A day of train journeys and a couple of shortish bike rides, returning to the ferry port for tomorrow’s return sailing to the UK.

The commute across Nantes in the rush hour was surprisingly fun, with our route taking us through the quiet backstreets of the suburb of San Sebastián and then along the bike lanes of the city centre.

There were plenty of other cyclists on the road which helped considerably with navigating the more complex junctions – just drop in behind a local and follow their line. It worked like a treat and the 3 mile ride took little more than a quarter of an hour.

Once again, Komoot did the planning and directions faultlessly.

We’d booked the train journey to Caen a couple of days in advance. On paper it looked complicated, with changes at Sablé-sur-Sarthe and Le Mans, especially as the first change only allowed 5 minutes to swap trains.

However, the Le Mans train was waiting for us on the very next platform as we pulled into Sablé bang on time, so we swapped trains in seconds.

On most of the trains we’ve used this holiday there has been a dedicated space for our bikes. A couple have seen bikes stacked in the isle, but no-one has been refused access to a train with a bike and rail staff seem to have a very flexible approach to bikes and scooters in general.

For today’s journey we had to book spaces for our bikes on the first two trains (a bit of a faff as booking bikes is on a separate website to passenger bookings). But it was just one euro per bike per booking.

The third train had no bike booking requirement but there were still plenty of spaces for bikes.

Hanging the bikes from hooks is an excellent space saving method, though it’s not easy to hang a heavy bike from a hook 6 feet from the floor. We always removed panniers before loading the bikes in this way.

Returning to today’s trip, we covered about 180 miles by train (a similar distance to Leeds to London) in an about 5 and a half hours, which included a lay-over of almost an hour in Le Mans. The trains were all clean (including toilets), we had seats throughout and every one was on time.

It was relatively stress free (once we’d made that first connection) and gave us time to eat, read and even grab a power nap. Married to the cycle commute into Nantes and a steady 10 miles on the bike track from Caen to the ferry port, we did the door-to-door journey of around 200 miles in about seven hours, in total. It cost €99 for our two tickets, plus the £4 for the bike spaces.

Tomorrow we have an early start and a 2km ride to the ferry.

Bird report: a hobby just outside Caen was a surprise highlight of the day. It drifted over the river ahead of us and out over the adjacent marshes. A little time later a sparrowhawk passed overhead accompanied by a flock of mocking starlings.

Airbnb review: last night we booked what looked like a slightly old-fashioned apartment in the outskirts of Nantes. There was nothing eye catching and bike-friendly in the city (most were top floor apartments with no safe bike storage options), so we picked a slightly dull looking place.

It turns out that Airbnb photos can be deceptive and the apartment was spacious, quiet and very well equipped. We were even able to bring the bikes inside for the night. Bruno, our host, gave us a very detailed induction on the microwave and oven, charmingly pointed out a number of other details we didn’t need to know and then departed into the upstairs half of the house, which was a completely separate unit. We enjoyed a quiet evening and a good night’s sleep in complete comfort. Sadly I forgot to get a photo.

Julie: our host Nicole met us as we prepared to leave at 8.30am. She spoke no English but saluted our ‘Bon courage’ and waved us goodbye.

It was a cold, crisp morning and despite coinciding with rush hour traffic The cycle ride into Nantes was great fun and the train journeys surprisingly relaxed now we are well versed in loading our bikes on board and finding the right platform!

The ride from Caen to Ouistreham was into a strong, cold headwind and proved tougher than expected. I envied the cyclists heading for Caen with a strong tailwind!

At Ouistreham we returned to our first Airbnb, a cosy and quirky space close to the centre and explored this attractive seaside resort. Crepes and hot chocolate at a seafront cafe, a browse in a few shops. Food buying at the local supermarket and back for our final evening in France!