Days 41 and 42 are unfashionably late. I need Wi-Fi to complete the blog and our hotel Wi-Fi is not up to it. Not only that, I lose day 41 when it fails to back up and crashes- so I have to do it again!!
In theory I only have about 60 kms to do today to get to Nantes, then it’s a final half day ride of 56kms to finish. We decide that if I feel up to it I should knock off a few extra kms to make the last day easier. I overdo it a bit!
I set off in towards Nantes. It is a funny feeling knowing that this is my last full day. It still feels like end of term week and the cycling is psychologically easier. I reflect on what I have seen over the journey. The marked difference between haves and have nots in East and Western Europe. The fact that the have nots seemed happy and were overwhelmingly nice people. The Loire is a mighty river but the Danube is a colossus and was our guide and mentor for such a long time. I would like to take a river cruise on it one day to see it in a different way, the ships we saw cruising made it look like a fabulous experience. Also I was amazed and the sheer scale of the agriculture as we passed by. We have travelled through the bread basket of the continent.
Not to be outdone the trip has a final joker to play and there are billions of black fly on the first part of the route, meaning that I have to breathe through gritted teeth and my legs are covered in black where they stick to the sun cream!
I meet up with Passepartout just outside Nantes and we have our last trail lunch, but not before a group of French pensioner ramblers come within a hairs breadth of knocking me off my bike by wandering out in front of me.
This fellah has seen it all before!
A trip on the Loire.
First sight of Nantes. It is a big city with an industrial side to it. Like many of the places we went through on the rivers, industry is on the banks too. That means you ride through the Avonmouth of the city! It is a big city but very cycle friendly so it is easy and feels safe to navigate through on a maze of cycle paths on cycle safe routes. And when you get to the other side- you pass through the next Avonmouth.
The Nantes road bridge as you pass through.
I decided to press on past Nantes and my route takes me up the north bank to get a ferry at Le Paradis across to Le Pellerin. It is a good ferry taking locals in cars and vans and bikes across – and one tourist – me. But I enjoyed the break from cycling and the trip over.
Do you think this place suffers with damp?!
I crack on the other side still on a high. I am happily singing along to myself as I go. Probably connected to the kamikaze french pensioner ramblers, I sing ‘Rule Britannia’ and ‘There will always be an England’. The Brits are coming! Passepartout has gone ahead and booked us in on a campsite at Corsept. That turns out to be almost in St Brevin Les Pins and is only 15 kms from the end! I do 109 kms today and have virtually cracked it. This trip has been cumulatively tiring and after this length of time and distance I have to change down a gear to get over a fag paper. It’s about the right time to finish. How the Tour de France competitors do what they do over a length of time is beyond me. I just have to wait for our reception party to turn up in the morning as agreed to see me over the finish line.
Lovely view across the estuary from the campsite to Donges.
The last supper! No more on the trail.
Lennytranseurope 
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