Day 36. Surgeres to Nantes

Day 36. Surgeres to Nantes. 70.12 kms cycled + train trip of 120+ kms. 4.25 hours cycling. 31.32 km/h max speed. 15.84 km/h average speed. Weather – cold, wet and extremely windy.

No, you haven’t read wrongly, hopefully by the time you read this I am in Nantes in the Loire Valley.
Circumstances, or more correctly France’s atrocious road system and their crazy drivers, defeated me today.
It was basically a case of risk my life with an endless stream of truck drivers that constantly passed within centimetres or look at another way of getting to the Loire.
And I was travelling on so-called secondary roads, not major highways. These roads must be used as a short cut or something because the traffic was never ending and as is the case on secondary roads in France there was no verge to be able to get away from the action.
Throw in persistent rain, a howling wind and freezing temperatures and to be quite honest, I had had enough!!!!!!!!
With the traffic situation more frightening than anything I had ever encountered before – including that infamous 12km stretch in Portugal – I went into the tourist office in Marans after crossing a railway line coming into town.
Unfortunately the line to Marans is now closed, however I was told that if I cycled to La Rochelle (a huge town that I had gone to great efforts to bypass) I could catch the train to Nantes. This meant a 25km cycle south, but it was the only way I could see that I was going to get to Nantes in one piece.
Anyway, I am now writing this at the La Rochelle station waiting 3 hours for my train to Nantes
I always said that I would let circumstances dictate aspects of the trip and that I did not have to cycle every single kilometre. As a result I am not disappointed in the least to have to resort to train travel to complete one small section ... it was definitely the smart decision.
France definitely needs to take a leaf out of the book of the Portuguese and Spanish road builder’s guide. Other than that small section of road out of Beja in Portugal, all the roads I rode on had wide verges for cyclists and were in excellent condition.
Well, that certainly isn’t my experience in France. The traffic is chaotic, the roads are in terrible condition and don’t get me started on the drivers – particularly the truck drivers.
On the bright side it will be good to get to Nantes a couple of days ahead of schedule. It will give me more time along the Loire, the part of the trip I have looked forward to the most. And more importantly there is a dedicated cycle track along the length of the Loire – and very little traffic.