Bicloo.

Nantes is roughly 300 miles south of Horsham. That's 300 miles closer to the equator. Thanks to this geographical position, Nantes is a lot warmer than England at this time of year. In the past week, it's been up to 20°c most days.

It made sense to make the most of the warm weather, so myself and another assistant hired Bicloos for the day. The 'Bicloo' system is a bike-sharing scheme, with a network of 'bike-stops' across the city which are available to hire. It only costs 1€ for the day, and you can go pretty much anywhere you want within the city. Best of all, it's actually exercise, and healthy!


Becky on her Bicloo. Taking this photo almost made me fall in the river.

We cycled around the Ile de Nantes, which is the big island in the River Loire home to th former shipbuilding yard. It's nice and flat, with virtually no traffic, so it's a perfect place to ride around!


The Ile de Nantes.

It took about two hours to go around the island. This convinced us that we were definitely entitled to eat vast quantities of unhealthy food, so we went to the nearest Subway and each had a huge sandwich.

I'll leave you with a few statistics:

• You burn about 800 calories during two hours of cycling.
• A 12" Subway sandwich contains about 700 calories.
• Sitting quietly for two hours burns about 150 calories.

It would've been healthier to watch TV. Oops.