Châtelaillon-Plage to Marans 28 miles Running total 572 miles.

Here are todays routes. https://ridewithgps.com/routes/42317868 https://ridewithgps.com/routes/42317950

We will be following two routes again today. We start on the La Vélodyssée which takes us up the Atlantic coast to La Rochelle and then we will head inland on the La Vélo Francette which is the newest French cycle route that has been created and will take us all the way to Caen.

The journey this morning from our accommodation has been along an attractive seafront with quaint bijou hotels and restaurants. The path winds past small harbours, and through sand dunes and nature reserves avoiding roads until we arrive at La Rochelle.

La Rochelle is a buzzing port and historic town. Very popular with sailors, as you can see by the number of sailing boats in the harbour and there are several more with as many boats in.

While exploring this interesting city, we stop for coffee on the quay side. On a previous trip, we ate a fruits de mer meal here, but it is too early today so we just spend time boat and people watching.

This is the point we start going inland and North East on the La Vélo Francette. We will not see the sea again until we reach Caen unless we get seriously lost.

The cycle route out of La Rochelle city centre is very easy following a canal and passing through the back lanes of villages. The nice thing about the month of May, other than a lot of nice people were born in this month, is the flowers we pass everywhere along the route.

I know it is boring, but we have a picnic lunch by La Maritime Canal la Rochelle, also known as the Marans canal. It was built by Napoleon in the 1800s using forced labour. It was built to connect La Rochelle and Maran, and Napoleon had intended for it to go to Noirt, our destination for tomorrow night, but he wasn’t successful. It’s good news for us today as our route follows it all the way to tonights accommodation.

There are always picnic benches to be found. The French do make good provision for leisure time.

We arrived at our accommodation just before it started to rain. My compatriot is delighted to find a washing machine in the apartment, so we spent an hour or so standing, wrapped in towels, while the contents of our panniers are on a rapid wash cycle.

The rain stops, and once we have something to wear, clean but still slightly damp, it is off to Google’s highly recommended local restaurant. Let’s hope everything is dry by the morning or we will have to employ the warm it up before you put it on hairdryer trick.