When we woke up it was raining. By the time we had eaten breakfast it had cleared, so we set off on our last day on the La Loire à Vélo.

We stumbled across some sculptures in a park in Montjean, one of which depicted a man struggling to escape from the rock.

The ride to Ancenis was pleasant and reasonably dry.  At Ancenis we left the la Loire à Vélo route to cross over into Brittany, as we are wanting to avoid going through the city at Nantes.

Ancenis has a Chateau which is partly in ruins. It dates from the 10th century and has two striking towers (large and stubby) from the 15th century. We stopped to buy strawberries at the Saturday morning market and then went on to a supermarket to get the rest of our evening meal (as everything closes on Saturday afternoon).

Just before we found the supermarket it began to rain again. While we were inside it stopped and the sun was shining as we walked out. As soon as we started riding it began again. We had this on and off rain until we reached Nort-sur-Erdre, where we planned to stay. Unfortunately the Office de Tourisme couldn’t find us accommodation in town, so we decided to ride on a further 16km to a Gite (holiday house) out in the countryside, near the canal.

As soon as we left it began raining again in earnest without letting up and we became soaked (including our shoes). Kris elected to ride along the road most of the way, which was a good decision. After some tricky navigation we found our way onto the canal and it was very muddy. Soon my legs were full of mud, as well as the gear chain and pannier bags. We had difficulty finding the Gite as the instructions were less than precise. We asked for directions to the village (Lappé, which is near Le Chevallerais) several times. It is so small it doesn’t appear on the map. It was a wonder we found it. When we got to the Gite we phoned the owner who soon appeared. The accommodation is not in the Gite, but in a building next door that appears to be used as a pre-school out of holiday times. We are sleeping in a makeshift area upstairs. However it is very private and warm and there is a good kitchen and bathroom. Best of all there is a washing machine – so no hand washing for Kris tonight!

In all we did 84km but it felt longer because of the rain.