Nantes / Cordemais

Between Nantes et Cordemais, the Loire River serves as your guide as you cycle along. Beside the river, the village of Trentemoult, with its atmospheric, colourful houses, opens the way to a stretch of the great river dotted with fantastical, outsized works of art made for a series of exhibitions known as Estuaire. Along this portion, the Vélidéale cycle route shares the way with two other major cycle routes, the Loire à Vélo and the Vélodyssée… up until the river port of Le Pellerin, where an old-fashioned ferry takes you over to Couëron, on the north bank of the Loire. Once across, our cycle route leads you through peaceful Loire marshlands up to the port of Cordemais, with not just its EDF power station standing out, but also the Villa Cheminée, a playful work by Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi, its very startling form a great curiosity rising out of these otherwise very flat lands.

The route

From the town of Rezé, follow the signposting for La Loire à Vélo up to Le Pellerin, where you need to take the little ferry, the Bac de Loire (free, but check ahead for crossing times). Reaching the north bank of the Loire, at Couëron, take the first turning on the left to cycle off along minor roads through the Marais d'Audubon marshlands up to the Cordemais power station. Note that in winter, even up to March, the area between Couëron and Saint-Etienne de Montluc can at times be flooded; in that case, you need to take the route communale which takes you via the the Etang Bernard (a lake) and La Marquellerais to then rejoin the Vélidéale cycle route south of Saint-Etienne de Montluc.

Link with EuroVelo 1 and EuroVelo 6 cycle routes at Le Pellerin

At Le Pellerin, you can continue riding along the south bank of the Loire via La Vélodyssée - EuroVelo 1 and La Loire à Vélo - EuroVelo 6 cycle routes leading to the estuary resort of Saint-Brevin, in which case you clearly don’t want to take the little ferry, or bac, across to the north bank of the Loire. 

Practical information

• Le Voyage à Nantes
  9 Rue des États – 44000 Nantes - 0892 464 044
  https://www.levoyageanantes.fr/
   
• Office de Tourisme Estuaire et Sillon
  5 place Guépin, 44260 SAVENAY - 02 28 016 016
  www.estuairesillontourisme.fr

SNCF

Train stations (gares) at Nantes, Chantenay, Couëron, St-Etienne de Montluc and Cordemais – note that you can take your bike for free on board TER regional trains between Nantes and St-Nazaire. 

Don't miss

• Nantes : on an island in the Loire just west of the centre of the city, Les Machines de l'île, an extraordinary artistic and engineering enterprise, creating outsized moving animals (some of which you can book to ride on) inspired in part by the imagination of great French author Jules Verne, who lived much of his life in Nantes, in part on the amazingly inventive engineering mind of Leonardo da Vinci, who spent the last few years of his life upstream on the Loire, and in part on the powerful industrial heritage of the city, Nantes’s naval shipyards long based on this island in times past. For further Nantes attractions, see the tourist office website for the city.
• Rezé : Trentemoult, a riverside village with stylish old villas, many built for sailors who retired on the banks of the Loire; Le Pendule, an amusing installation piece by Roman Signer (part of the Estuaire outdoor exhibition) on the south bank of the Loire; Navibus, a river boat service.
• Bouguenais: Port-Lavigne, a pretty little port among the marshes;  La Roche-Ballue (a spot to go swimming); The Settlers, an installation piece by artist Sarah Sze (part of the Estuaire outdoor exhibition), making you look for improbable animal sculptures in a trio of trees. 
• Cordemais: the EDF thermal power plant; the startling art installation, La Villa Cheminée, a work by Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi; the Centre Terre d'Estuaire, a cultural and leisure centre