Day 1 - La Baule to Nantes Est

I came down first thing in the morning after watching the News and declared it was going to be sunny!! I was so so wrong. The sky turned dark and the wind blew (luckily at our backs most of the time). And twice or three times today the sky opened up and we were drenched. The final few miles home may as well have been in a swimming pool. I think the rain will be our challenge on this trip - no hills but we're turning into prunes!

But on the good side - we cycled 63 miles today!! I think that's the most miles we've ever cycled in one day. More news from today:

• Steve got his front wheel caught in a train track groove and crashed. I got a great video of Liz spraying disinfectant on it and Steve crying out.
• Trish put the wrong destination in the satnav and headed back towards Oxhill, luckily she turned back before she hit Paris.
• We almost lost faith in Mike's navigation ability. We had cycled 60 miles and we were sure we had missed the hotel, but Mike insisted we should cycle on - there were mumurs of mutiny. Turns out Mike was right and we were wrong. Oops.

Le Gang before the ride - before the rain.

 Me taking yet another pic.

 Onward!

 Joe & Nikki look so good in this pic. It's their first time on a cycle trip with us
we very glad to have them along.

 I've seen the most beautiful roses here on the Loire.

We stopped at a very unusual place - the old U-boat dock in St Nazaire.

The Germans used to repair/service and launch their U-boats from here.

All that remains are huge spooky concrete bays.

.

 The U-boats pulled in here. Graham told us a great story of how the

British filled a ship up with explosives and rammed the main gate

leading to the submarine shipyard in order to stop them.

Stopping for cafe.

Wild flowers - amazing

The sinking house on the Loire.

Looking cool!

Lunch in a little village cafe where croque monseiur (hot ham and cheese sandwich)

and quiche only cost 3 euros (that's cheap!)

The giant walking elephant in Nantes. It walked, roared (is that elephants do?)
 and sprayed water out of its trunk! I was entranced.

Mike always plans obstacles on route.