We started slowly down the coast. It was bright and clear and the decorated bicycles got more and more delightfully extravagent the closer we got to the start point at Mont St Michel. The focus of our drive was to visit the Cabane Vauban - a lookout hut built on the cliff overloooking the bay. One of several but this is the most accessible. It sits on the edge at the end of a path flanked by wildflower meadows. The whole coast is pretty much a conservation area managed by the Conservatoire du Littoral and the amount of bird and butterfly life is amazing.
The tide was out and the Mont St Michel sat marooned in the distance.
Then the boring bit. Down the fast roads via Rennes and Nantes to get us onto the coast above La Rochelle. We ate our snacks overlooking a muddy estuary then moved along to a more lively part where mussels are produced. Men stood in the boat scrubbing and packing and vans came and took the bags away.
Clocked in at Ibis Budget Rochefort before spending the rest of the afternoon hunting down yet more lighthouses on the banks of the Charente...
