Day 14 - La Roche sur Yon to Pornic

Distance cycled today 55 miles
Distance cycled since Modbury 559 miles
After our efforts yesterday, we did our "chores", last night, which didn't include laundry as we're just about up to date and, as it's a weekend, Rob didn't have much work to do either.
We then spent a bit of time planning our next stop and decided on Pornic on the coast, as it gives us a flyer over the St Nazaire bridge on Monday (we hope). We've booked into the Best Western in Pornic for 116 euros, B and B for both of us.
As our hotel last night conveniently didn't open their restaurant, Rob and I found a little Italian place around the corner and had lasagne with Ile Flottante for dessert (Rob) and pizza followed by rice pudding with a chocolate sauce for me. As usual this was washed down with a local accompaniment, all in the interests of research, you understand.
Our luck held in that it rained during our meal but was dry when we walked there and back.
I have MSN weather forecasts bookmarked on my Blackberry and they can provide 10 day forecasts for anywhere in the world. They're not always 100 percent reliable but they're not far out. Anyway, they are forecasting N, NNW or NW headwinds for the rest of our trip. This just goes to show that no matter how well you try to plan things (in our case, our South to North trip direction with the 'so called' prevailing winds), you cannot legislate for what will actually happen at the time. Perhaps, in years to come, we'll look back at 2013 with our grandchildren as one of the worst springtimes we've had, "when grandpa cycled 750 miles in that!"
There's a good case for keeping prepared for a cycle trip but not deciding exactly when and where to go until the very last minute, especially if you camp and are not reliant on hotel availability. Only feasible when you've retired, I guess.
We left our hotel after the usual hearty breakfast of coffee/tea, bread, pastries, fruit, cereals, cold meats, cheese and yoghurts (I don't know where Rob puts it all) at around 8.15. Yesterday was quiet but today, La Roche sur Yon was like a ghost town. We were on the right side of town for our intended route so made reasonable progress.
If yesterday was tough, today was tougher. We started in a temperature of just 6C (and it only rose to 11C all day), had a constant headwind only slightly less strong than yesterday and rain all day except for a short period at the end of the morning. These were grim conditions indeed and, for the first time on our trip, neither of us really enjoyed it. We passed a vineyard which offered wine tasting and mused how we once thought that we'd stop at places like these. But we were cold, wet and aching and our priority was to reach our destination.
Being superfit, we reached Les lucs sur Boulogne by 10.45 and stopped for a rest at the open air market where the stallholders got excited at the prospect of some customers! It was such a dismal day, I just don't know why they even set up their stalls. As we were getting cold, we stopped a bit further on and had hot chocolates in a busy little village bar. That was most welcome.
We entered the Department of the Loire Atlantique by 11am, got a bit lost and kept entering and leaving it, as we tried to find the right road from Lege. I'd bought a new set of Michelin maps at the end of 2012 but already they're out of date because roads have been renumbered. It isn't just my navigation, honest!
In Machecoul, there was a visiting German contingent in the closed-off town centre playing 'oompah' music. You've never heard such a racket!
We couldn't find anywhere to eat so pushed on.
We stopped in a bus shelter a few miles further on to draw breath. It was really a slog despite the terrain being little more than undulating. Rob heard a thump and found that a great-tit had flown into the perspex side of the bus shelter, why I've no idea. (That's probably why they call them great tits!) Anyway, Rob came to the rescue and gently lifted it onto a wall, out of harm's way, where it started to regain its senses (then fell off the wall!..........no, it didn't, that's just my daft sense of humour).
We continued to Fresnay en Retz where, at 1.30, we found another bar that did Rob a croque monsieur and me a panini, washed down with coffees. Quite a few local lads were there, playing table football and generally getting plastered. Just before we finished our second coffee at 2pm, the bar owner drew the curtains to block anyone passing from being able to see inside, and then served another round of drinks. Clearly, this was the French version of a "lock-in"!
We finally reached our hotel at 3.45 having averaged 11mph for the 5 hours that we cycled. I can assure you that that is really good for the conditions today!
Our room is huge, the en-suite is massive with his and hers (Rob's) wash-hand basins......but no heated towel rail. So we've now got socks and pants hanging from all sorts of things and have to open the door carefully when we come and go so that no-one can see what we've done, for fear of being chucked out!
The bikes are secured to steel posts in the underground garage and they're safe and dry.
Tomorrow, we go over the infamous St Nazaire bridge. Rob's checked the weather forecast and the headwinds are meant to be lighter than they have been for the last 2 days. That'll be good. Our progress is a good 20 miles ahead of schedule so we're hoping to throttle back a bit now on the mileage. I've no idea where we'll be tomorrow evening. We'll sit and talk that through later tonight.
Photos:
Entering the Loire Atlantique
Great tit bus shelter
Another stop to draw breath