Eurovelo 6: Day 1- The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.

I was at the beginning. Day 1 - of many.

T.S. Elliot said that a beginning was the end of something else. I am not sure what I am ending - but looking at a sign that says that I am standing at the starting point of a 3800km pan-Europe bike trail would indicate I was about to start something.

Yep. No doubt about it.
Yep - not a doubt.
Something quite, well - long.

You would think there would be something more than just a big sign to mark the start. Maybe a few French girls crying and waving white handkerchiefs. There is not even a cafe or a bread shop. I did manage to get a toot from a boy racer. From small beginnings come great things I guess. And - mind you - by just starting I had avoided one of the two great mistakes the Buddha had taught about the journey to truth - the mistake of not even starting the journey. The other is of course - not finishing it. Don't get me wrong -  it was very clear to me as I took to the route, I had in fact not given this much thought.

It was a blazing sunny day on the French Atlantic coast and I realised that this was the last time I would see the sea until I had finished the ride. And I drank in the beautiful sea vistas. From the  sign notiing the route start the Eurovelo 6 heads abruptly east - i,e, inland and away from the sea, and basically keeps the same bearing - east - right across the continent and rather unexpectedly away from the river.

A few French towns give you a taste of things to come. And I sit and watch a group of men play out a game of pétanque. 

The first day was a lot of French countryside - French cows, French corn. French cows eating the French corn, being watched by a French farmer - stuff like that.

Coming from a colony - I am immediately taken with the old stone farmhouses dotting the landscape we lot have a great affection for anything older than 100 years. Actually looking round it is hard out here to find a new building.



I note a Bed & Breakfast advertising for cyclists by the side of the road. Nice hot showers and home cooked food. It must be for the "... too posh to push crowd... " I thought.

This quip amused me for the last few hours before heading into the Nantes HI hostel.

 I also broke my first bit of gear - my bottle holder - clean off the frame. I had only just brought it.