Day 13 72km To La Chapelle-sur-Erdre

Rainy and overcast for this morning's departure but light rain is not a problem and does not penetrate our fluorescent carapaces. A lovely day's cycling. We have been in Loire Atlantique since the middle of yesterday, having crossed three départements previously. The landscape and much of the domestic  architecture is France typique but there have been some lovely limestone cottages and it is very pleasant and affluent compared with deprived areas further inland and in Brittany. Strong feel of commuter zone for Nantes and the ride-on mower is much in evidence.

People are taken aback at the scale of our journey but it is only one day's cycling after another. The difference is having the time to do it. Our careful planning and practice has paid off and we have not really needed anything extra. Nor have we any items that are obviously unnecessary. It is wonderful to carry just what one needs and, provided that one can find and afford accommodation/food each night. The evening shower, food and drink are the bourne of the weary traveller. Even better than that, Cath has felt capable of doing more at the end of each of the last few days. Cycling is not only at least four times as efficient as walking, but the lack of impact and the steady counter-pressure against the leg muscles and joints makes it more difficult to cause damage.

Tonight we stayed at La Chapelle-s-Erdre, on the north side of Nantes, a few km out of the centre and tomorrow we will aim for a brief visit to Nantes and accommodation at the seaside on the Atlantic coast. The hotel is a large chain hotel geared up for conferences but options were limited. The room is fine, the price modest by UK standards but the restaurant was huge, full (Saturday night) and with uninspiring food, but good staff. If the locals come here for a night out the choices locally must be poor.

Note from Cath: Brian has done an excellent job of keeping up with the blog. For the first week or so I just felt too wiped out at the end of each day to do anything apart from fill up the calorie deficit. In the last few days, though, I feel OK at the end of each day. Not great, but OK is fine. I am definitely fitter and each day more of the flab has been converted to muscle. If it all gets converted to muscle I suspect the effect will be rather peculiar, if not positively menacing. Still, if the allure of accountancy ever dims, perhaps I can get a job as a bouncer in a night club.

Some period canal photos below snapped from the information boards. The much larger beam of the vessels means that they provide much more generous living spaces than the UK narrow boats. The French canals were public-private partnerships and the state set the standards for size, quality of construction, landscaping and so on. Their backing helped the private contractors to raise investment against future tariffs on a DBFO basis (design, build, finance, operate). As so often, cost estimates were reasonable guesses and the tariff levels over-ambitious.