Bicycle
Touring France 2000
St. Malo to Paris
In 2000, David rode with six other members of Adelaide Touring
Cyclists through Brittany and
Normandy. This is David and Mary's account of that tour.
(Maps of our route can be reached by clicking on the links
throughout the article.)
Our campsite in
the mist in the ruined citadel at St.Malo
We had eaten breakfast (juice, coffee, bread and pastries) on board the ferry from Portsmouth, but
shortly after setting up our tents in the campground in the old citadel at St. Malo, Alan and
David walked down to the town to look for a boulangerie to buy bread for
another breakfast. They had seen people walking about with fresh baguettes, but
after wandering around for some time, they hadn't found the
boulangerie. They stopped on a street corner thinking that there had to be
one somewhere. They
turned around and found that they were actually standing in the doorway of the
boulangerie blocking the entrance. Armed with several baguettes,
croissants and confiture, they started on their way back to the
campground, only to be waylaid by the aroma of freshly brewed coffee from a
waterfront café. Eventually they returned to the other members of the group who
quickly devoured everything. This pre-occupation with food was to set the tone
for this tour through Brittany and Normandy.
(Map of our route from
St. Malo to Mont St.Michel)
After lunch of biscuits and camembert, we made our way into the
"old" town. The "old" town is really the "new" town as most of it had to be
rebuilt after the Second World War. We spent most of the time wandering around
looking at the shops and walking along the walls surrounding the town. Mist
drifted in and out all day. When the day was clear, the sun shone strongly and
it was quite warm. In the mist with the wind blowing from the sea, the
temperature dropped significantly.
It was a short day's ride to Dinan so we were in no great hurry
to pack up and start riding. After a leisurely breakfast of baguettes and
croissants, we finally managed to get on the road by 10.30. On our way out of
town, we stopped to buy bread and pastries for lunch and morning tea. The sea
fogs which dominated the weather during our day's sightseeing in St. Malo were
still around. When the fogs rolled in the weather was cold and unpleasant but
when they cleared, the bright sun soon warmed us. We dropped steeply down into
the small village of la Landrais on the banks of the Rance for morning tea. Mist
covered the river and we could only see the ethereal, misty outlines of the
yachts moored nearby. When the mist cleared, it was warm enough to remove some
of layers of clothes we were wearing.
When we reached La Hisse, we followed the
old towpath for the remaining few kilometres into the old port of Dinan. For
most of the way, the path made for excellent riding and it was most pleasant
riding along the leafy banks of the river with the birds singing. There were a
lot of people out walking and cycling and enjoying the warm spring Sunday
afternoon.
After a
drink at one of the many cafés in the old port at Dinan, we made our way back
along the river for a couple of kilometres to the campground at Taden. We had ridden 38 kilometres and it had taken all day
to do it.
Dinan is a delightful old walled city and we had a rest day to
spend sightseeing. But first of all, there was the question of breakfast to
attend to. The café near the campground was supposed to be open at eight to sell
bread but was firmly closed when we started to ride into the city. The
boulangerie in
the old port had beautiful pastries and we all indulged in several very
fattening concoctions. After a morning wandering the old streets with their
attractive stone buildings, it was time for lunch. At a small café on the Rue de Jerzuel, we sat in the warm sunny courtyard and ate crèpes and moules
and frites.
River Rance near Lehon
From the campground we followed the river towpaths to the
village of Lehon. Here we encountered the first really steep climb of the trip
and we slowly climbed in our lowest gears. As we rested at the top, some walkers
wished us "Bon courage" and "Bonne route".
Shortly afterwards we were overtaken by an English cyclist out on a training
ride. After retiring from the R.A.F., he and his wife moved to France to live.
He now rides with the local cycling club. He rode with us for several
kilometres.
At Epinac, we stopped for lunch. Noelene and David had stopped
here for lunch on their trip the previous year and David made sure that he
bought some of the delicious pastries at the tiny village bakery. We rode through the
forests and along quiet undulating roads to reach Beauvoir, a small town near
the great monastery of Mont-St. Michel. After an early dinner, we set off in the
late afternoon to ride across the causeway to Mont-St. Michel. This is one of
the great treasures of France and attracts millions of visitors a year. When David had been here the previous year,
it had been standing room only with the narrow streets grid-locked with tourists
all trying to walk to the abbey. When we arrived, they had all departed for the
day and we had the streets and the abbey to ourselves. It was such a delight to
walk around the historic monument without the crowds that visit during the day.
