Day 20: Travel Day
Welcome
Yesterday we travelled west, right through the centre of France, from Dijon to Ancenis-Saint-Géréon.
Boints were suddenly back in play yesterday morning after Mathias turned up at lobby call with paper bags full of croissants and pain au chocolat. I ordered an espresso from the hotel bar and enjoyed this light breakfast before we got on the road. We made a quick supermarket stop before we left Dijon, stocking the van with enough snacks to get us through the next 600km of driving.
Trying to get our heads around the overwhelming cheese aisle at the supermarket.
Upside down lettuces on display.
The supple and capable hands of Mathias Chirpaz drove us out of Dijon, taking us west through the Ouche Valley on the A38 Motorway, until we returned to the Autoroute du Soleil. We merged onto the A19 which heads directly west, cutting below Paris, until at Orleans we headed southwest, taking a complex network of different autoroutes which at this point I have lost the interest in cataloguing. These French highways are beautifully maintained, and the smoothness and consistent speeds enjoyed throughout the day’s driving came at the cost of nearly €100 in tolls.
Driving out of Dijon.
Ad blue, keeping our engine clean and green.
Mathias expertly operating the toll payment machine.
The butter-smooth surface of the A6.
If you have driven France’s longest motorway, L'Aquitaine, the A10, you might have been lucky enough to see a rather striking concrete tower, notable for its tapering central rod supporting several thin discs near the top, bristling with radio antennae. Radio émetteur de Monnaie is another structure that has proven difficult to research but I did find a website that estimates its height as 110m, and its status as built so I’m going to double down and confirm those two pieces of information as facts.
It was nearly 6pm when we arrived at our hotel. Mathias had done a heroic job behind the wheel, getting us safely across the western region of the country. Our lodgings were in an Ibis Styles, an Ibis offshoot that we haven’t come across before. Styles was an understatement, as the architect of this building had gone in with guns blazing, perhaps aiming for something that would blend in with the traditional houses of Ancenis-Saint-Géréon, but with modern accents like sharply-angled eaves, gleaming, reflective windows, and a shingle facade. Palm trees graced the edge of the carpark, the tropical trimmings that carry the spirit of this popular hotel chain.
Tristan and I headed out for a run after checking in. I had done a small amount of research and found that just a few kilometres outside the town there was a Neolithic site where we could see an ancient menhir, as well as a Christianised rock. We set out through the historical town of Ancenis, climbing a winding road that passes the town square and then descends to the rive Loire. This is France’s longest river and runs all the way from the mountainous southeast of the country to the Bay of Biscay in the far west. A medieval fortress, the Château d'Ancenis dominates the southern edge of the town, perched above the riverbank, in a perfect position to control traffic travelling up and down this waterway. As if I wasn’t excited enough already, just past this castle is the Ancencis Suspension Bridge, possessing a spectacular 412m length and a 238m suspended span, and connecting the regions of Brittany and Anjou.
There was a very scenic trail that ran alongside the river, and we followed this east for a time, until we had to cut inland, following a series of dirt roads that led through a bocage terrain whose fields were currently occupied by rolled golden bales of hay. The megalith we were visiting was visible from a great distance, and we saw it silhouetted by a sun coming down over rows of grapevines. As we drew closer, we began to appreciate the size of this impressive piece of quartz, which stands 3.5m above the fertile soil of the vineyard and is nearly 2m at its widest point. Up the hill we could see a rocky outcrop topped with a Christian symbol which at 15m of height must provide spectacular views back down to the Loire and of the surrounding farmland. It was a sweltering afternoon and back at the hotel we enjoyed an expensive and quenching beer, followed by a cold shower. The shower was one of those designs with a bathtub and a glass door that is supposed to keep the water inside the bathtub, but the glass door is far too small, so you flood the bathroom, and you don’t have enough towels to properly clean up the mess.
The great menhir.
The Christianised rock.
For days Gabe had been planning our Sunday evening. The Men’s final of the French Open was being played in the afternoon and his one wish was to enjoy this prestigious sporting event in the comfort of our hotel, accompanied by a good bottle of French wine. Gabe’s wish was realised. Mathias negotiated with one of the staff at our Ibis Styles and managed to secure the use of their conference room and its large projector screen as our viewing area, and even talked them into chilling our wine in the fridge under the bar. Again, the boints graph came out of retirement and Mathias’s tally for the day ticked higher. It was a lovely way to spend our evening off, in the comfort of an Ibis conference room surrounded by trolleys of spare bedding, enjoying a cheap takeaway dinner from the only place open on a Sunday.
Here are the video highlights from the past couple of days, courtesy of Tristan Deck.