Got off the boat no probs and onto the open road. Tagged on the back of a group of Polish Hoggies... Nice to group ride for a change. Stopped at a place called Tinteniac for a cafe au lait and croissant... In a supermarket; thought I would find a quaint little boulangerie but no such luck, still filled a gap.
Am on my way to St Nazaire as I've always wanted to go there but missed out on my last french trip in 2007, then on to La Rochelle where I am staying tonight. It's really windy but sunny for the most part; am having to battle a bit to keep the bike in a straight line though.
Stopped for a bum break... Lovely little town
Arrived St Nazaire and rode straight to the port as this is what I have come to see. During WW2 the germans occupied St Nazaire and build huge concrete structures. This is where the U-boats were hidden away when they were being repaired/restocked. It also had the only drydock in occupied hands large enough to accommodate the Tirpitz. There was a daring raid to destroy the drydock gates called Operation Chariot and a destroyer class ship, HMS Cambeltown, was filled with explosives and sailed into the dock gates where it exploded and sank thereby making the dock unusable for the rest of the war.
For the full story click here http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Campbeltown_(I42)
The huge concrete 'pens' can still be seen and most of them converted to a museum. Unfortunately I didn't have time to look inside but was able to see them from the outside.
I also came across this interesting sculpture, commissioned to commemorate the abolition of slavery in France.
I'm really glad I got here in the end. Called in to a little cafe for a coffee... This was on the table opposite...
Weird right???
Next stop... shopping... went to St Herblain Harley Davidson near Nantes... almost bought another helmet as the one I've got chokes me at high speed.. however I managed to restrain myself, ahem! So just a tee shirt then.
Finally arrived at my hotel around 9pm.. no thanks to the satnav, which has decided to play silly beggers and refused to route me anywhere except La Rochelle in NORMANDY... sigh. So had to navigate the old fashioned way, by road signs.. still did ok and got here fairly easily.
That's roughly 270 miles today; am heading for Andorra tomorrow... won't make it in one day but will stop somewhere along the way. zzzzzzzzzz
After much faffing around with photos and videos it's now 1am so the BSL version will have to wait until tomorrow... err today... later
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