Day 3 Laval - Angers. 99kms

This ride was an absolute joy. One hundred kilometres along the Mayenne river with just the odd short diversion up into the odd village up on the valley side. These diversions were less than useful in terms of buying food or other supplies as so much of the centre of France is almost deserted nowadays. Shops and restaurants shut, businesses closed down and nobody around. It’s a real shame. But, we were making great progress along the route de halage, the haulage path or towpath along there canal. It was flat, flat, flat. 

We stopped in Chateau Gontier where we had coffee and cold drinks. There was an enticing lunchtime menu at the cafe but it was only eleven thirty so we decided we’d stop later on. However, it was two o’clock before we came across another restaurant and it was shut. Ah well, there was always the biscuits and the cheese from the Ibis breakfast. It was around 5.00pm when we arrived at the Ibis in Angers where I helped myself to the bananas put out on the bar for the next morning’s breakfast.  

The Ibis hotels are very good value. They are dependable and you know exactly what you’re going to get. Breakfast is a buffet affair with plenty of choice and a good basis for a day’s cycling. When we were first planning this trip we had talked of carrying a tent and bedding and camping each night. We bought the sleeping bags and mattresses but decided against tenting it in the end because the Accor group hotels, which includes Ibis, Ibis Budget and Ibis Styles, are available on Tesco’s hotels.com website and using Tesco vouchers meant that a night’s B and B at one of these locations is often actually cheaper than a night on a campsite. No brainer really. Also it meant that we

were able to leave behind the tent, the bedding, the stove and the cooking utensils,  the camp chairs and the silver candelabras which made our bikes so much lighter. Paula always maintained that the candelabras were, and I quote “a stupid idea”. I thought they’d bring an air of class and sophistication, a certain je ne sais quoi to any evening meal in camp, especially with that lovely silver cruet set we bought in Chester last year. Anyway, it’s all moot now and we’ll just have to agree that we’ll never really know who was right.

That night we had a fantastic meal at an Italian restaurant called Al Denté. Whoever Al is or was the food at his restaurant is authentic, tasty and plentiful. We arrived early at around 7.00pm and this is recommended as just ten minutes later all the tables were full and people were queuing up the street. We had the antipasto which is a sharing platter as an entree, Paula had lasagne and I had pizza as the main course. All delicious.

Thank you Mr Denté.