Jul 12, 2012 - Cold and Wet

An easy and short 35 km trek today – although it would have been a lot nicer if it wasn’t raining for most of it!!! Almost the entire trail was through an agricultural area bordering the Loire, including a humongous farm that was growing vegetables (mostly onions it seemed) and grape seedlings. Arrived in Nantes around 11:30. It’s a large city – about 800,000 in the metropolitan area. Even before we got off our bikes, the proprietor of our hotel came outside to greet us and show us where to park the bikes. He then brought us inside to dry...

Jun 7, 2012 - France - Nantes & Loire Valley

22nd May- 23 rd 2012 (Bed No 35) We arrived at in Nantes too early to check into our accommodation so we headed into the centre of town for a quick look around and to get all the information from the Tourist Information office ready for the next 2 days activities. The Isle of Nantes is 5 km long, 1 km wide and is surrounded by stretches of the Loire river. For the past 10 years there has been a significant changing landscape under a major urban project in Nantes. Once used for cattle grazing, then an industrial heartland of soap factories,...

Sep 2, 2011 - Nantes

Arrived to Nantes and the weather is warmer. Don't think we'll be needing a jacket. The city is interesting to walk about, and we are for sure no longer in the Irish countryside. Nantes was a major slave trading, and ship building, port, and as such has an interesting history. Good coffee at sidewalk cafes, and delicious fresh croissants & baguettes are the norm. Touring the home of Jules Verne revealed his interest in (& knowledge of)science and travel that both served as basis of his extensive literary output. We,ve discovered that the...

May 4, 2011 - Through Brittany

Day 5-6 May 2-3 Have reached the Loire! To us it seems that it is here that the journey really begins. I can't ignore the 230km we have done so far - body certainly can't - but this is what we have talked about. Meandering along 4 of the great rivers of Europe, to places and countries that are new to us. Anyway, back to yesterday. We left Vitre for what turned to be a long and varied day. Many changes in the weather from grey to brilliant sunshine and then to a thunderous downpour. Along an old railway track, many lovely small roads and a...

Aug 9, 2009 - Nantes

Left the Normandy Coast and started our treck south. On our way we stopped at an ancient abbey now a whole village that was built on an island. The views are impressive although the tourism crammed inside the narrow walls was a little oppressive. Our next stop is Nantes. Not really a destination just a stop over on our war way to Bordeaux. Was a little challenging as it seemed that half the town's routes were closed due to MAJOR road work with one bridge completly closed and the other half converted to pedestrian only streets for the...

Feb 15, 2008 - I'm HERE!

So. tired. Uttterly exhausted, really and truly. The flight from Toronto to Paris passed smoothly enough, but now we're all stuck (by ALL i mean myself and the other 50-or-so exchange students) in the Paris charles de gaulle airport for no less than seven hours. Now THAT is one heck of a layover...it doesn't help that they checked us into the gate right away and all the shopping is on the other side of security. The most interesting thing we have is the vending machine and a café where the croissants looked dodgier than the airplane food. I...

May 23, 2006 - Nantes, France

We landed in Nantes, France early in the morning of the 23rd and we were immediately hit that we could no longer speak the language. We were flipping through our phrase book as we exited the plane trying to remember how to just say "hello" and "do you speak english." We are so glad we bought that book! We then navigated our way to the Europecar depot downtown, and picked up our sweet, baby-blue Toyota Yaris. 2 doors and 2 feet wide! We then made our way to Dinan, our first French walled city. But our first prioity was our stomachs. We...