Loire à Vélo: Saint Nazaire to Nevers, France

Late one night in the winter of 2014 we left work, forever.

Two days later we flew to France to cycle the Loire à Vélo, our liberation ride. A 1,000 kilomètre journey from Saint Nazaire on Brittany’s Atlantic coast to Nevers in Burgundy, following the Loire, one of the last untamed rivers of Europe

A 65-kilometre warm-up ride along the coast. Past lighthouses, fishing huts built on stilts high above the water and a procession of French families carrying fishing nets, brightly coloured beach balls and striped towels. We stopped at Saint Marc sur Mer to pay homage to Monsieur Hulot and then cycled on through the salt marshes to the medieval walled village of Guerande.

Riding back in the warm twilight, our spirits soared as we cut through fields and forest trails. Our more-experienced cycling companions, Patricia and Paul, declared us Loire à Vélo ready and early the next morning we set off towards infinity and into a beautiful green valley listed as a world heritage living cultural landscape.

Saint Nazaire to Nantes

A balmy summer’s day. Following the green river through bucolic rural landscapes, sleepy villages and canal towns. A drink at a bohemian quayside cafe. A visit to the beautiful neo-Byzantine church of Saint-Louis de Paimboeuf and the dreamlike Le Jardin Étoilé, designed by the Japanese artist Kinya Maruyama and inspired by the constellation of the Great Bear.

A small grassy island; a place of refuge for white herons. People strolling languidly along the towpath. Art installations in and of the river, including a tilted house sinking slowly into the water. A gentle, beguiling ride for 70 kilometres and then a hot, steep, dusty last kilometre up into Nantes. Giving ourselves the gift of a day to wander about the local market, ride fantastical sea creatures on the Jules Verne inspired carousel and explore the Jardin des Plantes with its remarkable trees, quirky sculptures and grotto of children’s laughter.

Nantes to Ancenis

Riding out of Nantes, past the compelling memorial that pays homage to those who struggled, and still struggle, against slavery. A courageous acknowledgement of Nantes’ dark history as a slave-trading port in 18th century France.

Alongside the wild, wide, swift-flowing river; the cycling effortless under a shady canopy of leafy greenness. Pale cattle half-lost in the long grass. Stopping to explore the ancient villages of Champtoceaux and Oudon with their stone walls and medieval castles high above the river. A flock of wild geese following the river downstream and water birds nesting on the sandbanks in the river verges. Past lakes and wetlands to the town of Ancenis, famous for its Muscadet white wines which we savour at day’s end.

Ancenis to Angers

Riding in and through greenness. The river alongside us green; the tree canopy above us green; the air ethereally green. In and out of hill towns and through a rural landscape of market gardens, apple orchards and vineyards. Crossing from Brittany into Anjou. Cows and goats and horses in the green meadows. A stop at Saint Florent Le Vieil, ‘a small city of character’, to admire the majestic abbey overhanging the river. Lunch at a riverside cafe in Montjean sur Loire with its ancient lime kilns and outdoor sculptures and on to the former salt-taxing town of Savennières. Situated midway between the salt producers and the salt markets it was well placed to profit from the barges hauling their loads upstream.

We make it to Angers just before a summer thunderstorm breaks and in time to visit the dark fortress that is Angers Chateau to see one of the great masterpieces of medieval art, the Apocalypse Tapestry. The tapestry is based on the story of the apocalypse in the Book of Revelation by St John the Divine. Its 70 intricately woven and wildly imagined scenes tell of beasts and angels and an era of war, famine, pestilence, violence and, finally, redemption in the rise of the new Jerusalem.

Angers to Saumur

Lush, fertile country. Swathes of late summer wildflowers, fields of sunflowers, orchards glowing with ripening fruit. People out gathering herbs and wild plums. Glimpses of elegant 16th-century châteaus. A hermit’s cave in a forest clearing on the other side of the river. Romani camps on the outskirts of town.

