La Roche Bernard

All thatch around here





St Lyphard church











Punts in the Grande Briere where we had lunch!

Beach and harbour at Quimiac

Picnic sur l'herbe!

Sunday 27th September.
We had decided on a quiet day so only did 27 miles! We rather wanted to see the Marias de Grande Briere which is the second largest wetland in France. So we peddled through very rural villages which suddenly started looking much like Dorset villages, as they were full of thatched houses. Presumably this is due to being surrounded by reed beds. It was very hot and sunny and we came to the edge of the marsh to try to catch a punt to take us in to the middle of the wetlands. Needless to say it was lunchtime so everything had to stop for 2 hours, so we had a lovely picnic on a bridge, and saw a few birds in the reeds. We then had a pressing engagement with the beach, so peddled back to Quimiac again via St Lyphard because it was there and because from miles around you can see it’s pink wooden church spire. We don’t know why they painted it pink and will have to Google it to find out! Quimiac is a lovely Atlantic resort, slightly sophisticated and prosperous looking but being outside the tourist season is very quiet. We spent 2 hours doing absolutely nothing except swimming and sunbathing. Alec spent ages looking at boats in the harbour and estuary wishing he could talk ‘boaty things’ with people who were more interested than me! And speaking of which and we haven’t followed his blog for a couple of days but isn’t Ollie Bond doing well!! Everything is shut up on a Sunday night so we were the only people on the road and in the creperie. We are developing the most curious tans. Stripy feet like zebra as we have centurian style sandals, fairly brown legs up to just above the knee, then lily white until our healthy farmer’s tans on our arms and chests. All topped with faces like owls because of wearing sun glasses.

Alec's short cut.

Beach at Quimiac

Saltpans and a windmill

Saturday morning mini market

oops!

Saturday 26th September.
After yesterdays grueling achievement traveling 40+ miles due to a logistical error – never trust your B&B host to know anything about what happens locally. Saturday morning we had a slow start visiting the tourist office to collect the next tranche of chambre d’hote maps and cycle routes, bought the next two maps for the Loire Atlantique and Loire inland, visited the ‘must see’ Eglise St Michel – bit disappointing - and looked over the Roche Bernard which was built on the instruction of Richelieu in 1629/34. Outside the hotel there was a small market with a few stalls selling veg, gallettes, honey and not a lot else. Clearly the locals didn’t think much of it as no one else was there either. We discovered last night why we couldn’t stay at a B&B when we went to the restaurant opposite the hotel and found an Irish Hen party in full swing, absolutely no need for conversation; their’s was fascinating and all at the top of their voices. They had all done themselves up a treat for the occasion but the next morning back in the same square they didn’t seem to be so lively. Anyway we wiggled our way out through a hole in the ramparts very similar to ‘fat belly alley’ in Port Isaac which I thought would be a cunning short cut and should save at least 200yds on the road, but by the time we’d been up one alley and down the next and across what was clearly an old sewer ditch with steps maybe it wasn’t so short. Eventually we headed off for Piriac sur Mer. After going through Ferel, Asserac we felt like a swim so dropped down to St Molf, across the salt pans to Mesquer and finally found a long sandy beach which pleased us at Quimiac. It pleased us so much we decided to stay the night there and didn’t bother going in search of anywhere to stay until about 7pm which is when we learned at the third B&B we tried that there was a big wedding going on (which we found later, all the guests were wearing white) and everywhere was most likely to be ‘complet’. Fortunately Vivi wandered into a small restaurant (hungry again in case you think we haven’t thought about food to-day) and madame got swiftly on the phone and before we knew it we were booked in to a place about 2 miles away. Madam here at the B&B has red hair (died scarlet not a ginger) and joked that had she known we were English she might not have offered us a room, fortunately we didn’t understand that so ignored her and it was only later that she told us what she’d said and apologised, I expect it’s something to do with Gordon Brown – actually she’s very sweet and we’ve booked in to stay another night!
Supper – ah at last the serious part of the day was in a wooden shack on the edge of the salt marsh. It’s known as the Cabane a Huitres in the village of Kercabellec and was amazing. Better still were the sacred Ibis who flew in flocks to their roost half a mile away and put on the most spectacular tumbling acrobatic display as they descended into the trees. We were also treated to an amazing firework display put on presumably by the father of the bride who’s wedding had almost left us having to sleep on the beach.
Sunday morning there were six of us around the breakfast table and four of them plus madam had suggestions as to how far up the Loire we should go tomorrow. We had thought Angers was far enough but we were told Tours was a must see and then Blois which is even further so if we make it down to Bordeaux before the first snow shower I’ll be amazed.

