In which Sid and Doris cross the Loire and visit the largest contemporary line of megaliths in the world.
Our small road route to Ancenis on the Loire took us across some hills and what might (we hope) be our last gravel track. From the top of the last hill at Saint Florentine Le Vieil we could look across the Loire plain. The picture which is apparently of a large corn field does not see what the eye or mind saw, but will have to stand as a reminder.
We passed a field with a commemorative stone, recalling the signing of the peace treaty of St Florent le Vieil in 1795. More research here when we have better WiFi.
We skewed the route to meet the Loire to the East of our crossing, for the fun of running by the river. In preparation for the excitement of the Loire-side stretch we invented the game of Chat-eau. You get one point for spotting a chateau, and then extra points for any very chateau-esque elements, for example pointy towers, topiaried bushes, a moat etc. Negative points for anything anachronistic such as solar panels or car parks. We practiced it going down the hill towards the Loire and it worked well, so Let Battle Commence. We cycled on with eyes peeled…
As ever we dearly love a flood marker. Here at Lire the Loire is quite wide but at this time of year (ie not flood time) it looks shallow so Sid was amazed to find a river cruiser turning around at Ancenis. It just does not look navigable.
Ancenis marked the far end of our Loire-side stretch and by then the game of Chat-eau stood at a staggering nil points all. We had expected better of the Loire, frankly. Even the chateau at Ancenis itself was a disappointment scoring 3 points for features but minus 2 for anachronisms. We found second breakfast and lunch from a snack cafe also found by a couple of Dutch electric bike tourers.
Outside Ancenis we found the route down a Bonaparte road with Macron traffic. Not good so we went for an added mileage reroute. Doris dearly loves a dolmen or menhir so the hit of the day was Sid spotting Mouzeil’s sculpture park in a field by our new route. It is rather like Avebury though the stones are less weathered. But give it a few thousand years.
Nature notes: this morning we saw a large flock of dunlin, perhaps getting ready to migrate? Animals other than farm animals have been hard to see live. Best sight today, a frog hopping into the fountain at the sculpture park and frogs in the pond by our dinner table.
The rest of our 77 kilometres and 550 meters of climb felt rather wearying. The routing ignored a small and direct road from Joue sur Erdre to Abbaretz (which village is well to one side of our hotel) in favour of tracks that might have been quite useful on foot or scramble bike as long as you pretended not to read the Propriete Privee signs. This left us bashing around within hailing distance of the hotel to find real roads. On the one hand it took us to the sculpture park on the other it took us to the forest paths. Maybe a score draw.
The Manoir de la Jahoterie is a Relais du Silence. Our room is large with antique furniture and has a fine south facing, garden view. Now we sit in dappled shade, streams gurgle, frogs play in their pond, birds sing, shadows lengthen and hark we hear the beer clock chime. It seems more than 77 kilometres from Beaupreau.
