La Loire - encore

The largest lake in France blocked an easy route to the ferry across La Loire. In fact it is only in winter that it claims its title because in summer it dries up and shrinks dramatically. The day was largely uneventful but we did remark how English the countryside was becoming. It was because we had entered the region of Brittany again.

We found a small winery and had a quick degustation before choosing a bottle of Rose. “Sorry” it was not packaged in bottles. So we emptied a 1.5 litre water bottle and filled it up with wine for about $1.50. It lasted us about a week getting slowly worse by the day.

At the hotel we finally had some decent wifi so we updated the blog, paid bills , skyped and stayed up way too late.

I had a nightmare which woke me up and every time I closed my eyes the nightmare came back. Then the red light on the tele started flashing for no reason and I started to live the nightmare. I freaked out a little ( completely irrational) and turned the computer on to read the NZ news for an hour. Finally I got off to sleep again.

The ferry trip was only 5 minutes long ( the Loire is surprisingly narrow at this point.) We put on our wet weather gear and after a quick chat to a Scottish couple who said they felt completely at home in the rain, we set off. The closer we got to Montoir-de-Bretagne the more industry appeared. We passed a massive oil refinery which the next day went on strike and cut off petrol supplies to the north of

France for a few days.

Our host for the night were Michèle and Thierry and live next door to St Nazaire. For the first time on my trip I was not able to meet up with one of my correspondents but I took a photo beside the town sign which I will send to her later. We had a barbeque of swordfish steaks, and got to sample lots of the different beers his son makes at the local artisan brewery.

Thierry is very clever and had made a fibreglass waterproof trailer to hold all their gear during their cycle adventures. As we were leaving the next morning we spotted the KIWIS AHEAD sign hanging in the back window of his car, a gift from his son who had spent several months in New Zealand.

We were in for an absolute treat later in the morning and it got off to a good start when Thierry guided us through town to the main road.
After an hour we stopped to take a photo of an old barque alongside the road. An older gentleman pulled over for a chat. He was over 70 and unfortunately had a few health issues. You could see in his eyes how much he missed being on the road. He also had to do a lot of work on his house before he got to embark on his next adventure. We chatted for about 30 minutes.

Next up was a marais which was stunningly beautiful. It was partially drained and wild flowers, especially yellow iris, abounded. So did vast quantities of birdlife and we stopped for our morning tea to soak it all in.

Our goal for the night was Jean-Pierre who lived at Lauzach near the Golfe du Morbihan. We stopped at the delightful village of Muzillac where we found a local fromagerie. We asked him if he had any local cheeses and after being offered a selection of about 20 we chose 3 pieces to take to our host for the night. We also stopped at a patisserie and bought a millefeuille to munch on. It was fantastic. Our route out of town took us past the patisserie one more time so I poked my head in the door and told her how damn good it was. It bought a smile to her face.

We arrived at our guest a little later than planned to discover he was a great fan of British sports cars. He owned an MG which was being repaired ready for a rally the following weekend. His wife was away walking in Germany and he very apologetic about the standard of his cooking. He did not need to be as it was great food. We got to sample one of the cheeses and it was just divine.