Dukes holiday house

Le pont Banastere which we crossed going from Le Tour de Parc to Suscinio








Front entrance to the hunting lodge Suscinio

hanging fireplace!

This is the chateau Suscinio near St Armel which the Dukes of Brittany used as a weekend / hunting lodge. Not bad eh!

Saint Armel

La Roche Bernard west down the river

Where we are staying!

View from the big bridge at La Roche Bernard

Plage at Billiers mussel beds and shrimp fishermen plus thick mud - no swimming

Sept 25th.
Blazing sunshine and enormous breakfast. Madame thinks we are very simple and insisted on taking us on a quick tour of the local area in her car, in case we get lost. (this is because last night we weren’t sure if we were going to stay there so cycled twice around the block before making a decision) so when Monsieur caught up with us I had to pretend we were lost! Anyway they have been amazingly helpful and showed us all sorts of places to see and visit. We meandered along the coast to a fabulous Norman chateau, Suscinio, yet another that the Dukes of Brittany had built in the 11th c. This was only a holiday house for the hunting season . It seemed to rise out of the marshes and we were fortunate in that there was a fantastic exhibition of photographs of the local wildlife. Most helpful as the entire area is marshland and there is an abundance of birds. Without fail the sun is behind them and it is almost impossible to see which they are. However, we saw a great many duck, geese, more whinchat, stonechats, egrets, kingfisher and several lovely sacred ibis. We spent a happy afternoon on the beach and swam which was not too cold at all. It is a centre for salt produce and we watched a (very muscular) man raking the salt up after the low tide. This morning we biked past the market stalls in the village and there was lots of it for sale.
The stalls are amazing and it would probably be possible to live in France and never cook. In the village (St Armel) market which takes place each week there were 6 stalls. One selling 4 utterly different coloured honeys, all produced from the different islands in the Gulf Morbihan, some salt. Another with the most wonderful array of cooked foods to reheat at home. Roasted veg pastas, terrines, meatballs etc etc. All mouth watering and our next treat will be a roasted chicken for lunch. A cheese stall, eggs. Fish and all sorts of meats and veg. In the U.K I don’t think you would ever sell much advertised as Veal tongue mixed with cows tail terrine! The best of all is the equivalent to ham and egg pie. This consists of a layer if veal terrine, topped with a duxelle of mushrooms, then a good layer of Froie Gras, another layer of Pistachio nuts, and finally more veal. You need to take a lot of exercise after 1 slice of that.
Madame waved us off this morning, and we had our longest day so far slightly by mistake. We meandered Eastwards along the coast from St Armel towards Roche Bernard on the mouth of the Vilaine river. After 12 miles we reached the end of an estuary where you get a little punt to take you across. I had been happily singing a bit of CdeB ‘don’t pay the ferryman’ to get in the mood. On arrival it transpired that he had put his boat to bed until next May. Much heaving and groaning as it is a 30 mile round trip to get back to the same point. However we managed and it was a beautiful day. We stopped for a quick swim once around the other side of the estuary at Billiers. I was about to take a photo of Alec swimming alongside some local men in waders with large rakes walking through the water, when A disappeared into deep mud! Sadly it was not a plage for swimming but very picturesque and great for crevettes all the same.
We are now at the mouth of the Vilaine river which is beautiful. After a very long 42 miles we arrived in La Roche Bernard. We have now left Brittany which is progress but quite sad as without exception they were utterly charming and welcoming. We are now making a list of all the places we have to return to at a later date as we have missed so much. The Gulf of Morbihan is certainly one such area as we hardly scratched the surface.
A new map has to be bought to cover the Loire Atlantique.

