by Philip

Miles : 50. Ascent : 863’.

We stayed in a delightful, very modern, house – for the first time this trip it was obviously the host’s home which they vacate to rent out on AirBnB when someone books it. The house was beautifully equipped, furnished and decorated, and we wanted for nothing. Bean to cup coffee machine, and full instructions for the hob!

We were away at 9:30 and have about 45 miles to go (you can tell I wrote this bit first thing given the total mileage for the day!). It’s a cool morning and sunny, with reasonably high temperatures forecast later on so we’re all suncreamed up. A quick stop at a busy bakery for bread and pastries and then back on the cycle path along the canal into La Rochelle. 

We rode through the centre of the city, with its imposing  station building and fortifications protecting the old city. There were lots of people out enjoying their Saturday morning, with outdoor yoga (no mat? No problem … here’s a piece of cardboard), many cafés, and many cyclists. We passed one large marina, then another later on which dwarfed it. Sailing is a completely foreign world to us and it’s fascinating to see the huge numbers of yachts, powerboats and little dinghies. The cycling infrastructure in the city is, once again, amazing – although you have to be careful as the cycle paths often change sides, or put you out onto a road with little warning. 

The next few miles were along the coast, sometimes right next to the sea, then meandering inland a little, criss-crossing a railway line. After ten miles it was time for breakfast No. 2 – delicious!

We rode through the seaside resort of Châtelaillon with the sea on our right and a long straight road for 1-2 miles, houses and restaurants on our left. It was busy, with people enjoying a coffee or an early aperitif. A group of 25 on the beach were practicing Tai Chi, and then we came across a group in a grove of low trees, all sculpting stone – some intricate and expert, others simple, with the youngest sculptor no older than ten. On the  beach, at low tide, we saw curlews feeding busily, their 6” bills digging fervently. We turned inland, riding back through farmland with vast fields of sunflowers and maize waiting to be harvested, and had to cope with a fairly strong headwind. There we went through some areas of wetland, with swans, egrets, herons, kestrels, a lapwing and coypu. We also found ourselves running next to a motorway for a long while which was less pleasant – but at least we weren’t riding on the motorway’s hard shoulder as we were once forced to do in the US last year! Approaching Rochefort, we left the motorway behind and, passing some shops and light industry,  found ourselves on the Charente river where we stopped for lunch.  We looked out on the yachts of the Rochefort sailing school – all silent and attached to their buoys, and enjoyed our customary feast of bread, cheese, cherry tomatoes, nuts, fruit, yogurt and chocolate. 

From lunch we cycled towards Rochefort, across wetlands and then alongside a canal. For some reason Komoot took us through the centre of the town rather than following La Vélodysée – but we need to find facilities so followed the detour. No toilet, but a pretty town with ancient city walls, hot springs, and another pretty marina. After Rochefort we were alongside a main road, through an area of industrial wasteland where every business had closed, and then came to Tonnay-Charente. At this point the were on a mission – Liz was keen to visit the village of Saint Hippolyte in homage to, and memory of, her late friend Régine with whom she worked in her late teens in France. We had stayed with Régine in the 90s before our children were born. Getting there was not easy … we found a disused railway bridge across the Charente, but it was 50m above us … cue a detour up the steepest road of this trip (so far) only to find the bridge is being repaired and firmly off limits. A zoom downhill to the river, and we carried on. Still no facilities, which we find makes decision making and tolerance levels hard. However, we persevered, and eventually found that EV1 (the shorthand for La Vélodyssée) crossed the river itself over another disused railway bridge, and we were able to turn off, use a convenient bush, and find St Hippolyte. 

Sadly, the name of Régine’s road must have been changed, as there was no sign of it … so we took some photos at the village church and then of a village roadsign, thought warm thoughts of Régine and her family, and carried on. 

Our reward was to find the EV1 again the other side of the village, and it was a glorious five miles along – you guessed it – a disused railway line. The first two miles were forested, cool and quiet, with only a handful of other people seen. We emerged onto a path next to the canal – still the railway line – but more open. Komoot threw one final spanner at us and told us to climb up a railway embankment, but we found a sensible way round that, and rode on to our gîte for the night. We unloaded, inspected the cupboards to see if there might be anything useful, and then whizzed (luggage free!) into the village of St Agnant to visit the CoOp. The gîte is tiny (ours is the door bottom right in the photo) but will suit us just fine after a long and adventurous day.