After the debacle with the circuitous route taken on our last transit, the navigating officer was far more alert. We are heading for Brittany at last. Camping Les Rives de Vilaine at Férel near La Roche-Bernard.
The N249 by-passing Bressuire and Cholet on the way to Nantes is an excellent road, but with limited stopping places. The road coming south was very quiet. Eerily so! Deserted even. Approaching Nantes we are in some serious traffic heading north. A plume of black smoke in the distance was a worrying sign! Some 10 kms before reaching the ring road, we passed a burning car on the opposite carriageway being doused by the pompiers. Looked horrible. Traffic southbound was at a standstill – all the way back to the periphique.
Clearly, there are two ways round a ring road. The eastern and northerly periphique has never been properly sorted. But it’s much the shortest way round to the road we want. It’s always a jam and this year we find half of the road missing. There’s a serious bouchon.
We want the E60 towards Vannes. The chief navigation officer stepped in at this point. “We aren’t getting anywhere useful in all this traffic. Take the next exit, the E3 towards Rennes. We can always cut across country on the D16 to rejoin our road later.” (Does this sound familiar – but with a little more logical planning?) “Also, our map has a pencilled note saying there’s a great restaurant with lots of parking at Héric”. As a result of delays caused by the roadworks, it’ll be a bit late for lunch by the time we get there, but we have nothing to lose! It’s only 15 km (followed by 30 km on the little departmental road to get back on our route!)
We reached the Restaurante L’Authentic as hoards of diners were spilling out and heading back to their white vans! But Glenda managed to persuade them to take a late booking. “That’ll save us having to cook tonight” – but will also give us another problem. An unforseen consequence.
The food was excellent, and at €13 a head for three courses – (plus an extra pudding) was worth stopping for. The parking was enormous – and totally empty – and it had covered parking wirh enough clearance to get a caravan under, but it was further from the restaurant than I remembered. Just over half a kilometre. Our only difficulty was leaving Héric. Roadworks in the middle of town just where the road gets really narrow, exceptionally busy and does two right angle bends in very quick succession. With traffic-unfriendly bollards all over the place! But after that, it was plain sailing all the way to Férel. We had been advised that sat navs don’t work terribly well in the vicinity of the campsite. “Get to Férel and follow the signs”. That worked well when coming from the direction we did – but might be less clever coming the other way – as we discovered later.
Arriving, we were told that, uniquely on a Wednesday, a local trader comes on site and prepares a takeaway for the campers.
We were told: “Very good!” “A sort of a combination of open pie, a quiche and a pizza.” La Quicha!” We watched him construct one of his creations. Starting with a thin pastry base covered in cream with layers of potatoes, carrots, mushrooms and other vegetables with a selection of chicken, duck, pork, brie, blue cheese, and mozzarella. Any or all of the above! Then cooked in a wood-fired, towable oven for 20 minutes! But sadly, we’ve already eaten. Unintended consequence!
Instead of a “Quicha”, we went for a gentle stroll down to the river and it’s huge marina about a kilometre distant. Turning right outside the campsite, the road immediately degenerated into a partly gravelled grassy lane just wide enough at the outset for Fermier Giles (pronounced “Jile”) to reach his riverside fields. Then it became a footpath with a tiny wooden bridge …
… giving access to a mamouth marina.
There were at least 20 pontoons – each home to up to 80 yachts. With absolutely no security. We tested that on pontoon Q.
Scruffy campers could walk on to any pontoon unimpeded by barbed-wire reinforced, locked gates. Just like Brixham! Not!
Later, after investigating the barrage …
.We crossed it to Arzal in order to check our way out of here whe the time comes. On the way back we saw that a number of yachties were trying to get back into the marina.
You need to lower your masts … or maybe get the man to open his bridge!
OK, that works! Our in-car navigation guru directed us back to base past the marina parking, back over the wooden footbridge and up Giles’s track! The warning about using sat navs in the area was well-founded.
Today it’s another birthday!
Later, it turned into a plage day. There is a coastal path round large parts of the estuary. We know this because we were invited to take it (by car!) more than once by the satellites. We decided that we should miss the upper reaches of the estuary and headed to Pénestin. Again, we were “invited” to drive along the coastal footpath. Unlikely! By the time we had reached the ocean, the beaches were rather more pleasant. But it was high tide, so no beach walking and the coastal path here was basically a soft sand track.
A few kilometres further south the Plage de la Mine d’Or sounded more promising. A proper little gold mine! Actually promising to cover unattentive beach goers with half a sand cliff. “Not risking that Barry!”
So, for us, Pénestin beaches are a disappointment! Will try harder another day further South.
Now it’s time for a “Quicha”. We have tracked Jean-Michel (we are now on first name terms) down to a carpark area near La Chapelle-des-Marais.
It’s next door to his family farm, Kerougas Ferme, from where he sells Brie cheese. We selected our ingredients – basically everything – and set up our stools and coffee table while the cooking process was completed.
And voila!
Delicious!
But now it’s definitely time for some exercise. We wanted to check out the inland footpath round the marais in the Parc Naturel Régional de Brière. The places we tried were neither good walking nor inviting paths. There was a suspicion the area was a mosquito heaven. There was certainly a lot of pretty stagnant water involved.
So, it’s off to the beaches again. On the way we stopped for a chat with Marynette in her “Salon de Coiffure Itinerant”. Parked on the side of the road beside a roundabout. Hair cut anyone?
We found the coastal path and the beaches in the vicinity of Piriac-sur-Mer and LaTurballe prettier than those further north.
We haven’t finished with this area yet. We’ll have to come back tomorrow! We want to find out how the locals are printing money using just water and sunshine!