We have now cycled 330 miles!

Augan and Malestroit

The canal through Malestroit














The bridge over Napoleon's canal south of Ploermel had a baguette on it!

Where we stayed


















Alec and Tony putting air into the tyres, from our bedroom window.

View west from lunch bridge

Photos from Malestroit to Paimpont

Fairy Viviane' fountain of life - I'll have some of that! And just below is a sort of grotto where Merlin addicts have built tiny cairns to their hero. On the right is the lake at Paimpont where allegedly Excalibur

 

Made it to Muzillac!

We wrote the following a couple of days ago but haven't been able to get connected, will get up to date tonight!

Tuesday 22^nd September.

Yesterday we left Mme Renault in St Peran and rode to Paimpont which is the centre of the Broceliande and boasts a lake from which the Excalibur was brandished and I can quite see why this has been built into such a popular legend. Despite my cynical approach to the area yesterday, today it does have a certain charm and unique atmosphere. The village has a spectacular chateau (now the Mairie) attached to which is the church which is particularly well gilded. In fact there is a lot of gold in it.

On arrival we went straight to La Poste and posted most of the library which had been taking up one of my panniers each book being the weight of a brick and containing mainly information of towns in eastern France and Italy. Having paid for this we realized that it would have been cheaper to just throw them away and also immediately regretted dumping the Lonely Planet which suddenly seemed to have hitherto been our lifeline. Hopefully we can subscribe to it online so it will not be too much missed. There again that’s if we can come across a bar providing Wi-Fi (wee-fee) which is not always a given.

After a picnic overlooking the Excalibur lake –

Church just to the left of the lake picture

no sign of Arthur, Lancelot or Guinevere 


we cycled some 15 miles across switchback terrain and it really was up and down and the downs were ever so short and the ups just went up and up for ever to Augan and thence to our B&B which was about 2.5 miles west in the direction of Ploermel, where we later cycled (5 miles) for supper. For the birders reading this the forest is a haven for wild birds Willie will be pleased to know there are as many buzzards here as there must be over the pheasant pens in Ansty, but also nuthatches, tree creepers, swarms of warblers which move about so fast you can never identify them, wagtails, plover you name it. At the BandB another English couple were staying Tony and (didn’t catch her name) they were travelling by car but had bikes too and had covered most of the region we were heading toward which was useful. Tony was also a by far more experienced cyclist than us and had his own bike pump – now why didn’t I think of that. He kindly offered to check our tyre pressures (see picture taken by Vivi from our bedroom window!) as this (and you have to believe this) he tells us makes riding a lot easier. I enquired as to what pressure he thought our tyres ought to be. About 75psi he said. Ours were all on 20, no wonder we had so much trouble getting up hills and even had to peddle going down them. After that I rather wished they were travelling with us for a while.

Tuesday dawned clear blue sky, no wind, a heavy dew and the first autumn mist I’ve seen. We ought to have gone back to Ploermel to visit the museum which houses’ a clock built in 1850’ish by the local schoolmaster and all from one mechanism, to this day, accurately tells the time not only in France but in several other major cities in the world and predicts apparently correctly the phases of the moon and when Easter day should fall etc etc. We never got there.

