Inland again

After a couple of hours we found our way to a very flat stretch of road. Sally remarked that we had passed no houses or villages, which is rare for France. We crossed a bridge to enter a new department where the road instantly had a one metre wide cycle path along side the main road. Much safer. It was the end of a long weekend so there was a lot of traffic on the road, but no trucks. Later there was a traffic jam and we took much pleasure in passing all the stopped cars.

We arrive at Sainte Gemme La Plaine for the night 4 hours early so we bunkered down in an old covered market and waited until 6 pm when we went to Catherine et Laurent our hosts for the night.

Their home is an old farmhouse/ farmyard and the house just went on forever. We had a wonderful meal with all the family and we discovered the reason for the lack of villages. In Roman times it was an ancient sea, but during the middle ages the sea level dropped and it became a swamp. Engineers from Holland came and built a dike and then partially drained the swamp which today is still mostly used for cattle due to the soft ground. The villages are old islands and to build in the old swamp you have to go down to bedrock to get solid foundations which is rather expensive. A fascinating titbit of French history.

We headed off in the direction of Belleville-sur-Vie to our hosts for the next night , Pascal and Céline.

The day itself was fairly uneventful except for the purchase of a new

small, low temperature, sleeping bag for Sally. Along the way we rode along a forested chemin and Sally noticed a chemical smell. We decided it must be something the farmers put on the fields as a fumigant. That theory fell to bits when we passed several paddocks of long grass. The smell persisted for about 20 minutes, gradually getting stronger.
One of us remarked that it smelled like paint. Around the corner we found our guess to be correct. We had been following a road painting vehicle without knowing it and now we were just behind. The smell of paint was so strong that we wondered how the operators could survive without masks. Perhaps they were always upwind?

But the fun all started once we got to our hosts. We stopped at the biblioteque to ask the way and fed a wayward hen a chunk of crusty bread. Which got well and truly stuck in its gullet. Sally was worried that it was going to choke but after 10 minutes it dissolved and the

hen went on its merry way.

We walked up the street and just as we arrived out popped a French couple who happened to be our hosts for the night. The bikes took pride of place in a large garage. We were offered a cold beer which we gratefully accepted and later we sat down to apero followed by a local speciality.

Garlic bread! It was the first time had been served it in France. In NZ we think of it as a French thing but it is particular to the Vendee region of France. A BBQ of chicken skewers and meat was washed down with plenty of local wine. I have not laughed so much in many a long year, and we passed a thoroughly enjoyable evening with them.

The next day was spent cleaning, oiling and adjusting the bikes and lots of little repairs. After 5 hours they shone. I shot down to the local

supermarket to buy ingredients for an apple and pear crumble. This time I found the brown sugar which is a vital ingredient. It went down an absolute treat and Sally had to conjure the recipe in her head to leave behind.

Once again we tried lots of local wine. We had told them that our goal was to leave at 8:30 in the morning, and with every glass he joked that leaving time was 30 minutes later. The final tally was 10 am. He was absolutely spot on!

I keep saying it but we are so lucky to meet such wonderful hosts on our trip. He helped us a plot a route to the bac (ferry) across the Loire and suggested that we stay at an hotel 100 m from the ferry.