Article from Claire Fiaschi, our French National Representative on the Loire River paddle.
De l'Allier à la Loire, United Ladies 2021
United ladies 2021 is the challenge taken up by 31 paddlers from 5 to 8 August. This superb collective experience, which combines surpassing oneself, group cohesion and immersion in the heart of nature, took the paddlers from Vichy to La Charité sur Loire.
It is impossible to paddle in dragon boats, as they are too rigid and fragile for the sandbanks of the Allier and the Loire. So, it was in a c9 canoe that we warmed up our shoulders and tortured our buttocks.
In France the summer was very wet, so we were all afraid of being under the rain during our stay. In the end, the weather was very kind, with occasional (heavy) rain during the day, but never at night, nor at meal times. It seems that the super team on the ground, in addition to all their talents, could manage the whims of the sky.
While our paddlers and their coxswains were discovering the wild fauna and the quietness of the Allier, the stewards prepared the midday and evening meals, set up the camp, made sure that everyone found their luggage when they arrived at the end of the day, filmed the day's events discreetly and prepared surprises in places full of history.
Here, everything is thought out so that we feel good, out of time and out of worries about organisation. And for those who have some pain to soothe, Hala and her Chinese medicine were there to help us.
