Le Grant Départ, Bonjour La Loire!

It begins! Our grand, 2500km adventure starts today. The only issue is that we cannot immediately locate the start. I want a huge sign, bunting, a marching band. Instead, I am roaming around a space just near a river estuary wondering which way I am supposed to go. East, I know, but where is this famous Eurovelo 6 route?

I am in Saint-Brevins-les-Pins, some 50km west of Nantes, were we spent last night. Reaching Saint-Brevins-les-Pins (with bikes) means a train trip from Nantes (easy, usually two per hour) to Saint Nazaire, and then a trip across the notorious (for cyclists) Saint Nazaire bridge – a 3km bridge that goes up and then down quite sharply and all reports warn cyclists against crossing. How to get across the bridge has been a question on my mind: the bus that takes bikes but which you have to book at least 24 hours ahead, but you can only book by phone and if you want to use the bus on the weekend you have to book by 12:30pm on Friday? Argh! Too many rules! Maybe the mythical taxi that has bike racks? No such thing said the woman in the Nantes tourist information office. But – we luck out! There is a free bus shuttle that runs daily in the summer. Unfortunately June is not considered summer here, but we have stumbled along on one of the weekends when it does run. It’s just a short ride from Saint Nazaire train station to the pick up point.

And so we are in Saint-Brevins-les-Pins hunting for the fanfare that signifies the start of this significant bike route. Of course, it is right under our noses. We just have to pay attention to the cyclists that are riding in; those who are finishing their own journeys here. There’s a sign, or rather a post. This point is the end of a number of bike journeys, not just Eurovelo 6.

Of course, we take an official starting photo, and we also take a few pictures of finishers as they come in.

Just as we are ready to set off, a man insists we follow him. There is a snake we must see! What? We have no choice but to follow him; he is so insistent. He drags along a few other cyclists as well. It turns out the snake is a giant sculpture – the bones of a giant sea serpent with the head staring out at the river. It’s pretty cool.

Then we are back to the business of the day. We mount our bikes and set off on the early kilometres of this grand adventure.

The first part of the route takes us right alongside the river and mud flats, which are populated by what I can only assume are fisher huts at the end of long jetties.

We pass many people coming in the other direction. There are way more finishers than starters today. In fact, I think we see only one other person heading in our direction throughout the whole day. The striking thing is that most people touring are older people (even older than us!) are there are definitely many e-bikes. Either people are getting lazy, or, as I would like to think, e-bikes are opening up cycle touring to a whole new set of people.

Less than 10km into the ride we pass through Corsept and shortly after that the route take us through farmland, along mostly dirt roads, pretty much always with the river in view.

It’s a warm to hot day, but the way is flat, and, in a first for first days on tour, our bikes are light. We’ve left all our luggage back in our hotel in Nantes, where we are also spending tonight. We are also sharing just two water bottles, as mine have mysteriously disappeared somewhere between Paris and Nantes. As today was supposed to be fairly short, we also have only some nuts and bananas to keep us going.

We arrive back in Nantes at about 4pm, very dusty, hot, tired, thirsty and hungry. Our hotel has a water fountain and I down several glasses before doing anything else and scoff a cake and a few biscuits. We really need a beer and something to eat, but I’m very keen to visit Les Machines de l’Ille, a gallery of animal-like machines that features a massive machine-elephant. Today is the only chance we have so we quickly shower and head out.

When we get there we have only an hour to view the gallery, which is only just enough. I love the machines, especially the hummingbirds, the iguana and the huge spider which rises out of its lair, but we have to join a group and follow around as each machine is demonstrated alongside a lengthy commentary in French. There’s an app to download that provides some other-language commentary, but that doesn’t add much to the experience.

We retreat to a nearby café to finally enjoy that end of ride beer, but the place has no food! Hungry, we abandon other plans and head straight back to the town centre, choose a restaurant and sit down, only to be told we have to wait another half hour, until 7:30, for food! Luckily the restaurant provides a bowl of olives, which we scarf, that tide us over until we can order food. It’s a three-course meal kind of day, with lots of calories to be replenished.

As a first day goes, it’s been pretty easy. Much easier than our first days in Poland and in Scotland. Lesson learned though: don’t skimp on the water, and always take lunch!

Stats for today:

• Distance: 61.27km
• Climb: 182m
• Average speed: 15.9km/h
• Average temperature: 26C
• Moving time: 3:51:13
• See our ride on Strava

The beer picture

At the end of a day’s ride, our tradition is to enjoy a beer, and to photograph it for posterity. Today’s beer picture was taken at a café near Les Machines de l’Ille. It was a most welcome and well-deserved beer!

Along the way today: