Nantes and on towards La Rochelle - Days 30 to 33

We left St.Nazaire bright and early, we are sort of ignoring the clock change, so having coffee at 06.30, before it gets light as we were before when 06.30 was 07.30 but enabling us to make the most of the light. In this instance this made sense in many ways, we got to the expensive (well €20) campsite by 10.00 so we could make the most of our one day in Nantes (Campsite location: 47°14'39.6"N 1°33'48.1"W). It also worked in our favour as November 1st is All Saints Day, a Bank Holiday, and apparently the campsite was choc-a-bloc, we got a good pitch though! 

https://youtu.be/EX_6wmPVjFg

Decided to cycle the 4km into Nantes rather than take the tram which may have been the most sensible option as route finding on the squillions of cycle routes was a challenge, but all added to the adventure I suppose! We had really been in two minds about visiting Nantes, a big city, but we are very glad we did, even though there were only two things we wanted to see, Les machines de l'ile (website: https://www.lesmachines-nantes.fr/en/), or more accurately, the elephant at Les machines de l'ile, a wooden elephant 12m high, 8m wide and 21m long weighing 48.4 tonnes who walks around carrying up to 50 passengers spraying passers by from his trunk, an amazing spectacle which pulled us away from the queue to get into the gallery, which wasn’t moving anyway. 

Walking to the marine world carousel

We rejoined the queue, which still wasn’t moving before deciding to just go and look at the carousel. A marine world carousel on three levels, the seabed, the abyss and the surface. Every creature is different and every one had to be explained as you board as with pedals to cycle and levers to pull, the effort put in by the riders is directly proportional to the enjoyment of those watching. 

The sea creatures in the carousel

The whole park is difficult to describe as you’ve noticed, our entrance to the carousel also gave us access to the viewing platform of the workshop, which was empty as it was a Bank Holiday, though even the ‘stuff’ was interesting, a movie about the brains behind everything and to a prototype branch of the next project, a tree of herons. Sad we didn’t get to see the hideous spider and whatever else in the gallery, but the queue was just too long, and then we wouldn’t have seen the carousel for which there was no queue..... 

Walking along the branches of the prototype tree of herons

The Château Des Ducs de Bretagne

The other thing to see was the Château Des Ducs de Bretagne  (http://www.chateaunantes.fr/en). I thought I’d confirmed that the battlements were open 7/7 but it turned out except for 1st January, May, November and Christmas Day! Oh well, we walked round the outside which was quite impressive enough. En route back to the campsite was the Tour Bretagne (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_Bretagne), for a euro you can go up the 32 floors to a viewing platform which was interesting enough and kept us in the dry during a quick downpour...

A bit further round the Château Des Ducs de Bretagne

View from the 32nd floor with the Loire river in the distance

Washing up facilities at the campsite meant we actually found some other people to talk to for the first time in a week which made a pleasant change as it has been predominantly French vans on the Aires since Normandy.

The Château Des Ducs de Bretagne from 32nd floor

I’d had a little panic after talking to the three people washing and washing up as they had encountered difficulties with the Bank Holiday and it seemed logical to me that if Thursday was a day off people would take the Friday so we may struggle at the next campsite I’d found in the book. I don’t know why I wanted to come so much, it is in the middle of nowhere, a little tired, but only €13, and open all year (campsite location: 46°26'36.1"N 1°23'52.9"W), so I emailed to check on spaces. Didier did reply once we were on our way, saying it would be fine, and sure enough, there was one other little tiny caravan here when we arrived, they have now gone, and the huge motorhome we parked next to in Guerande has arrived, though I’m not sure he recognises us!

Another view from the 32nd floor of the Tour Bretagne, a rather impressive church

Our three night stay at La Grisse campsite

Didier also made my day, in his email, as I’d apologised for my French which he told me was very good! I was on a bit of a high at the time, I’d just nipped in to LIDL for bread, leaving B and Ted in the car park as it was a bit of a challenge.... I’d come out with with bargains, from the real bargain section, two cod fillets, 50 cents, 500g of crab claws, 50 cents and a pack of sausagemeat for sausagemeat risotto an old favourite one pot dish, 50 cents..... Dinner was fabulous, pan fried cod and claws in lots of garlicky butter, mopped up with baguette and some salad (the most expensive thing on the plate!) all washed down with our favourite €1.50 fizz. It would have been good at a regular price, but at less than €3.50 OMG!

Preparing dinner in our kitchen

The fish and crabs claws are cooking in garlic butter!

The thermal cooker is still earning its keep, a gammon joint in cider with root vegetables did us three dinners and two lunchtime soups and last night a slow cooker recipe I found for a butter chicken curry was fabulous, made from scratch from the stash of spices we brought with us. The rice went in the top pot and amazingly was fabulous after the four hours it was all left for. The second portion will be served with Brian’s flatbreads, if he can find the recipe again...

Look at that for dinner - it was as good as it looks!

We’ve done very little here, washed some pants, vaguely planned the next direction we are heading in, a small cycle to the nearest town on farm tracks to avoid the main road. Brian has made shortbread, a blog, but because we have not had time to sit and read a book, we thought we’d have three nights. Moving on tomorrow. It has however gone cold overnight. Our heating turned itself on last night when left on setting 2 of 5, so was 13.5 degrees when putting the kettle on. It hadn’t the first night on setting 1 and we woke to temperatures of 6.8 degrees inside and 3.9 degrees outside. The advantage of being plugged into electric! Tomorrow on an Aire we’ll be back to setting 1 as we’ll be gas powered again. Now however, I’m on a lounger in the sun.

Cycling the back lanes by the campsite