(95km)
This time I woke up and got ready very early, as I was keen on covering some distance. I had my breakfast and started cycling to the south via the coastal towns of the area.
The first interesting place I saw, was Saint Gildas, which has a few remaining WWII bunkers overlooking the Atlantis ocean. I had the chance to go into one of them and it was amazing how thick the walls and the ceiling were. But I guess their job is to be strong.
- One of the German bunkers
It seems that it was that day of the week and I saw many markets on local streets in different towns. I started buying various goods for my midday picnic which I had in Pornic. Pornic is a very nice little town and is located exactly where the Canal de Haute Perce meets the sea.
- The small port at Pornic
After eating my pate and cheese, I had pleanty of energy to cycle until the evening. In Bourgneuf after visiting the local tourist office I decided to spend the night in Noirmoutier, which is an island close to the mainland. This island is connected via a bridge and also another road which is rather interesting. What is so interesting about it, is the fact that the road is submerged under the sea water for most of the time, but during low tide drivers have a window of about an hour and a half to cross these 5 kilometers. Luckily the timing was perfect when I got there. I only had to wait ten minutes half way through the road, in order to avoid getting my socks wet. It was very strange cycling so close to the water and the whole scenery was something I’ve never seen before. Next to the road, many people were taking the opportunity to go to the freshly revealed sand, to search and collect oysters for their dinner.
Passage du Gois
Salt... loads of it
Traditional fishing hut
Roadkill, I saw hundreds of them on the way to Noirmoutier
When I got to the island, I started looking for a camp site and I knew there are pleanty as it is a very poppular destination. But of course, something that didn’t really come to my mind beforehand, is that because of its popularity everything would be a lot more expensive. After visiting about three of them, I found a municiapl one which is cheaper than anything else and stayed there for the night.
Noirmoutier