(Map of our route from Mont St. Michel to Fougères)
It was to be another short day of only 32 kilometres, so we
didn't get onto the road before eleven. The undulating
roads became increasingly steeper as we rode towards our destination for the
night at St. Laurent-de-Terragatte. The small campground at the top of a steep
climb was part of a much larger holiday complex which was only just starting to
open for the year. The amenities blocks were full of blown leaves but at least
the water was very hot. We didn't get a discount for having swept the leaves
from the buildings.
It had rained during the night and the sky was heavy and dark
with threatening clouds. A cold wind was blowing. Lesley, who only a day or so
earlier had been complaining that she had brought too many warm clothes with
her, started saying that she needed more clothes to keep her warm. In St.
Georges-de-Reintembault we stopped for morning tea. It was market day and at one
of the stalls some of us bought delicious chocolate crèpes while Tony and
Jim had saucisse sandwiches, half a baguette filled with pork
sausage. In a nearby bar, we had coffees and hot chocolates. About 15 kilometres
before Fougères we came across an abandoned railway line which had been
converted to a cycle way and followed this into the city.
We couldn't find any signs to the campground and asked
directions at a bike shop. We were following these directions when we pulled off
onto a slip road to re-group. As we were waiting, we noticed a police car coming
the wrong way up the slip road towards us. The car stopped and the driver asked
us in English, where we were from, how much our bikes weighed, how did they
handle in the hills, where we were going, etc.. He was obviously a cyclist and
after answering his questions, we confirmed that we were on the right route to
the campground. We rode on and when we reached the next major intersection, the
police car was waiting, holding up the traffic while we were given the
directions to follow to the next intersection. At each intersection, they were
waiting and escorted us all the way to the campground. It was the first time any
of us had been given a police escort through a busy city to the campground. That
evening we went to a small jazz club to hear an exciting blues band from the
Netherlands.
(Map of our route from
Fougères to Ambrières-les-Vallées)
After a cold and sometimes wet day sightseeing in Fougères, we
set off on a cool but pleasant day's ride to Ambrières-les-Vallées. It was one
of those days which were very typical of the trip - quiet undulating roads
through pleasant villages, delicious pastries for morning tea, crisp crunchy
baguettes for lunch - delightful cycling. We only managed to get a few
kilometres from Ambrières before we stopped in the village of Cigné for coffee
and to buy bread and pastries at the combined bar/alimentation. It was Sunday
and it seemed as if the entire village was either in the bar or at church. Those
who had been at church, soon joined the ones in the bar. Gwen started talking to
a table of old men who had been steadily drinking coffees laced with brandy and
with much hilarity and joking, had to have her photo taken in amongst them all.
When we reached Bagnoles, the rain that had been threatening all morning finally
poured out of the sky. After sheltering under an awning for a while, we headed
to a nearby café for lunch.
(Map of our route from
Ambrières-les-Vallées to Bellou-en-Houlme)
The next day we rode on tiny "C" and "D" roads to
Bellou-en-Houlme. This is shown as quite a large town on
the maps and we hoped to have morning tea there. When we arrived, we found that
all the shops were closed. It is common to find shops that open on Saturday are
closed on Monday or Wednesday, but usually either the baker or the grocer is
open to allow bread to be purchased, but here everything was closed. The only
place open was a café where we stopped for hot chocolates. We were really very
hungry and managed to talk the owner into giving us some bread and butter which
we greedily wolfed down. We rode on to Ste. Honorine-la-Guillaume. We still
hadn't been able to find any shops open and had to dig deep into our panniers to
find food for lunch which we had in a shelter beside a delightful babbling
brook.
(Map of our route from
Bellou-en-Houlme to Argentan and Médavy)
The roads became increasingly steep as we headed into the
Suisse-Normande. We detoured to the Roche-d'Oètre which is a classified lookout
ranking two stars in the Michelin green guide. Surely, there would be a café
there. There was, only it was abandoned with a sign outside saying that it was
to be rebuilt and would be open the following year. The views had been worth the
detour. When we arrived in Pont-d'Ouilly, we headed straight to
the boulangerie where we bought pastries and bread which we ate while enjoying a
beer at the café. The guardien at the campsite was very friendly and
helpful. We were the first Australians to stay there and he gave us the key to a
large room with a hot water radiator to use in case of rain and to dry our
clothes in.
