Simon & Maria's travel blog

hills, bikes & more

  • CYCLING
  • WALKING
  • WILD CAMPING
  • SIGHTSEEING
  • SPANISH
  • ENGLISH
  • ABOUT

Cycling from Les Sables d’Olonne to Sainte Foy (Pays de la Loire, France)

June 28, 2018 by Maria Fernandez

Cycling in France - www.simonking.bike

Cycling to Sainte Foy: map & data

© OpenStreetMap contributors
Total distance: 19.88 mi
Total climbing: 1059 m
Total time: 04:26:30
.

There’s an imaginary 200m spike and drop on the graph above. Please, ignore it.

.

.

On Thursday Simon had the afternoon off from the Speaker and Language Recognition Workshop he was attending.

By then we’d cycled up and down the peaceful coastal path half a dozen times, so we ventured inland from Les Sables d’Olonne.

Off to Sainte Foy

Our first stop was at Château d’Olonne, a beautiful town bathed in the sun.

There we visited this church, and after faffing around for a bit we went to a nearby park. We spotted a table and bench, and had lunch in the shade.

.

Cycling in France - www.simonking.bike

Church of Saint Hilaire in Château d’Olonne

.
Click to see the photo gallery
.

We cycled partly on dedicated paths and partly on roads, but there was little traffic.

.

Cycling in France - www.simonking.bike

A very quiet road

.

It was a gloriously sunny afternoon, like it had been all week.

.

Cycling in France - www.simonking.bike

Simon consulting the map in the blazing sun

.

Our final destination was Sainte Foy, a small town with a population of about 1,700.

It’s less than 10 miles from Les Sables d’Olonne, so we took some minor paths and cycled through a couple of farms.

.

Cycling in France - www.simonking.bike

Path through the farms

.

We soon arrived at Sainte Foy. It was siesta time and there was hardly a soul around. We searched for a cafe in vain, but only the corner shop appeared to be opened. Tough luck.

We bought some water and headed back to Les Sables d’Olonne.

.

Cycling in France - www.simonking.bike

Crossroads at Sainte Foy

.

On the way I took another picture of the ubiquitous Tour de France poster. Why not?

.

Cycling in France - www.simonking.bike

My bike dreaming of joining the big tour

.

We took a different route on the way back, and went through other farms.

.

Cycling in France - www.simonking.bike

Back on the quiet road

.

I didn’t know much about this part of the world before we left Edinburgh, but it turned out to be an excellent place to spend a week.

Our landlady said the weather is unpredictable and you can get a lot of wind all year round.

But, instead, we got a real summer that we hadn’t gambled on.

.

Cycling in France - www.simonking.bike

Cycling in the shade, sort of

.

A couple of days later, on Saturday, we left Les Sables d’Olonne. We took the train early in the morning and arrived in the pretty town of Douarnenez by lunchtime. That was the beginning of our walking holiday.

.

Our 2018 holiday in France

A week in Les Sables d’Olonne (Pays de la Loire): from 22 to 29 June, 2018.

Cycling to the salt marshes north of Les Sables d’Olonne (Pays de la Loire): 24 June, 2018.

Walking around Douarnenez (Brittany): 30 June, 2018.

Day 1 walking on the GR34 (Brittany): 1 July, 2018.

Day 2 walking on the GR34 (Brittany): 2 July, 2018.

Day 3 walking on the GR34 (Brittany): 3 July, 2018.

Day 4 walking on the GR34 (Brittany): 4 July, 2018.

A visit to Quimper (Brittany): 4 & 5 July, 2018.

A tour of Nantes (Pays de la Loire): 5 & 6 July, 2018.

.

.

I took all the photos with the Panasonic.

.

Filed Under: Abroad, Blog, Day ride Tagged With: Cycling, France

PRIVACY & COOKIES TERMS DISCLOSURE CONTACT

Copyright © Simon & Maria’s Travel Blog · 2024 · www.simonking.bike · All rights reserved
Designed by Maria Fernandez


VISIT OUR OTHER SITES:

LEARN ENGLISH WITH MARIA

LEARN SPANISH WITH MARIA

SPEECH ZONE