Today was just perfect; the only mistake we made was underestimating how quickly we would get to Malestroit where we are staying because we could in fact have done at least another 10 miles effortlessly. Today’s ride took us across country until we joined the Voie Vert which runs north south from St Malo to Questembert, we have joined it about 3 quarters of the way down. Any country which can provide a tarmac surface smooth as a billiard table about 15 ft wide to run for over 100 miles purely for the pleasure of cyclists gets my wholehearted admiration. No traffic and beautiful farmland. We stopped to eat our baguette on an old railway bridge crossing the Brest to Nantes canal – built by Napoleon. I’ve hopefully put a picture on to show you. We were joined sitting on the bridge in an hour and a half by 2 cyclists, a couple walking a dog and a lizard. Quiet place! The B&B that we are in is pretty ordinary too but it’s better than the English one we stayed in on day three, and it is only a place to sleep. We thought Madam had said she’d give us dinner so we arrived at 6pm only to be told she was off to help her son milk his cows, so could we go away until 8.30 at the earliest, which is what she’d said but we’d misunderstood, so we did. On return we were asked to leave our shoes downstairs and since I was by then standing outside of a pichet of the local finest I managed to stammer ‘mais mon chaussures n’avait pas le chien merde’ to which she replied to Vivi (because it’s obvious I don’t speak much French) – so he does know some French, and that was that from me.

Malestroit is a really picturesque town with a canal running through it . There are lots of parakeets in the trees. The eglise of St Gilles and St Georges was 1300s with hideous and amusing gargoyles. I am not sure how England has laid claim to St George as he appears an awful lot here, on the stained glass and in town squares. We spent a happy time looking around the old part of the town and sitting outside bars and cafes trying to pick up wifi. I seem to be the only female anywhere except for bar maids. Everywhere we go we seem happy old men playing boules, fishing, many drinking in bars and sitting on corners, but have yet to see any women. We ventured to ask our host tonight who said they were all too busy doing house work! Hummm. Don’t want A getting any ideas!

Wed September 23^rd.

Covered market

We think that all the days are beginning to blend. 260 miles on the clock which doesn’t sound much but is when you count all those hills We are nearing the South Coast of Brittany and it is fabulously warm. Madam gave us a wonderful amount of bread and croissants which Alec was able to butter and pocket for our lunch later. She was awfully charming and rather sad. They had obviously owned a large farm until Monsieur passed on and she was now living in a chalet bungalow with beautiful French country house furniture squeezed in and a 100 year old mattress. The cycle route was great, very easy going and we arrived after 20k’s in Questembert later in no time having fiddled about looking at birds and butterflies in the forest. We stopped to look at some warblers and found a wild black grape vine growing to the top of an oak tree like a hop, honeysuckle or clematis at home. Blackbirds were gorging themselves on the grapes unfortunately they were too high for us to reach. Today we have added Blackcaps, Stonechats and we think Wheatears and Whinchats to our birdy list. There has been no rain here for 2 months so the rivers are very dry and there are a lot of fish swimming in rather slow circles in very little water. We don’t know what they are as they are as big as salmon but have narrower tails and orange fins. They are clearly not edible as there still a lot in the river and some very thin fishermen. Questembert was not terribly exciting compared to some of the other towns we have been through but it did have this very pretty covered market area. We lunched by a pond in Lauzach where a French politician had a very grand duck house (!) and then progressed along several white D roads to reach the gulf of Morbihan. Hooray. There was a certain amount of urgency to the pedalling as the sun got hotter and the sea smelled fresher. On a bike, the scents and smells are very indicative of what is around you. From diesel to manure, stephanotis to pine forests it doesn’t take long to work out what type of area you are passing through. and I, (says Alec) have turned into a complete pikey and cycled to day in nothing but my centurian’s sandals, my spray on lycra shorts and my cycle helmet. At school we used to cry ourselves to sleep with laughter at the thought of telling people the order of dress was ‘a jockstrap and a tin helmet’ – 40 years on......) Today most animals were non existent in the fields but it was fairly obvious that you were passing a pig or chicken farm. Cows seem to be the only lucky ones to be reared outside. On arrival the tide was very far out and there is about 2 miles of mud flats here in St Armel. We decided to risk not booking anywhere to stay in advance so then spent about 2 hours wandering around finding a place. After a few false starts we are in a charming modern house in a clos with every comfort you could want including a hair dryer. They were then embarrassingly generous hosts by insisting on driving us out to a restaurant as the local one was closed. We will stay here at least another day as it is a great centre for exploring the gulf, you can go south to the beaches, west to to entrance to the gulf and across on a ferry to Carnac or sort of north east back up to Vannes and then around the top of the bay the other way, I’m looking forward to it without the 40lbs of panniers. After all that we haven’t done it and are heading south to Rocher St Bernard instead – more later!

Vitre and a day out to Rennes.

Today was patromoine day = heritage day, so we took full advantage of free entrance to all public buildings in France. We started here in Vitre with the chateau which was not as impressive as Fougeres, but contained a stunning collection of silver, clothes and pickled and stuffed reptiles. I now know what I am going to do with the modelling clay Rosie gave me five years ago - see photo of fencing frogs, they are real stuffed frogs!!

We followed that with the St Nicholas monastery which is still a working hospital and contained magnificent wall paintings from the 15C. We had a bit of trouble with the local Breton language as Hollandaise, Anglaise and Irelandaise all sound the same and Vivi got a bit of a wobble on at the thought of being thought to be a DF. (our girls will know!!)
With Vitre done and dusted we caught the train to Rennes (30 miles a bit too much to cycle) starting in brilliant sunshine we managed to take in a good lunch a church, queued for the Tribunale (houses of parliament) and a really excellent exhibition at the Musee de Beaux Arte - worth the visit. Luckily the heavens then opened so we were spared further culture and returned to the station to catch the earlier train home and when we say the heavens opened we really mean it dumped down big time.
Fantastic news having been here a week plus, Mme Faucher had done all our washing for us so we can share a bed again!
Finally had supper in the best restaurant yet - Soupe de Choux where we ate duck and cod. Off to find where Arthur pulled The Excalibur from the stone tomorrow in the forest of Broceliande - so if anyone thinks Excalibur was found in Camelot or near Winchester think again the French got it!
If anyone knows how to communicate with us via this blog, suggestions would be welcome!!

Friday 18th Sept

Walls of Chateau Fougeres

The interior of st Sulpice church Fougeres

We pedaled most of the day, 35 miles in all which doesn’t sound a lot but with the extra bags is quite hard work. My name will be changed to ‘moaner’ by Alec shortly, as I am very bad at thinking positive whilst puffing and pushing up hills. Not that they were very steep. The first major mistake was not bothering to buy some lunch whilst in Pontorson, as when we next thought about some refreshment, everything was ‘fermee’d for several hours. A great worry to me! Fortunately we found a village further on and ate large baguettes on a bench in the town centre. My daily 10 minute siesta/power nap is proving tricky, but so far have managed to find a quiet spot, either on a beach, bench or patch of grass. The countryside has changed to being very rural. Seemingly small farms with a mix of maize, huge fields of carrots and onions and some beautiful Brittany cattle. The houses are very similar to the old Guernsey farmhouses with lovely old granite and mostly beautifully kept up with bright blue shutters. Tourism is huge in this area, I think.
The Lanterne B and B in Fougere is right in the centre of the old city at the base of the Chateau walls so very well situated for wandering around. It has a bohemian air with little furniture, but tables etc made of empty boxes. Very comfortable and generous hosts who let us use their computer for ages trying to book the next stop.
We shall have to take up reading the local papers as we planned to go on to Vitre en route to Rennes. We had no idea that the entire farming fraternity had the same idea for a ‘manifestation of farmers’ (not sure what they do at that) so we were unable to find anywhere to stay. It has been a good thing as we had a marvelous day looking around Fougeres properly. It is quite beautiful , mostly built around the Chateau constructed in the 11th century. Huge Norman ramparts with some additions from 14-1500s. It is the largest Norman Castle in Europe.
Finally we found a cafe with wifi (pronounced 'wee fee' whilst speaking in French and probably Scottish!) so spent a long time catching up. We can manage day to day French but need to learn much more vocab, particularly in the tech side of life, as we struggled to communicate in the Orange phone shop, buying a sim card for the local calls. Goodness knows what we have ended up with but it seems to work.
Tomorrow we set off for Vitre. Everyone so far has been amazingly helpful and friendly.
Friday 18th. We had a very easy ride along country roads and we are now in dairy country. Cows everywhere and also many signs complaining about ‘greve de lait’. The farmers here seem to have the same problems as the U.K. ones. ’It is very refreshing, not a Tesco in sight and mostly small supermarkets or stalls in the villages. At the first village today we found a man barbequeing saussisons outside, helped by his son wrapping them in gallettes for us, inside. Both very talkative and we understood at least one word in 10. There are not very many birds around except for fields of Plovers and a few Fieldfares coming in too. The leaves are beginning to fall so it is pretty much like home. We ate our picnic on the edge of a field just before entering Vitre.
We are staying in a beautiful old town house belonging to Mme Faucher just outside the city walls. She is so charming and we have booked in tomorrow night as well. We want to look at Rennes which is 25 minutes by train but apparently a bit of a nightmare bike ride, so we will have a day off and take the train.
Vitre is ancient, cobbled, quaint, clean, has an impressive chateau, AND a centre of the protestants in France so we may even get to a service. Alec is happy as there is a lot of gilding to look at in the churches.

