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D-day minus a few hours. We arrive in Portsmouth at 1945 ready
for a 2030 sailing on the good ship 'Brétagne'. T'was a perfect summers evening in the mouth of Port.
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We also had
the luxury of being allowed to cycle on board before any of the cars. |
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And then there are the ordinary boats carrying pensioners a
plenty for the post schools oldies thrash! |
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We sidle out past whatever naval boats remain after the Ark
Royal has left to do 'exercises' in the Med.
Is that on it's way to meet us, or watch
over Iraq?
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| Day 1 September 3rd. |
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Dawn dawns after a very smooth crossing in a very nice
'compact' cabin. We both emerge to the bright lights of a horizontal
sun in a cool autumnal morning in St. Malo. It's 8 a.m. when most
sensible people are just having breakfast. |
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Daddy Baker doesn't quite look switched on, either |
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A couple of hours later, we are cycling along very quiet
Normandy roads, trying to keep out of the way of the busy Route Nationale
and it's BIG trucks. This pretty and well maintained canal runs
through the Normandy village of Evran. |
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Note the lady lock keeper. Maybe that's why
there is such a splendid floral display. |
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40 miles later (our chosen unit in the land of the
kilometre) and we park our steeds, each with over 2 stones of payload
against the local Italian restaurant in Geveze in search of nourishment. |
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| An hour later we came out into brilliant sunshine.
Just another 550
miles to go.
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Geveze, like so many villages in rural
France, has gone to great trouble with its roundabouts and
verges. |
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In the village of Corps-Nud (truly) there are
signs of a town centre makeover by Messrs. Titchmarsh and Dimmock. |
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Turn around from the water feature, and this is the church
built in a style that looks out of place (to me) in Northern France. We cross through Rennes without incident but decide to get
off the busy Route Nationale for the minor roads. The post here indicates
that we were on wartime's 'Liberty Way'. |
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Unfortunately, it also marked the demise of
two of Richards spokes on his rear wheel. It was a newly built wheel and
gave us cause for concern as we were miles from anywhere. We transferred
some of the load to my bike and continued towards Chateaubriant.
It was a bike shop, not a steak that we were hunting, and at
well after five p.m. we found one. "I am very busy, monsieur, are you
going to wait?"
"We have no choice!" I replied. |
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In between taking in work for the following day
and fixing two other bikes, he virtually rebuilt the wheel. 20 euros
later, (including some spare spokes) we continued towards our destination
of Pouancé, still some 14 miles away. Reaching our first (pre-booked)
Chambre D'Hote we note that it is some distance from the town where the
restaurants are. Showered and partially rejuvenated, we walk in to town to
find that one after the other the restaurants are all férmé.
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| Eventually, we find an open bar
where the patron gives us advice without losing the cigarette at
the corner of his mouth.
We did find 'the' open restaurant (no it wasn't Monday)
and ate our fill before heading for bed.
Well, at least there was a nice sunset to end our 93
mile day. Richard reminded me that beforehand I had indicated a maximum
of 80 miles per day. My excuse was that I was never very good at Maths. |
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Day 1: 93.6 miles cycled in 8 hours |
