We get rolling
It was a grey and non-descript English day as we made our
way down to the southern edge of the isle. Typical spring weather, threatening
to completely deteriorate one moment, promising to brighten up the next but
inevitably doing neither. But our spirits could not be dampened. And like
crazy-excited, super-cool kids heading the queue for the first roller-coaster
run of the day, later that day we commanded pole position over the other wheeled
travellers lined up and waiting to board the ferry. It was a special day, today
we had commenced easily the most anticipated module of our whole travel epic –
cycle touring France
To keep the excitement levels at peak, as the overnight
ferry streamed away from Portsmouth into the English Channel , we insisted on maintaining our place at
the front table, literally. The ship’s ballroom was half empty with what could
be best described as a young bingo crowd, but there we were all by ourselves enjoying
the cheesy on-board entertainment for the night – the fine magical talents of
young Tina and Christy, followed by Theo and his easy baritone doing all the
wholesome greats.
Saint-Malo
is a classic European old walled city that dominates the coast. We started our French
adventure wondering the tight old city streets loosely making our way to the
water front. But not before some petit
déjeuner and taking in the early noon feel.
Mont Saint-Michel was truly impressive and just a 30min ride
away. We also found the small rural neighbourhood of Pontorson enjoyable,
despite not being able to find a showing of the first State of Origin game. A local
burger place found a purely rugby sports channel on cable TV but the under 21
jnr World Cup was deemed more important to French viewers. We cruised the
picturesque streets checking out the local farmers markets, cafes and
speciality shops.
The Historic town of
Keeping to our tight schedule after just two days in Pontorson
we left for the larger regional centre of Bayeux ,
again taking the train. This would be
our base for visiting the D-Day beaches and memorials. We arrived just in time
to pitch our tent in the urban campsite to take shelter from the rain and cold
that had swept in. It drizzled all day when we set off with our tour group to
visit the World War II sights. The young tour guide was connected to the battle
by way of his grandma on one side of family; a collateral fatality of allied
bombing, and his grandpa on other side who suffered interrogation and death as
a civilian at the hands of the Germans. There was not much physically left to
get a sense of the battle scenes but the moody weather, memorials and guide still
left a lasting impression.
Bayeux has an impressive
Cathedral and is also famous for the 70m Bayeux
Tapestry. This depicts characters and their story in the lead up to the 1066
conquesting invasion of England
by William, Duke of Normandy
later William the Conqueror. We took an afternoon to take this in additional to
the usual backstreet wonderings making the most of long daylight hours.
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| Saint-Malo - The harbour front |
Saint-Malo Welcomes us to France
Eight o’clock the next morning we arrived in France Saint-Malo
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| looking out towards the English Channel Islands |
We walked the port and coastal fortress walls overlooking beaches,
an ocean set swimming pool, and little boats threading through the craggy
islands. All the while I imaged the
corsairs privateers heading out to terrorise the enemies France. They were
based here back in the day. Later we found Saint-Malo teaming with tourist out to enjoy dinning
in the open town squares, both white table silver service and street vendors,
it was the stuff of TV travel shows. Despite the tourists Saint-Malo is great for a full day and its
not hard to walk the back streets and suddenly find yourself in corners void of
tourists but full of the locals going about their day with typical French fare.
Maybe it was the excitement of the start of our trip because while the city may
not feature in too many “top 10 spots to visit list” I would not hesitation to
give it a big thumbs-up for a day’s visit, possibly more as a base to enjoy the
surrounding sights of the sea and land.
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| Saint-Malo locals |
Ponterson and Mont Saint-Michel
Not feeling up to a 45km ride with all our gear just yet, we
took two short train legs to the town of Pontorson .
A typical town of the region and situated on a cycling path that follows an
estuary for 9km to the base of top ten French destination: Mont Saint Michel.
The tucked away campsite was modern with everything you’d want
- manicured grass pitches with power and high hedge divisions, a café/bar, a
pool, ponies and goats, a massive super market over the road, and plenty of
Germans and Englishmen pottering about. Plus there was a complimentary late
night self-drive golf buggy service for getting to know the place afterhours.
The streets have this bizarre speaker-horn sound system
hanging off posts and the walls, I guess it would be used for community and
tourist announcements, but to me in the sitting of this perfect community it
suspiciously came across as brain washing propaganda material. Unable to
understand the young boy, I imagined he was preaching the merits of being
French, “We should all be French, just like me. This is good. I was once not
French but now I am and you should be French like me too….”
For lunch we found a quiet eatery with an attractive menu du jour. Hesitantly, we expressed
intent to sit at the vacant prime table outside, we weren’t sure if place was even
open for trading. 40 minutes later the place was packed, humming with je ne sais quoi, as I tucked into my
steak and chips.
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| deep back streets of Mont Saint Michel |
The Historic town of Bayeux
Keeping to our tight schedule after just two days in Pontorson
we left for the larger regional centre of  |
| La baguette |
Mezidon – “Deux cidres s'il vous plait”
In her research Anne came across the “Cider Trail” which was
immediately slotted into our itinerary.
Following the obligatory broken sign-English conversation
with the shift manager at the Hotel
Restaurant Le St Pierre
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| Anne discussing her Klick-fix handbag with the locals |
I would recommend cider touring. We plotted out course to
link a few of the operators participating in the cider trail scheme and found
signs along the way to help us. They take you through the tastings just like
wine, and afterwards you can sit out in the farm house garden and enjoy a
bottle of your pick re-hydrating and
fuelling up for the leg to the next press house. The same can’t be said for
wine tasting if you were to share a bottle at each stop for the day… Tastings
aside, the day was worth just the ride through the country side. It’s a great
way to get in touch with the land, every kilometre has reveals a new
perspective, there’s the sent of farm woods, you get to nod and throw a “bonjour”
at the odd local, its easy to stop or double back for a second take, and its
hard to beat the wind in your hair in addition to the health and calorific
benefits of the hours in the saddle.
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| lunch time |
We wrapped up the first week on the bikes in France having
experienced some of the more renowned attractions of the region and also and
enjoying the simpler things on offer. There were no major setbacks being on the
bikes, if anything things were easier than expected. The tempo was more than
we’d have liked but this and our general excitement was off set by the whole
relaxed and welcoming vibe that permeated the region.
Next on our French adventure we head to the World War I cemeteries of northern France before settling down in Epernay for four days of bubbles.
And I'll promise to keep the blogs coming despite it being some time since we were actually in France.