We've made it to St Malo 11/09/2010

Just in case you've been wondering why so quiet for so long, this wi fi thing isn't quite as reliable as it's made out to be. Anyway we are sitting in a 'Subway' cafe in Fougeres and it's working so here goes for the last 6 days!!

Friday 11th September 2009
Dawn broke, and unsurprisingly we were both awake before the alarm. I made the usual cup of tea but we’d run the tea bags down to zero so the Oykel fishing lunch box was raided and I found 3 old unused Lyons tea bags which did the trick.
We had tea in bed as a concession to what was ahead of us.
Having spent the last 24 hours trying to compact all the luggage in to 2 very small panniers by squeezing tubes of shampoo etc I was finally ready to go. Far too much weight, 25lbs for each of us. We had measured our vital statistics too to see if they get better or worse after a month or so. There was a good mixture of excitement and apprehension on leaving. From then on it was go go go and we left unusually punctually for Wool Station at 10.45am. Phew.
We were slightly surprised by how the bikes handled with the loaded panniers and both of us were off and pushing before we’d reached the Egg Farm entrance The hill to Throop Clump is the first big challenge as the bikes feel fairly unstable as we are carrying so much extra weight. We made it to Wool Station, caught the train to Poole and after pushing the bikes down the High Street eventually found ourselves at the front of the car embarkation queue. This apparently is always the case for anyone on 2 wheels. We fell in with about 15 ‘bikers’ (1000cc jobs) and were pleased to find a real feeling of camaraderie! We met a very friendly guy from Bolton on a huge bike who was going down to Spain just to camp for the weekend.We didn't dare tell him how long it would take us to get there! There is a picture of us and all the other (hairy) bike(r)s.

At Poole about to embark

Well, we've made it to the front of the biker queue!

Alec at the front of the queue, just a little intimidated.

The sea was ’moderate’ so a few bumps and was via Guernsey which was a surprise, and the first we’d heard of it but the time passed in no time with lunch, so we almost had to order the chicken roll, Sauvignon blanc and cups of tea........In Guernsey we felt quite nostalgic as St Peter Port was looking very pretty.

