After the first four days I decided that a rest day would be good, just as in the Tour de France, as it would allow me time to do the usual press conferences and empty the chemical toilet in the campervan. It actually turned out to be a good day to be not on the road, as by early afternoon a series of thunderstorms rolled in and there was heavy rain on and off until the evening. This made it quite good to be sitting under the awning by the campervan trying to catch up with emails publicising the ride and updating people we were going to be visiting. I also realised that since starting the ride I had been forgetting to take my blood pressure tablets, but when I plugged myself into the blood pressure monitor I had brought I found that my pressure was 10 mm down on both measures. Which leads me to conclude that blood pressure can be reduced by drinking ½ L of Breton cider every evening at 6 o’clock. Or by cycling 60 miles in 30° temperatures. Or both.
Today dawned misty, but with a clear blue sky above, so it looked as if it would all turn well. 1 September: Autumn has arrived. We had camped about 10 miles north of Les Sables so the first hour of the ride took me through the pine forests and marshes, beautiful in the early morning sunshine. As usual, the roads were very quiet. I then had to navigate through Les Sables, but as the tourist season has well and truly finished here it was all pleasantly quiet, and my trip through the city was made even better by finding a boulangerie selling excellent pains au chocolat. I packed two into my saddlebag and continued south along the corniche, past the empty beaches and holiday apartments, the closed campsites and a fair number of elderly leisure cyclists pedalling gently along the cycle paths.
The corniche at Les Sables d'Olonne
At about 11 I reached Bourgenay and spotted the Cafe Albert, where I settled down for a café au lait and to eat my pains. I felt very much at peace with the world, looking at sunshine and the occasional tourists wandering by.
South from here my route took me along the Velodysee, which lies mainly along the coast, usually following back roads but taking one section over boardwalk bridges crossing the marshes through the pine forests. South of Les Sables the tourist towns are much smaller and lower key, much more to my taste, and I can almost imagine spending some more time here (if it were not for the other tourists in the summer).
At 1 o’clock I arrived at La Tranche sur Mer, a small seaside place with a few busy bars and restaurants along a short pedestrianised main street and a huge, empty beach, with views out across the bay to the Isle of Re. Sandwich time, and I spent some time reading the notice boards asking people not to leave their crap on the beach: the noticeboards explained how many years it takes cigarette ends to disappear (5 years), disposable coffee cups (1000 years).
After La Tranche the roads take a big circular detour around the marshes of l’Anse d’Aiguillon, so at one point I am actually cycling north, which meant that almost for the first time on this ride I had a steady tail wind. But going around in a circle meant that soon ended, and after a while I was back into a hot headwind. I stopped for a rest and to rely on the grass under the trees in the village of Champagne les Marais, and then on again. Soon after that I turned south to cycle along the D104, which turned out to be the worst 5 miles of the ride so far, a busy road, heavy lorries, not much provision for cyclists and I was glad to be able to turn right onto a side road to head to my final destination (I thought) of Marans. Unfortunately, when I plotted the coordinates of our meeting place into my GPS unit (a job I should have done miles previously) I discovered that I had to cycle back about 5 miles, much of which was into the fresh south-west headwind.
But, when I got there, Helen had already arrived and had unpacked the camping chairs and I could collapse. 74 miles done in the day, and, bizarrely, only 400 feet of ascending. 330 miles now done.
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