We stop for lunch at the pretty riverside village of Le Thoureil, home to a small fleet of black-painted, flat-bottomed skiffs, adorned with carvings and brightly coloured flags. The church in St Mathurin sur Loire is open and we find a beautiful, contemporary stained glass entrance and a monumental door of peace, the posthumous work of the Catalan artist, Josep Grau Garriga. Back on our bicycles, the riding is blissful; a slight breeze at our backs and the path never straying far from the river.

The Loire à Vélo is a ride for all ages. We meet spritely 80-year-olds, families with very young children, holidaying university students and people like us relishing ‘days like these’. A minority of riders have their gear transported from village to village; some carry a modest amount of gear and stay in gites or pensions and others camp each night in the small green enclosures dotted along the river.

Saumur to Azay-le-Rideau

Crossing into winemaking country, past troglodyte dwellings carved deep into tufa cliffs. Damp and musty as you crouch to enter, these caves sheltered French resistance fighters during World War Two.

The vines are green and the grapes are swelling. All around is an undulating landscape of vines, churches, châteaus and sunflowers. It is the feast day of the Assumption and strangely, in secular France, it is a public holiday. Many of the villages we cycle through are deserted. Almost everyone has left for the coast. 

The church in Candes-St-Martin was built in the 4th century and its interior and exterior still feature naive representations of saints carved in stone. We cycle the dyke path from Candes-St-Martin to Bréhémont, a port village of ‘exceptional charm’. The path takes us through a nature reserve established to protect and increase the biodiversity of the area, in part by allowing the growth and spread of natural grasses. Otters inhabit the river banks in the reserve and everywhere there are waterbirds and flights of swallows. Late in the afternoon we ride away from the Loire and follow the Indre, a tributary of the Loire, upstream to Azay-le-Rideau. 

Azay-le-Rideau to St Pierre des Corps

Breakfast, then shopping at the Saturday market before riding to Villandry for a leisurely few hours exploring the gardens of Villandry Château. The chateau and gardens were restored by Joachim Carvallo who, in the early 20th century, found Villandry ‘heavy with the sins of the 18th century and in mourning for its Renaissance beauty’, a beauty he set about revealing.

Flanked by wildwoods is an exquisite series of Renaissance garden salons; a cloud garden (all white and blue flowers), a water garden, a sun garden and a love garden representing all the loves. Tender love, passionate love, fickle love, tragic love. The kitchen garden is framed by a hedge of espaliered apple trees. There is a Renaissance hedge maze (or labyrinth). The aim is not to find the exit but to walk a path symbolising the progress of life to the elevated platform in the centre of the maze and feel spiritually uplifted.

There is a bicycle parking area at Villandry. Even at the height of the summer season, cyclists leave their packed panniers on their unlocked bicycles for hours and find them still safe at day’s end.

The path to St Pierre des Corps is flanked by wild orange and red poppies and community gardens abundant with flowers, fruit and vegetables.

St Pierre des Corps to Montrichard

A cool, calm morning. We cycle along the river to Montlouis sur Loire, reputed to produce some of the best white wines in France. On to Amboise and a crowded Sunday market to buy picnic food before a steep, cobble-stoned climb through town and up and over the hill to Chenonceau. Its chateau has been home to many famous women, among them Diane de Poitiers (mistress of Henri II); Catherine de Medici (wife and widow of Henri II); and Louise Dupin who hosted glittering soirées of writers, scientists and philosophers, including Rousseau and Voltaire. In the 1750s Dupin wrote a treatise on women as men’s equals and deserving of the same rights.

Long a place steeped in political intrigue, Chenonceau offered a passage to freedom in the Second World War. Its Grand Gallery, built over the river Cher, corresponded to the line of demarcation. The right bank of the river was in the occupied zone and the left bank in the free zone. With the help of the chateau owners, resistance fighters and those fleeing Nazi persecution used the Gallery to pass into the free zone.

According to our guidebook, it is only a few gentle kilometres from Chenonceau to Montrichard, our home for the evening. The quirky sculptures at an abandoned railway station catch our eye and we detour to take a closer look. The path quickly becomes rutted and the ride into town more of a slog than we envisaged.

