The joys! of a bike ride in the Loire

Yesterday we formed a mean, intimidating bike gang. See photo above. Destination: Bouchemaine, where the Maine meets the Loire River.

We met by Parc Balzac so we got to catch some of a big bike race taking place. I've never seen such little people on a cycling team. So cute.  

And finally we were off, past Lac du Maine and headed south.

Even the shadows on the bike path were splendid. 

It was so refreshing to see so much green after a winter. (Normally I'd say a long winter, but that doesn't really apply in Angers:) 

 

Pretty field of flowers on the other side. 

 

Before long at all we made it to Bouchemaine. 

 Wisteria in bloom, everywhere!

Nothing could be finer than a pretty afternoon at Le Noé. 

 

Flower crowns, of course. It was pretty cute how the French people we passed would ask if we went to a wedding. One group of bikers even serenaded a Beatles song to us as we passed them. 

 On our way back, we came across a bridge I've been wanting to see ever since I first heard about it from one of the professors here. To explain, in June 1944 Americans landed on Normandy and from there, after many attempts to go forward on the Route de Nantes, Paxton directed Bradley and his regiment towards Bouchemaine. Here the bridge was destroyed but two Angevin resistance fighters directed them to Pruniers, gaining at least a day for the Allies to encircle Angers. Under their commander's orders they convinced the Americans it was possible to liberate Angers without bombarding it.  

"Comme me l'avait commandé mon chef, j'ai tenté de convaincre les Américains qu'il était possible de prendre Angers, sans la bombarder", a raconté Pierre-Yves Labbe par la suite.a raconté Pierre-Yves Labbe par la suite

Before crossing the bridge were two difficult nights of fighting between the Americans on one side, and the Germans on the other. At last on August 10 the Americans were able to cross this bridge and went on to liberate Angers. Link to Ouest -France article on the liberation of Angers. In the link you can see pictures of the liberation from 1944, including (perhaps?) the stone wall in the pictures below. And if you continue to the next page of the article you can see more photos of the soldiers in front of familiar sights like the Chateau.

And on to the other side of the river, before going back to Angers.