Another overcast day and very misty as we were near the river. There was no way any of the gear was going to get aired this morning, so after a healthy breakfast of yoghurt, banana and half a pack of chocolate biscuits we set off North.
We decided to use small D roads, rather than the cycle track as it had been quite wet and as they were often gravel or sand, they were quite hard work. The roads were great, very quiet, but also a bit like a roller coaster, so again quite hard work.
The rain more or less held off, but the sky was ominously dark. We rolled into Château-Gontier around lunchtime and noticed the signs for the Velofrancette as we crossed the Mayenne again. As the track looked good, we decided to follow it. Basically it was a tow path along the river,running for over 20 miles and passing countless weirs and old mills.
A bench alongside one weir, gave us our lunchtime view.
By this time it was raining more often and very dark in the direction we were heading. The path got wetter and wetter and slower and slower to ride on. Clearly there had been very heavy rain earlier. Needless to say eventually we caught up with it. We decided to pull off the track and take small roads to Laval. By this time it was raining very heavily and we decided camping was out.
We called in at the local tourist office, who helped us find suitable accommodation. In our case this meant a youth hostel !Still with private en suite room at €23 each, we didn’t complain. It meant we also got a chance to use Laval’s newly opened pedestrian walkway across the railway station.
Check in at the hostel was easy as all the staff chipped to help sort us out. The bikes got a room of their own and we got the comfy but rather prison like en suite room with fantastic wet room shower. Better still we were able to get all our dirty clothes washed and dried free of charge. For an extra €8 we also got dinner thrown in
Steady Pedals 