Montrichard to Blois

A steep climb out of Montrichard and away from the Cher River on to a wide-open road. Cycling through undulating farmland under a brooding sky. Most of the fields are bare now, except for the still-to be-harvested sunflowers and sorghum.

Meandering through fascinating villages like Candé sur Beuvron and Pontlevoy, stopping to visit 11th-century abbeys and wandering siesta-silent streets. At Pontlevoy we hear tales of fairies and pixies that appear on Christmas Day and turn any human who looks at them into stone.

We adopt the habit of the friendly locals and acknowledge every cyclist we pass with a ‘bonjour’ and every picnicker with a ‘bon appetit’. The Loire once more in our sights, we head for Blois and an afternoon of idle pleasure, exploring the city famous for its Chateau, cathedral, old quarter and its food and wine.

Blois to Orléans

The sun shining, the Loire sparkling, stately white swans floating by. A picnic by the river in Beaugency and then on to Meung sur Loire. We stop for a drink at a charming cafe and take in the crowd. They are all either intensely engaged in conversation or reading a book (no one has a smartphone within easy reach).

A visit to a 13th-century church dedicated to St Liphard before turning for Orléans. Patricia and Paul have been riding in Europe for weeks and have the muscle memory of 4,000 kilometres plus in their legs. Today they set a cracking pace, in pursuit of the ghost of Joan D’Arc leading the French army along this very road to Orléans in 1429 to wage war against the English and liberate the city.

Orléans to Sully sur Loire

An absorbing morning at the Joan D’Arc museum and the gothic cathedral before riding out of the lively city, bound for Sully sur Loire. Farmers in sky-blue overalls ploughing the fields and ravens scratching for food in the pale furrows.

A couple and their three young daughters cycle by, merrily singing in rounds. We ride no hands, our bicycles and our bodies as one after 600 kilomètres on the trail.

Lunch at a bar at Jargeau, sitting outside in the sun drinking vino and coffee from the bar and eating baguettes and cheese from a nearby market. A sleepy town when we arrive, it comes to life as siesta ends and people come out of their houses to shop, stroll and socialise. Further on we stop at St Benoît sur Loire to visit the 11th-century abbey, resting place of the founder of the Benedictine order and said to be one of the holiest places of Christianity.

Sully sur Loire to Rogny Les Sept Ecluses

Crystal clear skies and the early morning reflections of Sully Chateau as sharp as glass in the moat surrounding the chateau. White geese, grey herons and a flock of ducks. With time and the weather on our side, we decide to deviate from the Loire à Vélo and follow the Briare Canal for a couple of days, riding its gentle paths, stopping to watch canal boats navigating locks, crisscrossing flower-bedecked bridges. We visit the mosaic-rich Briare church, its interior bathed in a honey-coloured light from the amber glass windows and its exterior heralding a red-haired angel.

Rogny Les Sept Ecluses is a pleasant canalside town with not too much to do except forage for wild strawberries, picnic in the sun and enjoy the cooking of our host at the Albergue de Les Sept Ecluses (Seven Locks). The seven lock construction is an engineering marvel, part of a gigantic 16th-century project designed to join the Mediterranean Sea to la Manche (the English Channel). The seven locks were used by canal boats to transport goods up and down the steep Rogny hill. The canal boat sailors were known as ‘on boarders’; their red neck scarves, flat-brimmed black hats and red flannel belts distinguishing them from land dwellers.

Rogny Les Sept Ecluses to Cosne sur Loire

Riding in the rain on the road to Briare and finding our way back to the wild Loire. The landscape is changed. Blue hills in the distance now, the first significant hills we’ve seen, and ripening grapes. Terns readying themselves for migration. A funeral procession on the road and, later in the day, a wedding celebration. We while away the late afternoon in the Bar Le Square, drinking the local Coteaux du Giennois wine which dates back to the second century AD.

