We wave au revoir to Nantes and, moments later, we’re rushing towards the sea on hired touring bikes. We’re heading along France’s newest cycle route, from the Pays de la Loire through Brittany to the tidal flats of Normandy. My friend and I have an appointment with Mont-Saint-Michel in four days and our challenge is to conquer the 170 miles (275km) of newly linked greenway trails and backroads that twitch and worm through unspoilt villages, pastoral farmlands and centuries of history. There’s a sense from the outset that this might be the ultimate trapdoor into a part of France we’d never have discovered otherwise.
