View over Champtoceaux from the top of the hotel

Chris at top of the climb and the end of the day at Champtoceaux

Map reading for the lost!

Pasted quite a few carvings, this one is over 2 metres high

Montjean-sur-Loire church in the setting Sun

Castle ruins

Our 2nd night stop

Wonderful place to stay.

Chateaux

 

Church

One of many churches we rode past.  If we had taken a photo of every one we would still be on the trail!

Nice view of a village

Surround by vines and not a drop of wine

View of Chinon castle

Chateaux visit

Lunch stop on day 1

Typical view on our 1st day

Sunrise over the village of Champtoceaux

Sunrise over the Loire from Champtoceaux

The final mileage (km)

Hello all

Here is the daily kilometres ridden by all.

Mileage (km)

Day 0: Around Tours: 34

Day 1: Tours to Chinon : 58 /   58

Day 2: Chinon to Gennes : 64 / 122

Day 3: Gennes to Angers : 45 / 167

Day 4: Angers to Montjean : 56 / 223

Day 5: Montjean to Champtoceaux: 48 / 271

Day 6: Champtoceaux to Nantes : 29 / 301km (or 335km including last Sunday)

Chris

Job Done!

Good early blast from Champychocs & arrived in Nantes at 10.25 - so that's the end of the trail. Coffee break & then on the train back to Tours. Total mileages to follow.

Sun up over the Loire

Food (lunches) on the Velo

A short update on one aspect that has only been covered by photos so far. 

The food can only be described as good to great. We have had 2 fantastic lunches, on our first day we came across a small village that the road ran along the bank of the Loire  Seating was across the road from the restaurant overlooking the river. After some interpretation the menu was a selection of cold meats and pâté, followed by either duck or veal and veg, then cheese and then nectarine tart, all with a quarter bottle of wine. The cost for all of this, 12 Euros.  

The other really good lunch was Wednesday we decided on trying to reach a particular village that was a little way off the river. It seemed a bit quiet ( as many of the places we have been through are) but right at the end (literally 100 meters from the main road) a place that provided  menu of the day for 11.50 Euro. For this we feasted on  buffet salad (a meal in itself), chicken leg and chips, cherry tart or ice cream and wine. 

This is eating to be sampled at least once in everyone's life time. 

These lunches may have been really good but, it is not say the other days have been poor. Good pizza and sandwiches can keep the legs turning the pedals very nicely. 

Chris Sweetman

Sent from my iPhone

Arrived in Champtoceaux

Good blast this afternoon and just finished the day in Champtochocs. Only the final 30kms to do in the morning to get to the train in Nantes.

The picture is the view from the hotel - will have a wander about shortly to the viewpoint.

John after a 150ft climb above the Loire

Wonderful view!!

Man ponders crepe.

Great run into Anciens, and found a creperie right in the riverside. Hmm nice.

Arrived for morning break in St Florent-le-Vieil

Decent run this morning - but not helped by a lack of signposts. Lovely place to stop as you can see.

How does all this funny money work??

Farewell to our favourite bar in Montjean

Start of Friday

All rested and ready to go from Montjean

Happiest man in France..... Again...

Taking in the view at the top of Montjean

End of Day 4- made it to Montjean

Had a very fast run today and arrived in Montjean without getting too hot. David & Chris have gone on another local excursion whilst the rest of us are looking at the local culture (and the pub!)
This is the view down river from outside the cathedral.

Baguettes dans La Loire

Lunch in Challones - view isn't bad I suppose!

Morning stop in Savennieres

We've done about 16km this morning, which is a big chunk of the distance scheduled for today, so just seeing if we can plan a detour.

Looks like its a fine day for a bit of cycling

Nice start this morning from Angers

Great restaurant in Angers

We had dinner in a fantastic restaurant tonight. Here are some snaps. Enjoy! We did!!! :-)