Day 18 Montpellier to Brighton - Pont d'Ouilly

109km - through the bocage

Guest blog from Christine

Today turned out to be our longest day and one of the wettest.

After a night of rain we were pleased to wake up to clear skies even though it was chilly. We decided to get off early and see how far we could get as the forecast promised more rain.

Buying jambon baguettes for lunch as we left Mayenne we found the disused railway track we went on last year. The route actually involved two different railway tracks with some wiggling and confusing road linking the two. This all gets you steadily, and at civilised gradient, up to the little town of Flers which straddles the watershed between the Loire drainage basin and rivers flowing north to La Manche.

Day 17 Montpellier to Brighton - Mayenne

40 kms - a rest day

After yesterday's battle with the mud, today we pulled in our horns and chose a more modest destination - Mayenne, the next significant town on our route home.

Mayenne is only 40 kms or so away along the river, was never going to take more that a couple of hours to complete, so I had to concede to Christine's suggestion that we actually have a look round Lavel, the town were we stayed last night. To be honest, after our brief visit last year I had concluded that it was a bit of a dump. As it turned out first impressions can be completely wrong and hidden behind the slightly run down river frontage, Laval has a stunning medieval town centre. Lots of a half timbered properties, carefully maintained, are being reused as restaurants, bars and artisan shops which, on a day when it wasn't Monday and when the weather was half decent would have been a great place to spend some time (and money, were it not for the painful constraint of one pannier to get stuff back home: still I managed to buy a pair of shoes - ed).

The other reason we decided on a short day was the weather, it still hasn't fixed itself. It wasn't actually raining, just grey and chilly, but the forecast was for heavy rain later.

Day 16 Montpellier to Brighton - Laval

97kms through the mud

After last night's loss of cycling appetite we were back in the saddle again and heading north to the Channel coast. The weather forecast changed from last night's predicted heavy showers to one of light showers this morning. Although not good it was just enough to tip the balance and we left Angers, without really seeing it, through light drizzle.

Angers is were the River Mayenne joins the Loire and the route follows the Mayenne north to the town of Mayenne. From the mid-16th century, following the construction of a series of locks and weirs, the river has been navigable.

We have already cycled the route from Angers to the Channel, we did it last year, but this year it felt different.

Mud on the Vélo Francette

Day 15 Montpellier to Brighton - Angers

95kms and over the Loire.

The last 20kms spoilt what was otherwise a great day, the last 5 were almost a disaster.

Day 14 Montpellier to Brighton - Thouars

125 kms - up hills and down dales

I'm not religious, far from it, but a religious upbringing has left it's mark. I have a sneaking suspicion that things catch up with you and doing a bad turn comes at a cost. Last night we booked a room in a small hotel in St Loup sur Thouet, it looked nice, good value and had great reviews. Today however we were moving quickly, got to St Loup early afternoon, and sailed on past. I felt very guilty and I can't help it, I blame all our subsequent problems on that misdemeanour.

Day 13 Montpellier to Brighton - Noirt

90kms - Languid and long

Today we left the coast and headed inland; it was hot and humid. In terms of route the bit change was leaving the Vélodysée after about 25kms at Marans and joining the Vélo Francette, the route that will take us on our last 600 kms all the way to the Normandy coast.

Starting La Velo Francette

We've had a good day's cycling but it was quite tough. The challenge came from two sources: the first was the route and the second was the heat.

Day 12 Montpellier to Brighton - La Rochelle

50 kms - between the sea and the motorway

Today we were both somewhat distracted by a mission which made the journey to La Rochelle a secondary task - 'find a bike shop'. After yesterday's second (actually 4th - Ed) puncture an overwhelming volume of advice has persuaded us to replace Christine's tyres: we still have a long way to go.

The first address we googled was on an industrial estate just north of Rochefort. After getting into serious trouble for loosing Christine (at a hairy double roundabout in the rush hour - Ed) we found a huge warehouse, clearly the French equivalent of Sports Direct and unlikely to provide us with what we needed.

A bikavan (?)