France 2023

On By CeciliaIn Europe, solo travel, Travel

Road tripping through the west of France by car and bicycle for almost 3 weeks in September 2023. I drove to an idyllic B&B in the Loire Valley. After 3 nights there I left my car at this B&B and spent a week cycling eastbound along the river Loire, visiting lovely towns and castles along the way. More altitude meters than expected and the weather was super hot, but it was really nice.

After that week I took a train back to the B&B, spent another night there and then drove my car to La Rochelle to visit my college friend Stefanie and her family. I spent a couple of days on Île de Ré while Stefanie had to work. After that I spent 2 more days with Stefanie. Then drove back north to stay in a wonderful ecolodge in a forest, and used Lille as a stopover on the way back home.

My (100% muscle powered) transport and luggage for 7 days without the car (not camping but staying in hotels and an apartment)

Total cycled:

  • 323 kilometers and 1,435 altitude meters (200 miles/ ^ 4,708 feet) in 6 cycle days in the Loire region. (The altitude meters are mainly because of the fact I deviated from the official Eurovélo route a lot of the time.)
  • 87 kilometers and 130 altitude meters (54 miles/ ^ 427 feet) in 2 cycle days on Île de Ré.

Itinerary (car and bike)

Click for cycling routes:

Some days around Angers

After 2 days of driving I wanted a few easy days so I spent those in a lovely studio with kitchen in a B&B La Bohal’Loire about 18 km east of the city of Angers along the river Loire. It was nice to cook my own meals and enjoy them on my terrace in the nice garden, being visited by their friendly cat every now and then. The nearest restaurant was 5 km a way. The owners were a friendly couple. The lady gave me these two huge tomatoes.

On the first day I did a 50 km bike ride, had lunch in a small town recommended by the B&B owner, and went for a swim in a lake that branches off the river because it was 33 degrees Celsius (92 Fahrenheit). Something terrible happened: after my swim and while I was reading, suddenly lots of emergency staff appeared and a drowned boy was taken out of the water by divers. It was really shocking to see them drag his limp body out and to see them trying to resuscitate him. I heard people around me talking about ‘a little guy’, and from a distance it looked like an 8-year-old boy. It reminded me of a co-worker who lost his 5-year-old son to drowning. I cried. I left. The day after I learned that it had in fact been a 20-year-old man, apparently very slim and small… but that he had not made it.

That last little ferry was quite a challenge! The quay on this side is also 45 degrees steep (just like you can see on the other side of the river), and the current was pulling the heavy ferry away. So I had to pull the chain but at the same time jump onto the steep quay with my bike and all and not land in the water!

The next day I visited Château de Brissac by car. A castle with 7 floors and a huge park around it. Apparently a duchess had gotten fined in 1893 for ‘speeding’ in the forest with her automobile, namely an outrageous more than 20 km (12.4 miles) per hour. 🙂

Cycling day 1: La Bohal’Loire > Fontevraud (56km ^362m)

Before my trip I had agreed with the B&B owners that I could leave my car on their terrain for a week while I went cycling with part of my luggage. I had picked the Loire river valley because I’m not a fan of uphill cycling, but in the end there were quite a lot of hills and steep climbs in my week of cycling. This was also caused by the fact that I adapted the official route and added lots of gravel, meadows and forest paths. In 33 degree C (92F) heat that was intense but it forced me to really slow down and cycle uphill at walking speed if need be, and to take lots of breaks during the hot afternoons.

I passed really nice places on this first cycle day. Not only cave dwellings and art galleries in caves, and the old center and the castle of Saumur, but also some caves that you can cycle or walk through! And the cute terrace with a Renault 4 as beertap is Pico-Brasserie de la Loire Boole, in Chênehutte Trèves Cunault.

After the rather long (4 km), tough climb by bike up the hill to Fontevraud l’Abbaye, the hotel La Croix Blanche was a bit disappointing with a small and very hot room. But the breakfast was nice and offered some luxurious choices.

Cycling day 2 + rest day: Fontevraud > Tours (75km ^99m)

Another hot day so I started as early as the hotel breakfast allowed me. I had found the existing EuroVelo 6 cycle route online in cycle route planner Komoot and adjusted it by adding more gravel paths because 100% asphalt roads is a bit boring. But as it turned out I had accidentally also added in the occasional twisting mountainbike trail (oops, I’ve only mountainbiked once in my life and this trail was also right beside the river! I walked a few bits) and extremely bumpy grass paths, and more hills than were in the original route. So at times I strayed from my own planned route after all or took extra breaks in the shade to recover from the blasting sun. By the way, the official Eurovélo is not 100% asphalt either. It contains some easy but fun gravel paths as well.

