2019 Tour of Brittany (France) Part 20 - Redon - Saint Nazaire

Sunday 15th September 2019 🌞🌞🌞🔥🌞🌞🌞🔥😎
Mileage 58 from Redon to Camping les Paludiers on the Croisic Peninsula
Parking Co-ordinates 47.27835, -2.49223
The Start of Year Five!😀

September 11th 2015

Oh dear, I seem to have made a mistake!!!  I said in my last post that our 4th anniversary of living full time in our motorhome fell on the 15th September, but when I've looked back at previous blogs it seems that we moved in permanently on the 11th September 2015😱, so our celebrations were 4 days too late!

Our rovings started in our little Autotrail Imala but that really wasn't quite big enough to accommodate us and all our full time gubbins!




So in May 2016 we traded up to our present home which has proved to be very comfortable ever since.

The pic on the left is the day we swapped - but that wasn't without incident because we got stuck in the mud and had to be rescued by a man with a big green tractor.   And during that operation (and despite the fact that John had cleaned the old van especially for it's trade in) we ended up splattered in mud so had to present  our van far from looking it's best!

  

But T4rdis 2 was soon in our possession and since then we've travelled about 37,000 miles (plus 12,000 in the the Imala) and visited 9 countries.

So what have been our highlights?  I asked John about his favourite place and after a bit of deliberation he decided it was Zeeland in the Netherlands because he loved the cycling there!



But for me, I couldn't decide!  I first thought maybe Denmark where we found several amusing sculptures

Imagine this pair as us!
John said 'jump' - but I thought better 
not cos I might flatten him 😂😂!

But then I did and he nearly managed to catch me😂😂

Then I changed my mind and thought maybe it was the Central Missif in France with it's gorgeous Gorges

The Verdon Gorge

Gorge du Cians

But it's really hard to pick a favorite because the next wonderful place we visit just takes over from  the one before, so it seems that for the time being I'll just have to have more than one!

And maybe that brings up the question as to how much longer are we going to continue with this nomadic lifestyle and have we had enough of it yet?  Very occasionally we think maybe we have because when your on the road for long periods the constant planning (which John mainly does) can get a bit tiresome, and additionally when you wake in the morning you wonder where on earth you are😂😂!  But that disenchantment doesn't last for long because there is nearly always something beautiful or interesting around the next corner and we've still got so much more in Europe to explore!

Anyway enough of all that, and fast forward back to the present!  We left our tranquil riverside Aire at Redon with a plan to travel to a campsite on the Le Croisic Peninsula but it wasn't far and we knew we couldn't arrive too early because the reception had a long lunch break from 12 till 3pm!  So to pass a little time we visited the huge barrage near Arzal which prevents the River Vilaine emptying into the Atlantic, and along with that there was another massive marina which housed all manor of sailing craft.

And that theme continued all around the Le Croisic Peninsula - I don't think I've ever seen so many boats in one area - but what was mostly absent was anybody to sail them!

We arrived on the Le Croisic Peninsula just before 3pm and after that it was just a lazy meander down to the beach and then time taken sitting in the sunshine reminiscing over our recent travels and what we would be doing over the next couple of days.


Monday 16th September 2019 🌞🌞🌞🔥🌞🌞🌞🔥😎
25 🚴🚴 miles.

Today we took ourselves out around some of the Peninsula's stunning coastline were our views were filled with dark craggy rocks and a sparkling sapphire ocean, and when that gave way we found the 4 mile stretch of golden sand that fronts the stylish resort of la Baule!

The resort is said to be Brittany's answer to the South of France's Biarritz and there were certainly plenty of flashy cars, big hotels (some of which were more impressive than others) and places serving 'posh nosh'.

But for us all we needed was a picnic bench to make us happy and there were plenty of them available along the sea front.  For a while after that our ride continued slightly inland and eventually led us to a Lidl, but there 'horror of horrors' there was a height barrier banning motorhomes - I think that's the first one we've ever seen in all the countries we've visited!  Needless to say when we leave the peninsula we'll be taking our trade elsewhere!


Tuesday 17th September 2017 🌞🌞🌞🔥🌞🌞🌞🔥😎
Mileage 28 🚴🚴 miles.

The hazy bit in the middle is were all the salt pans are

Today we mostly concentrated on enjoying another aspect of what Le Croisic is famous for and that was the many miles of salt pans that are only intersected by minor roads!  Salt extraction in this area can trace it's history back to Roman times when it was a precious commodity for the preservation of food, but now it sells quite cheaply (€5/5 kg) on road side stalls, but as we don't use much we weren't tempted to buy any!

To extract the salt seawater is allowed to flood into larger lagoons at high tide, then from these reservoirs it trickles gradually into the shallow clay lined pits where the water evaporates and it's salinity increases.  Eventually the salt crystallises out and the fine white crystals are raked off to be used as table salt while the coarser greyish crystals that form below the waterline are used for industry and cooking!  Apparently each 'pan' produces 150 - 200 pounds of salt at every harvest and there are usually 30 - 40 of these in the summer months.

You'd think the high saltiness would put him off but there were loads of egrets paddling about!

Wednesday 18th September 2019  🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞
Mileage 22 from the Le Croisic Peninsula to Saint Nazaire
Parking Co-ordinates 47.27929, -2.20378

Today we've moved to an Aire in the city of Saint Nazaire mainly because John wanted to come and see the large fortified U-boat pen that was built by the Germans during World War 2.  The base is 300 metres long, 130 metres wide and 18 metres high and required 480,000 square metres of concrete to build it.

The structure would hold up to 14 submarines and they would enter via the Loire River, but it's amazing it's still in existence because in 1942 the Saint Nazaire dock was the target of Operation Chariot which successfully destroyed the adjacent dry dock by ramming an explosive filled destroyer into it but at that time the U-boat pens themselves weren't targeted!

One of the pens.

Today none of the submarines from the war are left but since 1987 one called L'Espadon has been made into a museum (€10) for visitors to go on board to imagine how a crew of 65 might live in very cramped conditions - and after our visit I'll never complain about not having enough space in T4rdis2 again!

We were given an audio guide and our tour took us through the crew's sleeping and living quarters, through the galley and the main control deck, through the communication and sonar area, past a periscope and on into the torpedo room that doubled as a cinema to entertain the crew.

They even let me have a go at driving - or was that diving!

Then once we resurfaced we went to view the Pont de Saint Nazaire which crosses the Loire River from Saint Nazaire on the north bank to Saint Brevin Les Pins on the south bank.  It was built in 1975, and at that time it was the longest one ever built in France and at 3,356 metres it held the world record for the longest cable stayed bridge for eight years!

We'll be crossing it tomorrow

While we were there we also got to see the Memorial de l'Abolition which memorialises the trade of African Slaves.  It seems that  from the 17th to 19th centuries France organised at least 4,220 slave trade expeditions and this amounted to about 450,000 Africans being taken from the coast of West Africa and being transported to Central America via France.

There is a figure top right looking towards freedom, one climbing the post on the left
and one in shackles on the concrete pillar in the centre.  

And that more or less completed today's outing because our options were to either go to another beach of home for a cuppa!

Bye for now 😗😗

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