Saturday 12th

We finally arrived in St Malo at about 8.15. pm. It was not quite dark which was a relief and we managed to find our small hotel 'Les Charmettes' on le Sillon beach.Whilst finding our way around the town I tried to stop at a dead end, and landed rather unceremoniously at the feet of a startled French man - much 'Oh la la' from him and English expletives on my part. Alec had a near miss with a car which shot out of a tunnel from nowhere, so that focused our minds on self preservation. Our hotel was surprisingly comfortable and the bed isn’t even too small; either that or Vivi is clinging to the other side for fear of being pushed out. We are frankly exhausted although this may have been exacerbated by our excellent supper of Moules Frites at the Bistro Bacchus, which was run by a slightly dippy blonde owner who was very friendly.

The next morning we cycled back to the Intro Muros of St Malo and got caught up in ‘le Corsaire’ yacht weekend. This was a Hobie Cat convention with lots of rock music playing and dozens of boats - it was a mix between The Brits snowboarding competition in Les Deux Alpes or at Cowes sailing Regatta. We waited for the start but got bored so went into the old city much destroyed in 1944 by us (maybe some Americans) when we finally persuaded the Germans it was time they left. It is a quaint city rebuilt exactly as it was including the Cathedral of st Vincent which was a wonderful mix of old and new. It had some stunning new stained glass and bronze alter and chair. The light goes from almost darkness to light in the space of a small cloud crossing the sun.



We took a sandwich to the beach of St Servan and ate it on the slipway under Le Tour Solidor which is now a museum. The water was quite warm and we swam briefly around the boats.



After some sunbathing we had planned to ride over to Dinard but the thought of cycling along a dual carriageway to look at the hydro power bridge and a further 4 miles to reach the town was too much so we turned for home and instead went in search of somewhere near to here to have supper... Back to the Bacchus Bistro again for very good calves kidneys which we had spied the night before.

Sunday 13th Sept.
It took a while to pack up after two nights at the Charmettes but we were on the road to Cancale by about 1, after visiting the tourist office in the centre of St Malo. The ride was easy but made difficult by a strong headwind and several quite steep hills. Still, half way there we spotted a village which boasted Rock Statues so we went to have a look only to find a huge village street party in progress


which was fantastic for two reasons. a) the whole village seemed to be there and (b) there were no fights, drunk teenagers litter, beggars or aggressive men. So we had a sausage wrapped in a pancake which was OK, a glass of cider and went on our way. The rock sculptures didn’t seem worth 10 euro so we gave them a miss!! Cycling on the wind got worse but we came to a point where to our left a very pleasant sandy bay emerged which just seemed like a good place to have our picnic lunch and to have a swim.

It was a bit of a hike down to the beach but we tied the bikes up to a boat rack and wandered along the beach to find somewhere out of the wind, and apart from the wasps who spoiled our first choice, it was fine. The sun shone, we swam and ate our lunch and left after a 30 minute sleep.
We then returned to the road and made our way along the coast to Cancale which had been recommended to me by Nick Hely Hutchinson who must have stayed there some time in the distant past.
Fortunately our B&B was at the top of the hill in Cancale which was a relief because the sea was about 300ft below where we were staying which would have been a struggle to get away from with the quantity of luggage we are carrying. 'Le Chat Perche' is run by a lady who appeared to have two children and a very neat house which we never stepped into as our room was in the basement. This was approached from the outside with breakfast served in a sun room at the rear and it was a pleasant experience.
We only stayed one night so walked to the harbour after we arrived to look for some supper and found a row of at least 30 restaurants, some touristy but we found one which wasn’t and did a 3 course meal for 12.5 euros which really was superb. On the following day we went back into town to look at the church St Meen which had a strong piscatorial theme, and buy some lunch in the supermarket.

