Ferry across the L' Authion

Another 40km ride today, into Angers and back. Lee's trying to kill me off, I think. 

Last year we just cycled along the roads to get to Angers, but this year Lee found a better route that was cycle route almost all the way. Some of it was still on roads, but they were mostly quiet country lanes or proper cycle paths. 


Even when you do have to join busier roads, they've almost always got a cycle lane, or separate cycle path next to them. France is totally set up for cycling which, in turn, means that more people cycle. 

At one point we had to cross the Authion river, but rather than a bridge there was a DIY ferry (of course there was, this is France)! It's basically a metal floating platform which has a chain running udnderneath it, which is anchored into the river bed.
You pull the chain to bring the ferry to your side, put your bikes on, then pull the chain at the other end to pull yourself across the river. 
Holding the ferry near the bank, so that Lee could put the bikes on

I admit, I was very skeptical about it when I first saw it, but it actually works really well. 

Hauling the little ferry across the river
The ferry, after we'd crossed the river

We had a little mooch around Angers, and the compulsory coffee stop, this time with a galette (savoury crepe), before making our way back. 

Picturesque old street in Angers 

An archeological dig outside the cathedral at Angers

Chateau d'Angers, again, just because it's beautiful 

We were hoping to get back before the rain that was forecast, but it caught up with us as we left Angers and we had a couple of very heavy showers, and yet more thunder. We were absolutely bogging by the time we arrived home, after the mucky water from the cycle paths had sprayed up our backs! 

It cleared away to a lovely evening, though, so there was time to sit out in the sun with my book. I didn't actually read the book - I fell asleep instead - but it was still nice to sit out!

Some pics of the local flora, below. You know I love but if plant ID-ing!

Sheeps bit

Navelwort

A Black Locust tree - smells beautiful - very similar to honeysuckle 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

The rain returned this morning, but it did stop long enough for us to have a little pootle around the local area.  From the campsite we went up in one direction, to a small village called Bois-de-Cise. It sits on top of the cliffs of the English Channel and all of the houses are styled very differently. The houses in Bois-de-Cise look like something out of a fairytale   The villas were mostly built during the Belle Epoque (1871 to 1914) Chapelle Sainte-Edith, built in 1912 From there we went back past the campsite and on to the nearby towns of Mers-les-Bains and Le Trèport.  They're your typical seaside towns, although quiet at this time of year. The buildings on the seafront in Mers-les-Bains are also from the Belle Epoque. The seafront buildings of Mers-les-Bains We turned off the main seafront in Le Trèport in the hope of finding a coffee that didn't require a bank loan, and found a really nice café/bar with coffees for 2€. The owner was about our age and had a great 8...
Read more

Tours be, or not Tours be

So, we got to Tours, after another 4hr drive. We went via Decathlon, for me (Lee reckons I've got radar for Decathlon as I find one wherever I go), and a car garage to pick up some grip mats for the van, in case we get a muddy pitch somewhere down the line. I'm still traumatised by last year's antics in Chartres, when we got stuck on the pitch, so hopefully the mats are more of a precaution.  We arrived at our campsite, Le Mignardières, on the outskirts of Tours, at about 4:45pm. They said they've had a lot of rain in the last couple of weeks, so some pitches were soggy, but they let us have a wander about and choose our pitch before we paid.  We're on a nice corner pitch near the swimming pool, so after we pitched up we went for a swim.  There's a nice little lake nit far from the site, and a restaurant across the road, so we'll probably take a walk around the area tomorrow evening. Tomorrow we're planning a local ride along the Loire cycle route, but f...
Read more