Let’s go cycling

3rd August  A 5 hour ferry ride saw us cross the channel from Plymouth to Roscoff on the Northwest coast of France.

An easy exit through passport control and then to familiarise ourselves with riding on the “wrong” side of the road as we made our way 30km to Morlaix.  Takes a bit of concentration!!

We booked a cheap hotel for a couple of nights to catch up on some work and accustom ourselves a little to the French way of things.

Cycle tourists are everywhere here! I reckon they almost outnumber the cars on the smaller roads.

One of the first things we noticed as we walked the streets was the prevalence of dog poo.  Seems that picking up after your pet is not a thing here sadly… so we need to watch our step 😬

Then for a bit of a jaunt across Brittany. Our initial intention was to head over to the coast and work our way back to the Eurovelo 6 route to start heading along the Loire. However, it seems that early August is the precise time when EVERYONE else heads to the coast and it looked like it may be quite tricky to find somewhere to stay, not to mention having to cope with hordes of other people.

So we decided to stick inland and utilise the lovely EV1 route to Nantes.

5th August Morlaix to Glomel, 77km, 22 degrees and a little cloudy

I think I like France already. Cycle routes all the way- almost entirely traffic free on dedicated routes. Amazing!!! @Dot I can now see why you love cycle touring in Europe…

However the cycle paths are astronomically busy- sooo many cycle tourists and an astonishing number of families taking their annual holidays by bike.

Our day ended at a little village by a lake, with a small municipal campsite that did the job nicely.  A French family of six camped next to us- quite inspirational to see how they travel with 4 kids…and a Trike loaded on for the toddler to use at camp!

We’ve been trying to give ourselves a crash course in the basics of the language (yes I know, we should have started this some time ago, but things got in the way…). 

We’ve had plenty of opportunity already to practise our lack of French…plus the nice flat riding gives us (well me, Neil not so enthused..) time to think about and learn new appropriate words/phrases.  The current favourite is Je parle juste un peu Francais, which seems to get us by pretty well!

6th August, Glomel to Pontivy, 24 degrees, sunny, 66km with an extra 20 for Neil 😂

Another gorgeous warm day, and beautiful route all along a canal path. 

Found a Cafe at a little spot around 25 km in and enjoyed a freshly made crepe with our coffee, the first one we’ve had made for us in France.  It didn’t disappoint!

Then on for another 40ish km, with a goal for lunch at Pontivy.

That didn’t quite work out- around 10km out we came across a cycle duo with a derailed trailer…or more specifically a broken axle on the towing bike.  Kaput… a universal word that encapsulated the situation perfectly.

Anyhow we stopped to “help”.  A lovely guy cycle touring with his 10 year old grandson, Edern.  They spoke minimal English.  Our French is even more dismal. But they were well and truly in a pickle- no one was going to venture out the 10km on the bike path with parts for them. After much standing around cogitating we left them with our whatsapp contact and kept going.  Got to Pontivy and checked in with them, poor things still stuck on the bike path.  So Neil took the axle from my bike wheel and rode back out to give them a temporary way of getting into town.

Had dinner in the village with them and lots of “conversation” with a little help from Google translate and lots of guessing.  A lovely evening and a very big day.

7th August 68 km, 28 degrees, sunny, all flat and all beautiful!

A little wander into the village but decided to eat at the campground restaurant, right on the canal and very reasonably priced.

I had a nice safe chicken Caeser salad…while Neil (suffering from slight calorie deficit) opted for the unknown of the andouillette.  We did ask the waitress, and her explanation that it was the “gut of the pork” left Neil assuming that it would be a deliciously fatty pork belly.  In fact, it turned out to be pig intestines stuffed into a colon… but he courageously (or perhaps fuelled by hunger)  managed to eat the whole thing.  Might be a first and last for that little taste experiment…

8th August, 70km and dead flat 🙂

We nailed the campsites for the first few nights. All very cycle friendly, lovely grassy spots to pitch a tent, picnic benches and a whole community of fellow cycle tourists!

Somehow on our last Brittany day we misjudged badly- picked a campsite after 70km, right on the cycle route,  but missing the green EVcycle sign that apparently signifies cycle friendliness.   So…no English spoken at reception (and that’s fine, we’re loving the challenge of trying to communicate in French!), and a tent site on dirt, no grass, and no other cyclists! They obviously knew better…we’ve sussed out the sign thing now and we’ll be ready for next time.

9th August and a flat, dusty 78km ride to Nantes, mostly along the canal again. The second flat tire for the trip made it a longer day than we’d anticipated but the cycle routes took us all the way into the city without any other dramas.

And now it’s time to explore a big city for a day or so!