 

Cosne sur Loire to La Charité sur Loire

Along the canal then through vineyards and up to the hill town of Sancerre. As we climb the 300 metres to Sancerre we hear sacred music. At the summit we come upon an outdoor mass; grape growers, winemakers and wheat farmers from the surrounding villages gathering together to pray for fine weather and good harvests. Some are wearing traditional costumes and carrying ancient icons. The congregation is invited to a communion of home-made pastries and fine local wine. We partake of what is offered and feel blessed to have found ourselves here on such a day.

The agricultural show is on and the town is festooned with flowers and giant, brightly coloured paper-mache figures. The streets where the Jews lived by decree in the 13th century are decorated with poignant tableaus commemorating their lives.

Somewhat reluctantly we leave the festivities and ride back down the hill towards La Charité sur Loire. A sign leads us to a farm that serves refreshments from its ancient barn and offers a diversion by way of the antics of a menagerie of animals including pigs, chickens, calves and a crazed llama.

A wild-eyed American soldier strikes up a conversation with us. Based at a nearby nuclear reactor, he is finding France more fascinating than his military base in Virginia, USA; after all, he says, he ’joined the military to see the world’.

Our accommodation in the medieval village of La Charité sur Loire is a literary-inspired hotel. We sleep in the Jules Verne room and Patricia and Paul in the Moliere room. Late at night, we wander about town, taking in the beautifully lit 11th-century world heritage church, once known as the ‘elder daughter’ church to the great abbey of Cluny, then the greatest church in Christendom. The village is on the Chemin de Vezelay pilgrimage route. A small number of pilgrims pass by, following the yellow arrows that guide their way to Santiago de Compostela.

La Charité sur Loire to Nevers

Before we leave town we wander through the magnificent ruin that is the Notre Dame church. Once part of a Benedictine monastery of rare splendour and now a world heritage site, it bears silent witness to a religious community that rose and flourished and then fell into decline. We climb the ramparts for a commanding view of the Loire and its floodplains and an aerial perspective of the centuries-old cobblestoned town.

Small birds on song, the ‘Piafs of the Loire’. Our hotel proprietor explains to us that their name, Piaf, was adopted by the chanteuse Edith Piaf, herself a diminutive songbird.

Then it is on our bicycles for the last official stage of the Loire à Vélo. We strike a headwind, our first for the journey, before the day calms. Canal boats, sometimes lost to us in the lush green vegetation, navigate their slow way in and out of locks. Verges bright with wildflowers, an impressionist painting of orange, crimson and yellow as we ride by. Abandoned farmhouses ghostly in the green haze. Still-working farms with stoops of hay drying in the sun and maize ready to harvest.

On the outskirts of Cuffy, at the convergence of the Loire and Cher rivers, we arrive at point zero, the end of the Loire à Vélo. We congratulate ourselves then cycle into Cuffy in search of a celebratory bottle of Loire sparkling wine. It is siesta though, a tradition that persists in rural France, and all the cafes are closed. There is nothing for it but to ride on to Nevers.

Nevers to Decize to Nevers

Being a day ahead of schedule provides us with the opportunity to cycle part of the Eurovelo 6. This trail will eventually be rideable all the way from Nevers to Romania. We follow canal ways past lone fishermen, lock keepers and farmers, detouring via Roman roads to small villages and Romanesque churches stranded in overgrown fields.

Nevers to Cuffy to Nevers

We ride again to Cuffy, the agreed drop off point for our hired bicycles, then walk 17 kilometres along the canal path back to Nevers. With the few hours we have in Nevers we visit the cathedral with its boldly modern stained glass windows (designed by several artists after the original windows were destroyed by allied bombing in WW2) and invite ourselves to a street party where a Breton folk-rock band plays and people dance in the street late into the warm dark evening.

We make a toast to our remarkable fortune. The leisurely, liberating days; the terrain largely gentle; the wind favouring us. Basking in the gentle summer; enjoying the company of dear friends and the generosity of the French people we meet en route.

There’s a chill in the early morning air now and the chestnut trees are on the turn. The Piafs of the Loire are gathering to migrate south to Africa. Time too for the liberation riders to leave behind the wild, the beautiful river and travel southward, to new adventures and a new phase of our lives.