samjamtravel-blog

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Lights, camera ... St Malo!

With heavy hearts we arrived at our last stop of St Malo but there was one little treat left in store for us. Our fellow bookclub members Jed and Shaz recommended we read the Pulitzer Prize winning book "All the light we cannot see" ahead of this trip as it takes place here. We knew a film/TV series was on the cards but to our surprise they are filming it here at the moment. What a treat!

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The Last Leg

We cycled on to Cancale, a pretty town on the coast known for its oysters. From there, it was onwards to St Malo to complete our trip back where it started. It felt like an accomplishment to get to St Malo (injury and accident free!) but also we feel somewhat melancholic that our cycling has come to an end. We have an extra day to explore St Malo before we catch the ferry back home.

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James's 'No Repeats' Breakfast Challenge

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A snapshot of EuroVelo Route 4

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Mont Saint-Michel

We decided to get up early to visit the island of Mont Saint-Michel. We are so glad we did because it was a beautiful morning and we were rewarded with absolutely stunning views on our cycle up to the island. We also had the island almost to ourselves (apart from all the birds!) which was really peaceful. We felt quite smug as we cycled away watching the droves of other tourists start to pile in on the buses! 

After a quick gallette & coffee we cycled onwards to Le Vivier sur-Mer, a small town in the beautiful Bay of Mont Saint-Michel. For dinner we had fresh mussels and white wine at a food shack overlooking the bay. Perfect! 

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Le Vélomaritime

After taking a bus (with bike storage!) from Rennes to Avranches, we have now left the Canal d'Ille-et-Rance and have started cycling along the Vélomaritime (the French section of EuroVelo 4). Incredibly, you can cycle EuroVelo 4 from Kyiv to Roscoff, a total of 5,100km. On this journey we will just be cycling a stretch along the Brittany coastline from Pontaubault (a little way down from Avranches) to St Malo, about 100km. 

As you'd imagine, the scenery has changed and we've been cycling alongside beautiful flat salt meadow. We really enjoyed our first stint cycling towards Mont Saint-Michel, watching the mystical-looking island slowly coming closer into view. 

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Pond life

We stopped by this very lively pond for lunch on the canal (sounds like Jurassic Park!)

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Rennes Market

We ensured we would be in Rennes for its weekly Saturday market, the second largest in France. Wow what a market it was! The scale is amazing and it is a wonderful experience to walk around and take in all the fantastic produce.

We were overwhelmed with choice but we decided to buy a variety of different vegetables to roast with thyme, shallots and sausages back at our Airbnb, which turned out really well. We also bought some king prawns for a starter (no need to do anything to them, delicious just as they are) and some apricots for pudding which we had with Petit Suisse (James's favourite from childhood). A great day!  

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Les Fleurs du Canal

An unexpected joy of the Canal d'Ille-et-Rance was the beautiful flowers on display at many of the lock houses. 

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The sounds of nature (turn up the volume!) 🐦

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Canal d'Ille-et-Rance

We have now cycled along this canal the whole way from Dinan to Rennes (79km). The route has been mostly flat, along incredibly well-maintained paths which has made it a really enjoyable and leisurely journey.

Dotted along the canal of course are the locks and handsome lock houses, many still inhabited and manually operated, and again perfectly kept. 

We've seen lots of beautiful countryside and often had the canal completely to ourselves! We would definitely recommend this journey even for beginner cyclists.

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Hédé-Bazouges - Bon Appétit!

We stopped for a couple of nights in Hédé-Bazouges, a small town along the canal d'Ille-et-Rance. We stayed in a chambre d'hote attached to an apiary, and had a fantastic breakfast of gallette, brioche, yoghurt, baguette and Brittany butter, accompanied by different types of the apiary's honey, and home-grown cherries. Delicious!🐝

For lunch we cycled a short way to the local market in nearby Tinténiac and bought some lovely produce for a picnic by the canal. It was a great market complete with a wandering accordion player for added atmosphere!

For dinner we had one of our best meals so far in a restaurant called La Petite Porte, which was full of character. The meat was grilled over open fire in the middle of the restaurant. We both had brochette d'onglet frites which was absolutely perfectly cooked.

A great foodie day in Brittany! 

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We saw an otter!

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Canal boat stay

We set off from Dinan and rode along a beautiful flat path beside the Canal d'Ille-et-Rance, dotted with locks and well-kept lock houses. One of our top moments so far was seeing an otter! There were also an incredible amount of colourful dragonflies.

Another highlight was staying on a little canal boat for the night, which we found on Airbnb. It had everything we could need and was in a beautiful location. Our host brought us some homemade pain perdu and James cooked a meal of merguez and potatoes in the little kitchenette. After dinner we cracked into the games cupboard and taught ourselves how to play Uno, followed by a game of travel Scrabble on the deck! 

We thoroughly enjoyed this tranquil restful stop on the canal. 

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Dinan

We really enjoyed our short sejour in Dinan, a very picturesque town with many beautiful medieval buildings and cobbled streets. Our slightly rainy day exploring the town on foot was most welcome after the exertion and heat of the day before.

Jed and Shaz had already been here a couple of days, so they showed us around, including a nice walk down to the riverside port. 

Lots of great food was eaten, including steak bavette frites, gallettes, crepes, and creme brulee.. James was even brave enough to try Andouillette sausage made from pork intestine!

Of course lots of great beer & wine was also consumed, and many happy memories made with people we love! Now back on the bikes!

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St Malo to Dinan

Unseasonally, the temperature reached 31°c for our first day cycling! We arrived in St Malo at 8:15am whilst it was still relatively cool and made our way to catch the Sea Bus to Dinard (we will explore St Malo properly at the end of our journey). It was a quick and easy journey with pretty views.

At Dinard it was not difficult to find our starting point on Veloroute 2, a cycle route consisting mainly of Greenway, which we will follow about 100km down to Rennes for the first week of our trip. For this first leg to Dinan, we were mostly cycling down a beautiful tree-covered path, perfect for escaping the heat of the day.

Of course the heat crept up in the early afternoon, and the tree-lined Greenway gave way to a slow, exposed uphill climb into Dinan for about the last 30 mins of our journey. It was tough and we collapsed for a rest in Dinan's Jardin Anglais under a tree. Here we met Sam's dad Jed & partner Shaz, with whom we will stay 2 nights in this beautiful medieval town!

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Bon voyage!

Our journey to France went off without a hitch! We were apprehensive about making good time to the ferry following work, but the car journey was trouble-free and we parked up in our pre-booked space (reassuringly inside the grounds of a church!), about a 5 minute cycle from the port, with no hassles.

We went through a slightly chaotic Basil Fawlty-esque security check (and a pointless one at that - a fellow cyclist disclosing to us afterwards that he in fact had "f*cking loads of knives - for camping") and we were off!

We were so impressed by our ferry journey. We treated ourselves to a meal at the fancy restaurant, where we started with a buffet of seafood houre d'oeuvres, followed by halibut and salmon for mains, and a buffet of cheeses and patisserie to finish, all washed down with a bottle of Bordeaux rosé. We couldn't believe the quality of the food! It was a wonderful meal.

After a night cap at the piano bar we retired to our cabin for some much-needed rest. Unfortunately, we slept appallingly and racked up an underwhelming 2.5 hours. Luckily, our excitement carried us through the next day…