Day 7 Barbâtre to Les Sables d’Olonne ( 69 kms)

Barbâtre on the Île de Noirmoutier is a lovely little town of low-lying white-washed cottages, fairly typical of towns on the islands off this Atlantic Coast. There is so much to explore in France; the country is huge and I am seeing such a small part of it and constantly feeling that I am missing so many great places I’d love to spend time in. Camping, as we know from past trips, is definitely the best way to go. There are campgrounds everywhere, some nasty and some great, and camper vans free camping are a common sight.

The trouble with islands is that you have to get off them eventually and they don’t seem to do bridges by halves here. Their engineers have a field day! This one took much less time and was far less entertaining than the causeway, but was quite hard on the thighs first thing in the morning!

There were a lot of forest tracks today. Sheltered, shaded, but annoyingly up and down, which is challenging on this bike fully loaded. This Velodyssée route that I am now following has been put together by combining many, many local bike tracks and trails, putting up signs, and road crossings, and giving it an official name. It’s wonderful how well-endowed the country is with bike paths and how cleverly bike access is integrated into the mix of car drivers and pedestrians. But some of these trails, while great for local bikers out for a Sunday afternoon ‘randonnée’, can be pretty hard work for touring cyclists. I got used to standing up on my pedals and pushing on more than one occasion.

I had no food supplies as the trails rarely pass through the centre of towns, but I took a detour in St Jean-de-Monts and was rewarded by a market in full swing. Nectarines, apples, cherry tomatoes, a goat’s cheese, pastry and bread only made my bike feel heavier but I wasn’t sure when the next food stop was coming.

Soon there was a lovely lunch stop to taste it all. New Zealand may not have the monopoly on nice beaches after all. I’ve certainly seen a few down this coast. Such a variety of scenery again today: wild beaches, pretty harbour towns, and interesting marshland with croaking frogs and wild ponies. It was hot. I’d done enough after 69kms. I fell into a campground, ugly though it was, and hired a ‘mobile home’ for the night. It was called Max. It was like a caravan with bathroom, kitchen, bedroom and sitting room, but had no toilet paper, soap or sheets. I didn’t care. There was no one around. I bought a salad from the takeaway place on site, put my feet up and enjoyed the peace.