Day 71: Rochefort

This morning I followed the D807 cycling path for a looong time. This path is build on top of an old railroad track. It is very straight for a long time and varies only very slightly. So if I show you one photo, you know what my morning was like:

It was cloudy and at times it rained with temperatures around 22°. This is actually quite nice for cycling. But not so nice for a pic-nic.

When the cycling path ended I followed the smaller road to "La Pointe de Grave" where the ferry accross "La Gironde" starts. Until now I had always been lucky with ferries, but today I only saw one leaving and had to wait for almost an hour. At least there was no doubt that the ferry is big enough to carry a velomobile:

While waiting at the port a class mini sailboat went out for practice. Unfortunately it was to far away to recognize which boat it was (might have been one of the Artemis boats). Also the Minitransat race starts on September 26 in "Les Sables d'Olonne". The boats started arriving there yesterday. I'm sure I will be seeing quite a few when I get there.

Arriving in Royan I tried to get out of the city as quickly as possible since there did not seem to be anything worth visiting (Wikipedia states: "The town was rebuilt as part of an urban development programme in the 1950s, and is representative of the Modernist architecture of the period." I guess that says all.).

But getting out was not enough. The D733 to Rocheford is a road with loads of traffic and no hard shoulder. No fun to cycle there, but no alternatives either.

So I was happy to finally leave the street for the last few kilometer to Rochefort. And the last kilometer had a surprise for me:

A "transporter bridge" where you "fly" accross the water in a gondola. This bridge is also featured in the musical film "The Young Girls of Rochefort".

Shortly after crossing the "Charente" I finished todays leg on the municipal campsite of Rochefort.