http:www.francevelotourisme.com 27/11/2020 Bike tour of the 2 Loire ferries Nantes Vélo Tourisme This cycling outing is fun, making you switch from one bank of the Loire to the other via the little Loire ferries available, your overall route tracing a big figure of 8! Discover startling art installations put in place for the great Estuaire contemporary art biennales and scattered along the way, guiding you to remarkable Loire-side sights – look out for improbable animals, a strange, history-laden castle, a malleable boat, a house set on the water and a great white phosphorescent tree! Cycle route A 56km day trip using both La Loire à Vélo and La Vélodyssée, signposted virtually the whole way, except Départ Arrivée between the exit from Trentemoult up to La Roche- Nantes Le Pellerin Ballue (in Bouguenais). The route takes you via: Nantes > La Montagne > Durée Distance Indret (ferry) Indre > Coueron (ferry) Le Pellerin > 2 h 12 min 33,00 Km Indret (ferry) Indre > Nantes Take care at these particular points Niveau Thématique • at Cheviré, around the timber port area, as lorry I begin / Family Canals & intimate rivers traffic is often heavy around here • at weekends, around Cheviré’s timber port, as access is controlled and restricted via here beyond the working week, making it impossible to get through by bike if you have panniers, a trailer attached to your bike, or if you are on a tandem • between Port-Lavigne and La Roche-Ballue, where there’s a stretch where the track’s surface can be very soft for cyclists • around La Montagne, where there are some steep stretches SNCF train services Train stations at Nantes, Chantenay and Couëron: you can take your bike on the regional TER Nantes <> Le Croisic line and on Interloire services. Don't miss Nantes: Les Machines de l’île (amazing outsized mechanical creatues on which you can take a ride on the central Ile de Nantes); also on the Ile de Nantes, Les Anneaux by sculptor Daniel Buren (part of a series of startling contemporary works originally made for the Estuaire biennales, now forming a permanent exhibition of massive art installations set between Nantes and the Loire Estuary) Rezé: Trentemoult, an atmospheric former Loire fishermen’s village, on the Loire’s south bank near central Nantes; Le Pendule by Roman Signer (another installation made for an Estuaire biennale) Bouguenais: Port-Lavigne, la Roche-Ballue, The Settlers by Sarah Sze (a further work made for an Estuaire biennale) Saint-Jean de Boiseau: the Château du Pé and the highly amusing Estuaire work Did I miss something? by Jeppe Hein Le Pellerin: the Canal de la Martinière, running parallel to the Loire and Misconceivable by Erwin Wurm (nicknamed ‘le bateau mou’, or ‘malleable boat’, yet another work made for Estuaire) Indre: the Sunday market; the artwork Serpentine Rouge by Jimmie Durham (once more part of Estuaire permanent exhibition) Voie cyclable Liaisons Sur route Alternatives Parcours VTT Parcours provisoire Départ Arrivée Nantes Le Pellerin.