I had a lunch stop in Villandry because the first place I had passed was at 11 a.m. and the restaurants there weren’t open yet. I did buy a fizzy drink from a funny guy who knew all kinds of swearwords in Dutch and in other languages. My new favorite sugary drink during / after sports in hot weather is Schweppes Agrumes, with grapefruit, mandarin, bitter orange and kalamansi lime. Really refreshing and energizing.

Tours is a lovely city! I spent 2 nights there, and a full day walking about 10 km to see the cathedral, museum, riverfront and old town square and lots of other parts of town. Also took a nap in the shade in a park. I stayed in the lovely Hôtel du Cygne very close to the cathedral and art museum, run by 2 friendly gay men and their cat. The decorations are beautiful, thankfully the room had airconditioning, and during the day you can grab some of the croissants that were left over from breakfast. I could park my bike in their courtyard.

Nope those were both not the real Mona Lisas… 😉

Cycling day 3: Tours > Amboise (31km ^239m)

Seems like a short ride but I was exhausted when I arrived. Yet again I had a little too many bumpy grass paths in my route. And in Amboise my apartment was up a steep hill that I had to go up 3 times because I took the wrong alley.

At the lunch restaurant the waiter was clumsy and unfriendly, he interrupted me every time in the middle of my order, but then he brought the wrong things the whole time as well, and in the end he grumbled when I only wanted to pay for what I had told him 3 times over (the cheapest 2 euro water, not the 6 euro one!). But the lunch itself was nice because I got talking with 2 old men at the next table who then asked me to come and sit with them, so we had some chats about our lives. My French is so rusty…

So apparently in the streets of Amboise it was even 38 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit).

Unfortunately I missed the house Leonardo da Vinci had lived in because I trusted the opening times that Google Maps mentioned. So I took another beer and then went over… to find out that it had closed just 1 minute ago (an hour earlier than Google said). And the next morning I wanted to get an early start for the long-ish ride to Blois in the blasting heat, and not waste time at that museum… Maybe some other time!

Cycling day 4 and rest day: Amboise > Blois (42km ^249m)

Oooops, on my iPad it’s harder to see the types of paths in my cycle route so yet again I had quite a few very bumpy grass and rock paths in my route (not showing in the photos). But it was nice ride again. I had lunch on a lovely riverside terrace called Le Lamantin qui Guinche (the squealing manatee), and a chat with a lady cyclist from the US.

My Hôtel de France et de Guise is a charming old building right next to Blois castle and with friendly staff. I could park my bike inside.

The next day I visited Château de Blois, and the cool museum La Fondation du Doute which shows all kinds of art from the Fluxus art movement (that apparently Yoko Ono and John Lennon also took part in).

Cycling day 5: Blois > Château de Chambord > Blois (54km ^324m)

Before having to catch my early evening train I still had a day but I had seen all I wanted to see in Blois. So I decided to cycle to Château de Chambord and I’m glad I did. It was very different from other castles I had passed along the way and which were usually part of a town or city. This one stood alone surrounded by beautiful meadows and forests. I did not take the time to enter it because my main goal that day was the bike ride itself.

I was back in Blois well on time for my 1hr 45min train ride back to Angers, and then a 19 km bike ride from Angers to my B&B in La Bohalle. This time I did not have the studio with kitchen but a beautiful room and breakfast included. My French was already a bit less rusty than the week before when I spoke to those same B&B owners. 🙂

Visiting Stefanie in La Rochelle

The next morning I drove to La Rochelle to spend time with my college friend from a (shocking) 30 years ago, Stefanie! And her French husband Michaël and their 15 year old son Maurice. It was so nice to spend time with her and catch up, see where she lives, walk through La Rochelle with my private guide 😉 and to have sushi on the beach. We also played all kinds of card games and games with dice with Michaël and Maurice.

Otherworldly Île de Ré

Stefanie had to work, and I was curious about Île de Ré that I’ve often heard people rave about, so after staying over at Stefanie’s for 1 night I then spent 3 nights in a luxurious glamping tent with bathroom and kitchen on Île de Ré. The only way I really enjoy camping. 🙂

I went cycling for 2 days and spent evenings on the beach right beside my campsite. Click for my cycle route details:

It’s indeed a stunningly beautiful island, some of the salt mining places and swamps look like another planet altogether.

