Day 9 - Ars-en-Ré (Ile de Ré) to Sainte-Mère-Église

Day 9 - Ars-en-Ré (Ile de Ré) to Sainte-Mère-Église  


Thursday 29/06/2023

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Crossing rural France and heading homewards


Slept really well but struggled to get up. I think the long journey is catching up with us. Another long day of riding to take us within striking distance of tomorrow's boat home from Cherbourg.

We covered over 300 miles today. Initially on smaller fun roads but later on dull motorways. To start with we crossed back over Ile de Re and went back across the bridge onto the mainland. We spent some time in traffic heading North on single lane express roads, having to filter due to lots of lorries and tractors holding up traffic. Following a brief stop in Luchon for fuel, we took some smaller B roads North,  enjoying some small villages before getting onto the dual carriageways to Nantes in the North. After joining motorways we passed by Rennes, then took a long stint to Sainte-Lo for fuel (interrupted by a quick pee break). We had a tiny bit of rain but it was over in 5 minutes. The boys haven't had the need to don their new waterproof gear yet.

We then broke the last of the journey up to Sainte Mere Eglise to camp. The town is a famous WW2 paradrop site for US Airborne, so we walked around, took some photos and grabbed some steaks too.

This town was the first to be liberated in France by the Americans and the church has a mannequin of an American paratrooper who was caught-up on the Church spire whilst landing here. He pretended to be dead for 2 hours before the Germans captured him.

We found a restaurant and had great steaks with cider sauce. Whilst at the restaurant a bird pooed on Leon, so some good luck is coming his way in addition to taking the holy waters in Lourdes! 

Tomorrow we get the boat from Cherbourg to Portsmouth and ride home. Such a shame that it's over. We've squeezed so much into the last week and a bit - loved it all. The boys are also happy with what we have done - a real experience that we will never forget.


Mileage: 2181 (Andy) 1819 (Leon - Konrad has done probably another 35)
Beers / Drinks: 40 (+ 9 bottles of wine)
Fines: 0 (possibly 2 in the post)
Bribes: 0 (£53 tolls)
Ass pain: 7/10 
Mechanical issues: 1 Puncture, 1 lost toolbox cover, 1 lost front wheel weight
Accidents: 0 (Konrad scratched my pannier)
Wetness: 1/10 
Coldness: 2/10
Theft count: 0 (ignoring tolls)

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