Monday 14th
We set off for St Marcan (about 9 miles short of Mt St Michel) at about 12.30 after visiting the church and the U Mart where Vivi bumped into Mrs Collier who had been Harriet and Olivia’s house mistress at Sherborne back in 1994’ish. She didn’t know who Vivi was and didn’t ask after the girls but remembered Vivi after prompting. It was a hellish ride along the coast heading east with a strong headwind but luckily very fine weather. It was not a day for swimming. Stopped in Le Vivier to eat the sandwich we’d bought for lunch but ended up having a plate of moules and a glass of wine in a tented roadside moulerie – probably the best moules I’ve ever had, sweet with a gorgeous winey sauce.
We then headed south to look at the Dol de Bretagne, an ancient religious site where St Michael deposited the souls of dead fishermen. It is a lump of rock (possibly volcanic) with a church on top and apparently interesting plant and bird life. However we didn’t climb up it so I can’t confirm this! We had a picnic lunch in the church yard in the sunshine and fell asleep before looking inside the church which seemed to have become quite famous owing to some dinosaur bones having been discovered recently in the locality.
After the Dol we headed back to the coast into a stiff headwind to see the Church of St Anne. This was closed and very small but we sheltered outside and watched a shrike and some warblers battling against the wind and trying to remain perched on the wire fences. From here we cycled on to St Marcan which was our next B&B.

Tuesday 15th Sept.
The B&B was perfectly adequate, it is just the way that Brits do things. After 2 B&B's where the French could not have been more helpful we fell upon a Brummie couple who had all the charm of a stick. You couldn’t fault the place, they told us where to go, how to get there, took our money for 2 nights up front on arrival, locked away the bikes but everything was just so tacky, the room, the shower, the breakfast. Still we are only here for two nights, so it is not the end of the world.

Anyway today we set off at about 10am for the Mont St Michel.

Onion fields on the way to the Mont

It was raining and we soon had to stop and put on our ponchos. 10 minutes later it had stopped so off came the ponchos again. Arriving at the Mont we locked up the bikes, donned a proper pair of shorts over the lycra and headed inside.

The Mont St Michel

Now of all the places I’ve been to, MstM has to be one of the most fascinating. It is a small village built on a minute rock and topped off by the most huge eglise all administered by the Benedictine order of monks. A service was in progress when we visited Vivi could understand what the priest was saying and joined in with alacrity – I took photos!

Cloisters in Mont

Wednesday 16th
We cycled from St Marcan via Pontorson, Antrain and on to Fougeres, about 35 miles in all- phew thank God it didn't rain but did seem to be mainly up hill. The route was almost entirely along a disused railway line, very rural with a good agricultural smell for most of the way. We stopped in the market of Pontorson where we wandered about and I gave 5euro to a pretty girl with a pet pig.

Lucky little pig!

And for anyone who has ever had nightmares of appearing naked in a crowd. Wearing spray on Lycra has exactly the same effect only this time it's for real! I loved it!!
Vivi cheated and put her shorts back on.

Picnic lunch St Brice

Fougeres is stunning which is lucky because we are stuck here owing to there being a farmer's festival in Rennes and everywhere within 50 miles is 'complet' So we've had to spend two nights in a very bohemian B&B (Le Lanterne) just below the castle walls. We had a tour of the chateau, all built between 11c and 15c and now fallen slightly into disrepair but nevertheless still most imposing. St Sulpice church just outside the castle walls was highly gilded and there was a St Vivienne in a glass box inside which hopefully awoke Vivi's conscience.
Tomorrow with a bit of luck, we will move on towards Rennes.



The start of the Voie Vert which we hopw will take us all the way to the south of France!

[VAC1]

Nine days to go

We are getting down to some serious exercise now, Vivi suggested cycling to the pub as a training session but the rain prevented such madness so we stayed at home.
Maybe tomorrow or the weekend perhaps so long as the steam fair traffic does not threaten to squash us. Help, having thought we are very organised suddenly there are too few hours in the day.

3 Days to go.

Alec has already got 12 kilos of clothes in only 1 pannier and I daren't start. The table is covered in things we feel are essential but do we REALLY need clean socks for each day of the week?!

We went down to the Ford between Throop and Turnerspuddle for a photo opportunity - then went home!