The intent for the west coast part of the trip was to follow mostly coastal roads south. To make each day trip I selected a few coastal areas I definitely wanted to pass through but found that staying on the coast all the way was either not entirely possible or if it was it would have had high tourist traffic which I wanted to avoid.
My first destination for the day was a small island called Noirmoutier-en-I’lle about 160 km south of Vannes. There were two entrances/exits to the island and I was going to use both. I arrived at the one that was actually a low water causeway that was covered with 5 feet of water at high tide. Luckily, I had arrived at low tide.
I stopped to assess the route and saw that the causeway was well defined but bumper to bumper cars for several miles and also it was very wet and slippery within 100 meters starting the journey. I had seriously given consideration to forgetting it when I saw a BMW moto pull up and head across. As he disappeared into the causeway I said – what the heck – so headed out. Then I did what bikes do best and skipped around all the cars for several miles till I got to the island. Yes, it was wet and slippery but I figured nothing ventured nothing gained. Stopped at another point warning that this would be submersed at high tide and took a picture of what I had just crossed.
There were hundreds of parked cars along the causeway as I drove by and many people out in the flats with shovels and baskets, I suppose gathering ‘fruits-de-mer’.
After getting on the island, I drove around a bit and took a picture of the local châteaux.
I left the island over a normal bridge and thought back that the wet causeway was the more interesting and better part of the trip. I had driven a few miles into one of the next towns and noted that there was salt water and sand all over the lower part of my bike so I stopped at a convenient roadside pressure-wash station and hosed it off to prevent corrosion.
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