovated and reopened to the public in 2007 and has a really excellent, comprehensive museum of the history of Nantes which I enjoyed and which took the best part of two hours to visit. I especially enjoyed the WW2 bits, which talked about the Nazi occupation of the city and had some interesting photos and so on.

Then I toured the tower of the old LU biscuit factory, which is a proper Nantes landmark, and finished up with a wander through the botanic gardens. Dinner was at La Cigale, an iconic restaurant I visited with Mum and Dad all those years ago which is known for its gorgeous tiled interior. Will probably try not to splash out like this every night...

I'm glad I took the time to revisit Nantes. Would highly recommend for a long weekend from the UK, to be honest; there's an airport or it's only a couple of hours from Paris on the TGV, and there's tons to see and do. I barely scratched the surface. Hopefully it won't be another 24 years before I return!

La Loire à Vélo: day 1

SAINT-BREVIN-LES-PINS to NANTES

64.4km (ish)

250m elevation gain

I had a leisurely start to day 1, as I wanted to stop by the tourist office in Saint-Brevin to buy a 'passport' and obviously had to wait for the office to open for that. Then I set off to find the route. My Garmin had a wobble and then I forgot to restart it so missed the beginning, but hey-ho. 

The route is extremely well signposted and the first section was all lovely gravel, flat and fine. On my left was the Loire estuary, with its ports and industrial facilities, on the right a little canal. Eventually the gravel turned into tarmac and after a bit away from the river the path found water again, along the Canal Maritime de la Basse Loire. This bit was frankly delightful, lots of cyclists and very little traffic.

I stopped for lunch after about 38km, enjoying a baguette sandwich by the river. I knew I was due to cross by one of the free ferries which runs over the Loire, but without properly consulting the route jumped on the one from the village I'd stopped in. Realised my mistake as I got off on the other side so jumped straight back on to resume the correct route.

There was more gravel and shaded paths but I never found the other ferry; at one point the route I'd planned in my Garmin diverged from the signs, and I found myself in slightly unknown (also slightly hilly) territory. Basically the Loire à Vélo has several points where you can go north or south of the river, but evidently there is a kind of priority route and it wasn't what I'd planned. The alternative was actually pretty nice and I picked up the planned route for the run into Nantes and up to my hotel, where I discovered I was too early for check-in. Eventually I got into my room, showered off the dust, popped to a nearby laundry as I already had enough stuff to warrant a wash, and then set out to reacquaint myself with a city I briefly called home.

That's for next time.

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.