St Nazaire - 11 September 2018

11 September

This morning Tintin and I did something I’m not sure we’d done before in more than 30 years together! We actually got up, in the foggy gloom, and went walking and running. No app to help, so just went around the lake using various trees as targets to get to. We were surprisingly ok, but really didn’t go far - but it’s a start!

Today’s mishap to delay us leaving was Tintin knocking over our water bottles after filling them. Over the big Turtle mat, but didn’t leak into the electrics thankfully. Had to use our towels to mop up, which meant we then had to get out the washing machine! (Strong plastic tub, which we put detergent into, and put into the garage to agitate whilst driving) Oh well, time to wash them anyway!

Drove for about 40 minutes to:

St Marc sur Mer - N47°14.218’ W002°18.032’ - free

No official parking, so Tintin reversed up and went onto chocks in the corner of the service area.  He had researched and knew it was about 6 miles to ride into St Nazaire. Didn’t take too long. Were too early to visit anywhere, as lunch till 2pm!, stupidly bought made up baguettes from the Carrefour, decidedly unpleasant!

We paid €46 for both of us to buy a passport for three entrance fees, cheaper than just the two we wanted!

First off was the Escal ‘Atlantic - basically set up inside the submarine pens, just shows some of the interiors of various liners from La Provence 1906, Rochambeau 1911, Ile-de-France 1927, Normandie 1935, Liberte 1950 and France 1962. Very impressive Luis Vuitton traveling wardrobe! The photo at the top is some artwork that was in 1st class on one of the ships. Some parts were quite authentic, like walking on the deck at night with a cool breeze blowing. At the end of the tour we went into a lifeboat and were lowered down, not necessary - but a nice touch!

We rode around to visit the submarine called Espadon (Swordfish). Why is it wherever we go, there appear to be few people, and then just at entrances, there are loads! We had an audio phone to listen to in English. The submarine had 65 crew members, with just one sea water shower - extremely cramped conditions - personally I couldn’t do it. They had either a red light to show it was night time, or white for day - just so crew had some perspective of time. It was the first French submarine to have dived beneath the Arctic ice.

Because it was included in the price, we visited the Écomusée. We were a bit underwhelmed - probably because there wasn’t much to read in English and our French isn’t up to such long translations!  Tintin did like the lens of a lighthouse though!

Saint Nazaire, being an industrial port, is not very pretty! Overall, think Tintin was quite disappointed, we walked around the submarine pens for free, he thought there would be more information about the history and the U boats.

Pretty promenade to ride along. An English man, Peter Logan has a very nice sculpture, precision balanced, even in the wind. Alongside the sea were quite a few fishing huts.

Returned here about 6pm after about 15 miles riding today, and found one ‘proper’ space, so parked my bike in it whilst Tintin went to get Dave. More level which is good. After a cup of tea, went to see the beach which is only 150m away. Looks lovely, quite an undertow though. Also walked to the nudist beach alongside, even more of an undertow...