Day 5 – Double chips

Woken by the sound of church bells at 07:30. Bread and cheese for breakfast. Left the campsite and headed past Segré. After 14 miles arrived at the Oudon river. Sat on a bench for a moment to admire the view. Met a goose.

Onwards beside the river, a very scenic and enjoyable route especially as the sun was shining. Found a gorgeous crêperie but it was fully booked. Turns out the morning church bells were for Ascension Day, a national holiday. Many restaurants closed and the rest fully booked plus most shops closed too. Food could be tricky today!

About half an hour further along the river we managed to get a table at a small restaurant. It was rather pricey so we opted for a plate of chips each. We didn’t have time to appreciate haute cuisine and just needed fuel.

More cycling along the river for the afternoon and then headed through farmland for an hour-ish to our campsite. Totally knackered towards the end so really didn’t appreciate the final half mile of track that was covered in very deep gravel making cycling very slow and precarious.

Got to the campsite just in time to check in. It was a non-profit site with accessible camping as well as particular provision for cyclists. Three swimming pools too! We had no food and the campsite restaurant didn’t open until June. With so many places closed for Ascension Day and the local village only small, we were concerned that we might not eat. One of the campsite staff phoned around all the local restaurants until she found one that was open. We headed straight there. Kebabs!! Yummy, I love a donner. A French donner is a little more classy than the greasy things in the UK that I only ever eat whilst wandering home drunk late at night.

Back to camp, put up our tent and got organised for the night. A shower each and then washed a load of our clothes in a sink. Strung up a washing line on our pitch and lowered the tone with our display of wet cycling kit and underwear.

Time for bed. Totally exhausted and despite the delicious kebab, still in food deficit after riding 50 miles with no proper lunch. We were pitched beside a lake full of extremely noisy frogs who didn’t know it was bedtime. I rather enjoyed their non-stop croaking.

Miles: 52

Total miles: 204

Good things today: