June 30 - Day 26 - Tour de Bretagne

Quiet back roads and the Voie Vert (Green Route) allowed for some easy rolling hills and shady paved paths this morning. 

As we come to the final days, we are ensuring we fully support our favourite things about cycling in France. 

The little towns were not as quiet as usual, because there is an election here today. So the locals were all out lined up at the Mairie. But it did not make the roads busy. I am still admiring all the wonderful old stone structures here. 

For our picnic lunch we found a tree at the edge of a field and sat on our Tyvek "picnic blanket".  A tractor went by pulling some sort of parade float or carnival installation - a miniature Arc d'Triumph, an Eifel Tower and some decorations celebrating the upcoming Paris Olympics. So we cheered!! 

Woot woot. 

Today we just pushed forward. The sun came out and we had the hottest few hours of cycling of the trip. 

Every time the pedal came up, we pushed it down. And we sang a few good Paul Simon songs to keep us going. 

Slip sliding away

Slip sliding away

You know the nearer your destination, the more your slip sliding away. 

We are happily reflecting on what a great trip it has been, and sad to be laying our heads down in the final campsite of the trip. 

Another 70k closer to Nantes. Tomorrow we will complete our Tour de Bretagne. 

June 29 - Day 25 - Tour de Bretagne

Rain, rain, go away, or at least let us out cycle you. 

Breakfast and pack up happened in dryness, cloudy, but dry. And we circled the outskirts of Rennes on well defined bike lanes and flower lined paths. 

And we found a Saturday market in a small town, in the town square to have our second breakfast and watch the locals shopping and enjoying the market day. 

But it really just gave us the chance to change to rain gear, as we took shelter from a downpour. 

Navigating with a ziplock bag over your phone is a little more challenging. 

And rain spotted sunglasses... Well that's an oxymoron!

After an hour of riding in the rain, we treated ourselves to a cup of mint tea and a traditional galette (savoury crepe), at this cute little place. Awww warmed up, dried off and full bellies.

We found ourselves riding by Chateau des Peres.

We pulled in out of intrigue. Not for the chateau (it was a big beautiful chateau) but for this:

What the heck is that??

It is a 4* Hotel and Spa

According to the website: "Staying at the Domaine du Château des Pères means living a new and unusual experience, in a hotel with avant-garde looks, a minimalist design and focused on nature. The Hotel L'EssenCiel, with its audacious architecture in the shape of a tree, offers with its large oculus a stay at the service of contemplation and disconnection.

The property also had a sculpture garden.  All in all a very interesting place. 

(there are giant ant sculptures climbing this look out tower 😳).

🚴 - riding on.

Le Roches aux Fees was our next tourist stop. It is a Dolmen, further explained by Wikipedia:

La Roche-aux-Fées is a Neolithic gallery grave, or dolmen, located in the commune of Essé, in the French department of Ille-et-Vilaine in Brittany. Its name comes from a legend that claims that the stones were placed by fairies. 

It is very impressive. Just randomly by the side of a quiet road, surrounded by trees and beside a pear orchard. 

We rode our final hours without rain, and got the tent up, but just in time. Dinner is in the tent, hiding from the rain again.

Another 60k closer to Nantes. 

Sleep well 

Thanks for coming along with us and for your comments. 

June 28 - Day 24 - Tour de Bretagne

On the road again.

We headed inland from Mont St Michel, and had the wind at our backs and some lovely French countryside ahead of us. 

Farmland and forest. A nice change.

(Above, such big trees, trying to capture the size of the trunk.)

And today was Wildlife day! We saw a fox*, two deer, a little critter who ran right across the path in front of Marc 😳 - a Marmot, we think, and then a squirrel and then a great blue heron on the path along the canal. And a cute baby bunny at the campground. The only photo I got was the deer crossing 😉

And this cute cat who greeted me as I came out of the post office. 

We saw farms, and also wind farms. 

As we have been cycling, we have noticed some signs seemingly intentionally installed upside down.  We have seen quite a few of these, so I looked up what it means.

The upside-down signs first appeared in Tarn, Occitanie, and have spread nationally, but it is in Brittany that they are the most visible. The act is a protest by local farmers to raise visibility of the challenges they face.

So now we know. 

In the little village we stopped in for lunch, Marc made another friend. An elderly gentleman who approached us as we pulled in, started to chat. And chat. And chat. Once again, Marc got a full family story (including war heroes!) and he honestly didn't stop chatting the entire time we ate lunch and packed up to go. Quite sweet. 

We followed the Canal d'ille et Rance for about 20 kms today. Flat and shaded, safe and pretty. 

The buildings at each of the locks were like beautiful homes with wonderful gardens. 

As strange as it sounds, even the graffiti was impressive. 

And just as we were leaving the canal, we saw this guy in the other side. Clearly he forgot a wheel at home! 

We found an impressive campground. Very well run - great sites, facilities, good little shop, shaded area with tables for meals. They have very interesting little cabins you can rent.

And through the back gate we could walk through a forest to a pond and find a music and dancing festival. A Guinguette! So fun. 

Strava stats for today. 

Another 70k in the bank, and a few good hills but lots of flats too.

Rennes is the capital city of Brittany but we won't spend much time there. Big cities are not much fun on bikes. But this municipal park and campground is great. 

Thanks for the comments, we love them.