The night before we left Pont-d'Ouilly, it rained on and off all
night. Everyone was loath to get up. By the time we had packed up and bought
bread and pastries at the bakery, it was eleven o'clock. The clouds were dark
and heavy with rain as we rode out of town and while we could see rain falling
in the distance, it seemed to miss us. We stopped for morning tea at
Ménil-Hermei and sheltered on the side steps of the large church to get out of
the cold wind. It was not a pleasant day.
We reached Argentan in time for a late
lunch.
We all went to dinner at a pleasant restaurant that night. David
was leaving the group the next day to visit some friends in southern Brittany
and planned to meet up with the rest of the group in Lyon several days later.
The dinner was a farewell for him.
The next morning we all rode together to visit Chateau d'O. When
we arrived we found that the Chateau wasn't open until the afternoon, but
because we were a group and on bicycles, the manager agreed to allow us to visit
the grounds as a special favour. After some time there we headed back to the
little village of Médavy. Here we were to start heading to Paris while David
returned to Argentan to catch his train.
Château
d'O
(Map of our route from
Médavy to Aube)
There was a small café in the village so we decided to stop
there for coffee and something to eat. There were only three or four tables in
the café and two of these were occupied by three locals drinking pastis
and talking to le patron. The sudden arrival of seven English speaking
cyclists was obviously not something that happened here everyday and we were
soon the main focus of attention. Our order of six cups of chocolat chaud
and one grand café caused a minor panic as the small domestic coffee
machine was not geared to handling such a large order. Monsieur le patron
coped bravely and produced our drinks one at a time while having to endure the
comments from his regulars about how slow he was. He heaved a great theatrical
sigh of relief when he finally placed the last cup on the table. We asked for
something to eat but all he could offer us was some baguettes and jam
from the tiny grocery store attached to the café. We hungrily devoured the four
baguettes, jam and butter which be brought to the table and were
delighted to find that he only charged us the normal retail prices and then only
for the portion of the jam and butter that we had actually eaten. Monsieur le
patron was a cyclist himself and spent a long time going over the map with
Alan to make sure that we were taking the best route.
While David headed back to Argentan, we started our ride east
past the Chateau d'Almeneches and through the villages of le Merlerault and
Echauflour to our destination for the day of St. Evroult Notre Dame du Bois
where we camped near the ruins of an old abbey.
(Map of our route from
Aube to Anet)
The next day's ride of 95 kilometres was a long day for us but
it was through lovely countryside. We also benefited from from that cyclists'
dream of a strong tailwind all day. We rode through Aube, la Chapelle-Viel and
Bourth to our lunch stop at St. Ouen d'Attez. We planned
on camping at Ezy-sur-Eure but when we arrived there we found that the camp
ground was a little further on across the river at the chateau at Anet. It had
been a long day and we treated ourselves to dinner at a delightful restaurant in
the village.
(Map of our route from
Anet to Versailles)
From Anet we continued our easterly ride to the great palace at
Versailles. It had been another lovely day's ride through lush green undulating
countryside and we had clocked up another 65 kilometres by the time we arrived
at the camp ground. We had a rest and sightseeing day in Versailles. Most of the
group hadn't been here before and they set off to visit the palace while Alan
and Mary spent the morning wandering through the local market and the old town.
(Map of our route from
Versailles to Paris)
Alan had been given the challenge of leading us into Paris
without taking us onto main roads. He had bought a large scale map of the Paris
suburbs and had spent some time studying it. As usual, he excelled himself as a
navigator and we followed quiet roads into Paris through the "back door".
When we reached the Parc de St. Cloud we detoured to a
lookout from where we had wonderful views over the city. We sat at the café with
our hot chocolates and coffee and enjoyed the vista of Paris before us.
After leaving the park we followed more quiet back roads for a
couple of kilometres to reach a long footbridge over the railway and the River
Seine and we were there at the Bois de Boulogne. It had been an easy ride into a
major city and we were amazed at how hassle free it had been. The Bois de
Boulogne was to be our camp ground for the next couple of days before we were
due to head for Lyon.
