Bourcefranc

We are stopping in this ville only for a night on the way to Royan which was too far to ride in one day. Bourcefranc is situated just before the island Olèron.

The route took us back to Rochefort then farther south and west. Again we spent most of the day on a Velodyssey route. We’ve gotten spoiled with bike lanes and cycle routes on this trip. Our cycling friends Katharine and Rob would love riding here. Sometimes the terrain is less than smooth or on gravel but overall good for riding.

This time we crossed the Charente River on the easier bridge, the Transbordeur. It was recently reopened after 4 years of renovation. We arrived there about 1pm but the 2 staff members were having their “dejeuner” so we had to wait an hour to cross. It was interesting to see all the different cyclists gathering here with us to wait. There was no signage about this midday rest, instead the operator had to keep telling people from his lunch table that he would start again at 2pm, it seemed odd, another strange French thing.

We rode through a lovely little town with an ancient fort named Remparts de Brouage. It is one of many in France with a classification as a Beaux Village. It wasn’t a planned stop, just happened to be on the route, a great place for a rest and refreshment. It’s main street was called “rue de Québec”.

Much of this area is salt marshes, and full of small canals. As we were going by a canal parallel to the bike trail we saw an animal in the water that may be a muskrat? After the google research we thought it might be a Nutria but we’re still not sure. What do you think? At any rate the Princess Bride movie came to mind (rodents of an unusual size).

We arrived at Bourcefranc and got into our apartment easily this time. However we soon found out that just about everything was closed due to it being a Sunday. If the city is smaller and not a tourist attraction then it’s difficult to find a place to eat or buy groceries. We were worried that we may have to have oatmeal porridge for supper, we always carry that for Tara’s breakfasts. We eventually found a Chinese buffet takeout (Panda King) that we had to get back on the bike and ride to about 3km away. We need to pay more attention to travelling on Sundays. No gourmet French food for us tonight but we didn’t go hungry.