If you are one of the Irish contingent reading this you will know what I mean when I say that it was a soft day (talking about the weather not the cycling). It sort of drizzled with varying degrees of intensity for most of the day, however unlike a soft Irish day it was very windy - a headwind of course! We left Pornic on the Velodyssey route but abandoned when it started to disappear down a rough farm track. We also noticed that one of the roads it uses is only possible at low tide - if you got there and couldn't cross the causeway it would be a monstrous diversion, so we bailed out early and slid round the potential obstacle. Navigation was even worse than previous days, not helped by heavy traffic and bad weather. In fact I have to ( reluctantly) admit that if the Mechanic didn't have a compass on his handlebars we would probably still be circling St Jean de Mont!
We did our longest day so far - 76 miles- and even then had cut a few corners. If anyone can come up with a good reason why the French don't use road signs pointing to places that the road actually goes to, please let me know. We did manage a few quiet roads, but navigation issues and distance meant that we did more than we would have liked on busy routes. One thing that took us by surprise was the Sunday opening hours here. If supermarkets are open at all on Sunday it is morning only. We sat outside a (closed) hypermarket at 1.30pm having lunch and sheltering from the rain in the entrance, while hordes of people cruised slowly past in their cars checking to see if it was open. We rode through a couple of big sea-side resorts straight after lunch and can report that on a wet, windy Sunday afternoon a French sea-side resort looks much the same s a UK one, with fewer anoraks on display!
We have noticed that in the main French drivers are really considerate when it comes to cyclists - but it appears that on a Sunday afternoon all bets are off!! We are now comfortably settled in our accommodation for the next two night, as tomorrow is a non cycling day. We have a small holiday apartment on the coast at Les Sables d'Olonne and don't have o pack the panniers tonight, which is a big deal on a holiday like this.
I said I would tell you about the fat and sugar hits here - the only word is rubbish! Where are Zingers when you need them??? Fussy little 'pastries' are no substitute for zingers / twinkies / Mississipi mud pies and Grandmas cookies. As well as the strange tale of the eclairs I can exclusively reveal that we bought fresh milk (allegedly) with a sell by date in mid September, only to discover that it had already gone off.........
Pictures today include proof positive that French farmers are an odd lot and some pictures of previous days in better weather
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