Day 11 - Saujon to La Rochelle

Distance cycled today 53 miles
Distance cycled since Modbury 453 miles

Another great hotel last night with the best shower that I've ever used - one with a big "drencher" head and a separate "wand", presumably for cleaning those parts that other showers just don't reach! Also a heated towel rail again.
The staff were so friendly and the food was good. As we were on demi-pension, food choice was limited but not disappointing - potato and mozzarella gallette (plus salad)entrees, pork chops on couscous for mains, and apple tart for me, yoghurty dish with raspberry coulis for Rob. A modicum of alcohol, including pineau, and a coffee got us in the mood for the Chelsea match.

Tonight, we've booked ahead at the Kyriad La Rochelle Centre for 100 euros B and B for us both (OK for La Rochelle which is expensive)and they've promised to garage the bikes somewhere. The hotel is not far from Quai Valin and Le Yachtman which will mean something to my Mum, Dad and brother, as it was somewhere we visited in the 1960s!

We got going at 8.45am and knew it was going to be mentally tougher than the previous 3 days as the area was much busier and there was a more complicated road arrangement to negotiate if we were to keep to quieter roads. We were also off my photocopied map pages and on a proper map, which is a pig to fold so that you see what you want to see in the map holder.

The temperature was just 9C and overnight rain had cleared to leave a bright sky.......for an hour. We found our intended route and ambled northwards, stopping twice to shelter from showers that we knew would pass. We got to Rochefort at 12, stopped for a bite to eat and get our bearings........and it rained, becoming steadily heavier. Bus shelters are a boon in this situation and after 45 minutes hogging one, it eased and we got underway again. 2 miles outside Rochefort was bone dry, without any hint of rain and as we headed for La Rochelle on the EuroVelo 1 (EV1) cycle track, we basked in sunshine, so much so that I was able to remove my Spartacus outfit and waterproof top!

I've sung the praises of EV1 as a terrific cycle track down in the Landes. That was there. This was different. The road signpost said La Rochelle 25km. EV1 said 40km. What?!!
Let me explain. This sodding cycle track followed every tourist attraction - we visited beachs, headlands, estuaries and inlets and we literally went round and round the houses. The surface was sometimes tarmac, other times sand or chippings or grit. It went up and down kerbs that you needed crampons to negotiate. Whoever designed EV1 in this part of the country must have been having a laugh. This is meant to be a long distance cycle route across Europe. Bikes loaded with luggage do not like loose surfaces, are not meant to negotiate kerbs, and if someone's planning to cycle 1200km (like us), we don't want to do 50 percent more !!

We reached La Rochelle at 4pm, after giving up on EV1 near the end. (We couldn't readily give up earlier as the main road is now a motorway, as we discovered when I led Rob up the slip road.........again)

Wow, has La Rochelle changed. OK it was 27 years ago that I was here last but it's really been developed and it still looks a beautiful city....and it was sunny, with blue skies and fluffy white clouds and warm(ish).

We cycled around the Port des Minimes, somewhere I took my own family in the 1980s and saw the apartment that we rented, but our favourite restaurant has sadly gone or been renamed. Not really that surprising.

A second rest day is scheduled for Day 12 and, having found the hotel to be of a decent standard, with the bikes locked away safely in a warm boiler room, we're staying in La Rochelle tomorrow as there's plenty to see and do.

Many thanks to Nigel, Kath and family for their kind donation. Thanks also for your Comment, Steve - it was short-grain rice, by the way.

Photos:
Donning wet weather gear in a bus shelter in Rochefort
A sunny Chatelaillon Plage
The turrets that guard the entrance to La Rochelle port