During our time in Nantes we stayed with Laurence, the mother of Cecile whom we met in Mulhouse. Her home is in the semi-rural outskirts of the city in La Chapelle sur Erdre (Mouline); she is a teacher & director at a small local primary school, and is a thoroughly lovely person – we had lot of fun chatting with her, enjoying tots of local liquor & cracking walnuts. She has a lovely old dog called Canelle – very friendly and enjoys an evening bark at nothing! Three roaming hens make up the rest of the household.
We arrived in fine weather, experienced a hot 30C day but also three days of rain … a very temperamental Spring weather!
On the morning we went in to sort mail & catch a couple of sights it poured with rain so we settled into a wee bagel cafe called Shefferville (had a Canadian theme going) to enjoy a muffin & cuppa and use their free wifi, then when the rain hadn’t stopped, order a vege bagel each. Yummy scrummy! Obviously a popular hangout as got quite busy over the lunch.
Once the rain ceased we did manage a bit of exploring taking a hot chocolate & cake at La Cigale café – the interior is wonderfully eccentric but the cakes we had were unimpressive. We also took in a few places on the green line tour of Nantes like the Passage Pommeraye, the opera house [Théâtre Graslin], a couple of churches & Cathedral plus a look at the castle from the outside.
At the post office we found the staff most helpful so we managed to send off several postcards, a parcel of the EV6 guides back to Dominique in Mulhouse and a package of bits & pieces back to myself in NZ. Fingers crossed they all get to where they should. I bought Sellotape to seal my large envelope & while I was doing so frightened people in the café across from the PO - imagine the sound of a large roll of tape being ripped open in a land where people are already on edge as a response to terrorist attacks!
Once we returned to Nantes from our weekend in Porto we were able to take in a few more of the delights this green city has to offer. We arranged to meet Mia (Swedish friend living in Norway) the evening we flew in at the Tourist Information office – we recognised each other immediately. I introduced Caroline to her as she hadn’t come up to Norway with me when I last visited Mia in 1998. It was a lovely evening but as the last train back to La Chapelle left at 8.10pm and we just couldn’t work out whether buses could work, it was rather cut short. We did however enjoy a drink at a wifi café before heading off to a organic gallette restaurant, Creperie Apres la Pluie, to meet up with Finn, a NZer living in Nantes with whom Mia was Couchsurfing. He & his partner decided to decamp to France after losing their jobs in New Plymouth after the dairy & oil down turn … nothing to lose so she’s teaching English & he’s odd-jobbing. He garrulous & delight to chat with as he had some interesting insights into French life after nearly 2 years in residence. The galettes & crepes at this restaurant were delicious - organic & served by a delightful woman studying to be an osteopath.
Tues – Mia met us at the train station at 9.30 to begin our day of sightseeing. We decided to take the tram & ferry across the fishing village of Trentemoult to stroll the historic & garden circuit. This we did but got a bit confused by the signs, passing by the city’s composting facility & ending up at a major ‘big box’ shopping centre – found our way back to the route, spotted a café overlooking the river so settled in for a drink.
Whilst there Mia phoned the tourist office to see whether there were any spare places on the afternoon boat ride on the Erdre River – there were so we took the ferry back over to the main city & walked to (rather too briskly for Caroline’s taste) to the tourist information centre to pick up the tickets. We then lunched in Irish pub (Gigg's) on vege burger & chips! The French cafes were only able to do 'plat du jour' which is always meaty - why they can't leave the jambon out of a jambon & cheese sandwich is beyond me! We've asked, believe me!
The temperature had hit 30C by the time we finished so we meandered our way to Bateaux Nantais HQ for 3pm as instructed, only to wait until 3.30pm for the boat trip to begin! The commentary was in French, of course, as everyone else on board seemed to be retired French couples but we were given an A4 sheet in English which explained the chateaux etc we would see. A relaxing 2H sojourn away from the heat... on the return trip I had a wee sleep. We walked back via the rather dilapidated Japanese garden seeking a café/ bar where we could refresh ourselves – found one where Mia & I had a light beer each & Caroline a tea. Soporific!
We decided to seek out the same gallette place for dinner but it didn’t open until 7.15pm so we found another [La Cantine] close by which opened at 7pm as we needed to again catch the last train back to La Chapelle. This galette place was nowhere near as good as previous night, nor were the staff as hospitable, but it was a popular place as it had filled by the time we left at 7.45pm.
Wednesday was again a full day but the weather turned against us later in the afternoon. We met up at 9.45 to cross to Les Machines des Iles to take in the famous Elephant & the workshop where the giant creatures are made. Whilst Caroline & I rode the elephant Mia visited the machines inside the workshop which included a giant ant & a heron. Quite extraordinary & worth every cent of the 8E50 we paid for the experience …… loved the way the elephant's ears & feet moved as a real elephant’s do. And that it trumpeted & blew water from its trunk at passers by!
Wandered round the new urban developments next to the Iles des Machines then walked back into town for lunch just as the rain bucketed down. Lunch was at a small salad place called Gare'mandise where we could get a reasonable vege salad. – nice friendly chap running it who talked with Caroline about his love of cycling & keeping fit.
Once the rain tailed off we walked in the Jardin des plantes opposite the railway station, then went on to the Tour Bretagne to take in the view before the rain came back in force. We sheltered for about an hour in a café where one could pat cats – great gateau & tea at Le Chatl Heureux. We found a bio alimentation (Naturalia) to do some food shopping for the next few days of cycling & Mia bought some supplies to take back to Norway. The rain got worse so crossed the road to a bar for a dark beer & last minute chat before bidding Mia a hearty farewell – so wonderful that she chose to fly down to catch up with us; as a memento of this shared time I gave her a wee wooden fantail brooch.
Back at Laurence’s home we shared a vege tart she had made & some treats we had bought for dessert. Once we’d packed our bags & booked our following nights’ accommodation we wrapped up Kiwi gifts as a thank you for Laurence hosting us for so long. It was a delight staying with her & Canelle – we aim to keep in touch and have encouraged Laurence to visit NZ with her partner Michel once they retire from teaching.
Rain greeted us the next morning but it petered out by the time we set off. Laurence headed off to work just as we were finishing breakfast so received a two cheek kiss good bye, leaving us to load up our bikes in our own time & cycle off into the city to catch the 1220pm train to Rennes. The cycle in was mainly on separated cycleway that was pretty well signposted except for a few tricky bits, which locals would have no trouble with.
At the train station we used the free wifi for a while then were approached by a group of 4 who turned out to be from Christchurch (one was called Percy from Westmorland, if anyone in Chch knows these 4??) about to begin cycling the EV6 in the opposite direction to us. Chatted to them for a while before they caught the train to Saint Nazaire …… they wished to start their cycling in fine weather so were just doing a there & back trip to that river mouth city.
Getting up to the platform for our train proved to be a bit of a mission – thankfully with help from a passing stranger & both of us pushing my bike up the ramp we managed to catch the train on time. The next issue was taking all our gear off so we could hang our bikes as required ….. a hassle as little room to do that & enable other passengers to get on! One & half hours later & post-picnic lunch we were in Rennes.
{N.B. not many photos as took most on my plain old camera!]
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