Tour de France: Day 5

Day 5 Nantes – St Nazaire – Vannes

Today was on the route of the 2000 time trial where cyclists were facing very windy conditions while going over the St Nazaire bridge. We by contrast went over in a gentle zephyr. St Nazaire is a beautiful spot on the coast, used by the Germans in WW2 as a submarine base and still stands today dispite the efforts of the allies to bomb the living bejesus out of it. The port is still used and we were held up for a time while they opened and close the canal to let a couple of boats through. This was the first and last time we will see the coast. The ride was as usual in sunny hot conditions very unusual for this part of France – I hope our luck holds!

Vannes From St Nazaire we jumped in the bus and travelled to the medieval town of Vannes. It is an impressively old town with many wonky buildings inside a fortified walled town centre. We walked around, took some photos and I accompanied Cassey looking and buying samples for his business (women’s fashion) it was very interesting hearing what he is going to do with various pieces of each garment to bring to market in NZ. We are off to tea at crepe cafe’ should be good!