Flow Vélo 10 : Bridges over Troubled Waters

Flow Vélo 9 : Going Solo Flow Vélo 11 : The Missing Piece

Flow Vélo 10 : Bridges over Troubled Waters

La Flow Vélo from Rochefort to Fouras

The only parts of the Flow Vélo we hadn’t yet explored were the River Charente’s old-age meanders before it meets the sea at Fouras-les-Bains. This 60-km section, from Geay to Fouras, was too long for a one-day return trip (see how reasonable I am this year?), so we decided to treat ourselves to a camping weekend in Rochefort – centrally placed between Fouras and Geay – and cycle in the two different directions over two days.

‘It’ll be a nightmare if it’s windy,’ said my husband – wisely, I must admit with hindsight: be warned, if you’re considering this stretch. So we waited for a weekend of good weather.

And waited some more.

Eventually, I realised the tourist season would soon be upon us, giving my husband more excuses not to do the last section, which didn’t inspire him. I checked the forecast for the short weekend in May and declared it perfect.

I wasn’t being totally honest. I didn’t tell him that storms and gale-force winds were actually forecast. But the worst was supposed to be for Friday and Sunday evenings. We’d be either tucked up in our tent or driving home. And what was a little wind to seasoned cyclists like us?

We arrived in Rochefort on Friday evening to the sound of rumbling thunder and pitched our tent on Le Rayonnement campsite. It was pretty close to perfection: quiet and dark with hot showers, lockers for charging phones, petanque courts, compost bins, a communal room with fridge, freezer, microwave, oven and a table football – and only 500m from the town centre. Also, it was only 12€ per night for a couple with a tent.

Despite its excess of mobile homes, Le Rayonnement epitomises an ecological, community camping mentality.

The only down side is the lack of room for tents, so prior reservation is essential.

The thunder turned into rain just as we were about to walk into Rochefort centre for dinner. Sheltering under the umbrella I’d innocently slipped into the car ‘just in case,’ we set off to discover Rochefort.

This town – famous as the setting of the French film Les Demoiselles de Rochefort and for its reconstruction of the tall ship Hermione – is a great place to visit. The streets, organised in blocks, are one-way for cars but two-way for cyclists and are full of beautiful stone buildings.

A countryside cycleway, Le Chemin de Charente, also circles the town, following the river’s meanders. There are so many things to visit here, including the Royal ropeworks, the transporter bridge and its free museum, the Accro-mât mast-climbing activity, the amazing house of author Pierre Loti and several maritime museums (be careful, some attractions are temporarily closed).

We visited none of these places, however (I’d already seen most of them years ago on a press trip). Instead, we chanced upon a restaurant which I’d highly recommend: La Route des Epices. The new owners offer a mouth-watering choice and we feasted on lightly spiced dishes while the rain fell…

… And continued to fall – all night, to my husband’s (but not my) surprise.

Luckily, the gaffer tape over the holes in our tent kept us dry, and Saturday morning dawned bright and calm (phew!). I soon understood why the wind speed concerned my husband: the land is flat with few trees. And we were cycling westward, into the wind.

The positive side was the wonderful view over salt marshes as we cycled past water channels, groves of bulrushes, banks of yellow irises and stretches of rapeseed. Its beauty – so different to the other parts of the Flow Vélo route – surprised us.

Accompanied by frog singing and birdsong, we passed the famous Pont Transbordeur, promising ourselves we’d use it the next day, and, 5km further on, the tiny ferry to the village of Soubise. An ‘Appel Bateau’ (Call Boat) button can be used if you want to cross the river here. We met a cyclist who recommends a circuit using the transporter bridge to cross the river on the way out and the ferry on the way back.

But we continued. We were on the way to the seaside, where we’d sit on the sand in the sun and eat ice-creams.

Just past the transporter bridge, a huge viaduct stretches across the river, replacing the former vertical lift bridge. For a few months, 3 bridges were in use here. The sight of all of them in one place, as well as the little wooden bridges across the irrigation channels, had me humming the Simon & Garfunkel tune as I cycled.

We’d dreaded the part where the Flow Vélo runs alongside the dual carriageway towards La Rochelle. But in fact we were always on cycle paths or on little lanes, making this section more pleasant than it appears on the map. The scent of acacia flower, our glimpses of egrets and herons, and several clumps of pink pyramid orchids on the verges made up for the roar of passing cars for the 3km stretch of dual carriageway.

After a lunch and a siesta at St. Laurent-de-la-Prée – which has a good patissier-chocolatier (but no ice-creams) – we continued along a quiet road to Fouras-les-Bains.

Again, I liked this little seaside town far more than I imagined I would. I’m sure it helps when your first sight of a place comes from a cycleway rather than after queuing in traffic. In this case, we arrived immediately at a small beach with a view over Fouras and Aix island.

We stopped in the centre of Fouras and walked around Fort Vauban, one of the many fortresses designed by the Marquis de Vauban along this stretch of the coast. From there, we had a view of Île Madame, Fort Boyard, Fort Enet and Oleron Island too.

I was determined to pedal right to the end of the Flow Vélo, hoping to find a signpost congratulating me on reaching the end of the route. So we cycled onwards, through a pretty urban wood, past oyster yards and rough ground until we reached the Pointe de la Fumée, 34km from our starting point in Rochefort. This part wasn’t as picturesque as the rest – and there wasn’t even a sign to mark the beginning/end of the Flow Vélo.

As the skies were ominously black, we decided not to catch a boat to Aix. We even put aside our plans to sunbathe on the sand. I felt guilty when my husband – who’d put on shorts in expectation of sunshine – said he’d rather have hot tea than an ice-cream. I should have been honest about the weather forecast – though would he have come if he’d known?

Warmed by a brew on the seafront, we began the return journey under spits and spats of rain – and a rising wind. I looked nervously at my husband.

He wasn’t complaining. Why not?

Because the wind was actually in our backs now, speeding us along our homeward path. The sun even came out after a while.

The wind sped us along so quickly that we seemed to arrive on the outskirts of Rochefort in no time. Actually, just in time to stop for an aperitif at the V&B beer cellar / bar conveniently situated right next to the Flow Vélo. How could we resist? When we came outside after a Super 8 Blanche beer (or two), the sky was blue and the wind had dropped.

We ambled back to our campsite, stopping briefly at a birdwatching shelter in the 70-hectare Station de Lagunage (waste water recycling lakes) to watch the birds in the evening sun.