On the road again (pt. 1)

A few days blogs are coming close together I'm afraid - this is part one, part two is above!! Methinks I should've started this a little earlier! Quite a bit has happened since my last update, including heading back to Jersey, setting off to Vegas, surviving Vegas (somehow) and arriving back in Jersey, before once again leaving for the continent. Not all of this was done by bicycle. I left off last time in La Tarbadiere, as previously mentioned somewhere towards the arse-end of nowhere. I set out on a dreary morning and aimed towards St. Nazaire (for any of you interested, the location (unsurprisingly) of the St. Nazaire raids during the Second World War to destroy the submarine pens. My GPS had decided that it was a cool 70km, which I thought was achievable for a good day's riding, unfortunately once I'd travelled 60 of the 70 it mentioned that I had another 80 to go. Once again my adventure was foiled by my GPS calculating distance as the crow flies - I hadn't realised that (a) I couldn't cross a convenient bridge as it is only open to cars &c. and that it thus necessitated a monumental diversion inland. As such I ended up in a campsite called (insert name of campsite here, because I'll be buggered if I can remember it's name) which was an interesting experience. The weather turned pretty dreary as soon as I had erected my tent which put a dampener on things in more ways that one, as did the fact that as soon as I went off bar-hunting I managed to turn my ankle pretty badly. Thankfully the bar, when I found it, had a plentiful supply of ice. I had decided to stay two nights at this campsite so I could have a rest day, and this decision was reinforced by the pain in my ankle. The campsite itself wasn't much to talk about, though I did learn a couple of lessons - mainly, if a campsite's description maintains that it is "family orientated", there will be a lot of kids (i.e. for any other Adam's out there, avoid like the plague). Kids Karaoke does NOT liven up a good bar, especially when they don't seem to have moved away from 70's/80's pop. My time in France pretty much being up I headed inland to Nantes and caught the train back to St. Malo where I was, as ever, enthusiastically greeted by the Hery family before heading back to Jersey at stupid o'clock the next morning. What happens next will stay between the few survivors of my brother's stag party. All I will say is that Vegas is (a) fun; and (b) not very cheap. So where am I now? Well, I arrived in France this morning (23rd) and set off North. I'm currently sitting outside of a (closed, though for the life of me I can't begin to comprehend why) bar at a campsite called La Vieux Chain (sp?). My day was spent cycling in the absolutely beautiful sunshine through a procession of ever prettier little towns and villages. The campsite itself is gorgeous - my view as I'm typing this is of their lake and masses of very well kept green pitches. It's quarter to eight and the sun is still high in the sky. If I had a beer in my hand, life would be nigh on perfect... All journey's begin with one tentative step. Mine has been a pretty long one, including a week of practice, but I'm finally off, doing what I want to do, and am loving it. I could not be happier that I finally took that step.