This island is great for cycling, except that it’s great for cycling. What I mean is that thousands of people rent bikes on this rather small island, many of whom probably haven’t been on a bike for decades, or ever before in their lives! And some of those people thought it would be fun to rent an electric bike. I saw people who could not take curves, or could not even get on the bike without falling over. So it can be really dangerous for themselves but also for everyone around them. This is also the type of cyclist who, when you overtake them, gets skittish and steers towards the left (where you are). Despite the flat land and my feet not being attached to the pedals I still wore my helmet.

But I was very careful and only had a few near-crashes because of those dangerous beginners, no real crashes… I also used some trails that are rougher and that the signs don’t point to, so those were nice and quiet and offered beautiful vistas.

At one point one pedal seemed to be a bit too loose, it was ticking. I was afraid to make it worse by continuing, so I waited out the lunch time in a town, eating my own camembert sandwich that I’d brought, sitting on a nice ridge in the shade, and went to a bike rental shop as soon as it reopened. The friendly guy there fixed the pedal and refused to take money for it.

Stefanie had pointed out a secret very quiet beach with swimming holes in the rocks when the sea flows out. It was very nice and quiet indeed. In 1.5 hours only 2 people had passed. So when I wanted to change from my bikini back into my cycling pants I looked left and right, and changed clothes. Right after struggling to get the cycling pants back over my big white bum I discovered a lady was right behind me, LOL! She acted like she had not seen me at all and like she was taking pictures of the sea. I hope she no longer has nightmares about it.

Back to Stefanie in La Rochelle

It took a while to get off the island because people were driving their cars in the same clumsy and unpredictable way as they had been cycling, and the bridge is also a bottleneck. I spent yet another 2 days and a night’s sleepover with Stefanie and her family. It was so nice! We spent more time in the old center of La Rochelle, reminiscing about our student years, laughing a lot, playing music and dancing in her home, playing cards and dice, looking at her son’s beautiful tropical shells collection, visiting some sort of municipal botanical gardens with explanations by a guide, and a park with some live music by friends of her husband. I wish we lived closer to one another because spending actual time together is so much better than long-distance contact.

Last picture above: Coussin de belle mère = Mother-in-law’s pillow

Ecolodge under the trees

A bit expensive but I was so looking forward to this “Tiny Stay” ecolodge in a little forest. The Loire and my friend Stefanie had lured me to the west of France but scenery-wise most of the landscapes there aren’t really my cup of tea. Lots of empty grasslands and ghost towns, hardly any forests (or you have to really look for them), no mountains… for holidays I try to go to the Alps or other dramatic scenery as often as possible.

After all the hot sweaty days I was really looking forward to this stay in a forest (small as it may be), and to do absolutely nothing. The tiny house was not so tiny at all. I loved it. Every detail was considered. They even offered 3 ways to make coffee and the ingredients for it. From the bed I looked right out into the little forest and onto some other tiny houses that were far enough away to give lots of privacy. They can provide breakfast and even offer the option to order evening meals which they deliver and which you have to heat up yourself, both of the meals I ordered were very tasty. So I spent about 40 hours in and around my ecolodge, enjoying my book, the trees, the wind, the birds, and seeing a small deer in the meadow next to my lodge.

The ecolodge had a dry toilet (for humans) with sawdust, the note above by a kid in the guestbook says “such a cool stay and funny cat toilet” 🙂

Lille (Rijsel)

Wanting to break the journey home in two was a good excuse to finally visit Lille for the first time. Nice town, although I’m not sure if I’d go out of my way to visit it again. Walked from my lovely B&B (in an area with free parking) to the center for a few late afternoon / evening hours there. The Nôtre Dame de la Treille cathedral is butt ugly on the outside, apparently they could not afford a beautiful renovation of the façade, but inside it’s still very pretty.

Got way overcharged by a taxi driver late in the evening but was too tired to argue about it.

Back home

Despite my cat-sitter making good progress and being allowed to stroke Fiep, my cat was happy to have me back. And so was I 🙂

If you have any questions about cycling along the river Loire, the special summer-season bike trains and ordinary trains there, my routes (meant for gravelbike), or cycling on Île de Ré, just shoot me a message and I’ll try to help.

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