Mont St Michel to Taden
Wed. 15th May: Sunshine!! There is still a chill in the air but the sun has actually shown through at last. We both woke early this morning, earlier than we’d have liked as we’re still feeling the effects of yesterday’s tour de Mont St Michel…it takes us longer to recover from these outings than it did for our younger selves!
Even though we were awake, showered and breakfasted early, we were otherwise slow to get moving, not leaving the camping park until 11ish, though some of our time was spent happilychatting to new friends, our Kiwi neighbours who we hope to ‘bump’ into again along the way.
Our journey today took us first to Mont Dol where we parked Boris in the town and walked up the narrow, very steep road to the Notre Dame de l’Esperance, a large, white statue which stands at the top of a spiralled staircased tower. It’s awesome and though the old legs complained at every step, the view from the top was gorgeous, worth suffering for! It rained briefly during our visit but then the sun reappeared…a lovely day.
Our lunch stop was at a lookout overlooking Cancale and the Bay of Mont-st-Michel,
still a bit chilly outside so we sat inside to make and eat lunch before driving down to the port, through the town and on to nearby Pointe du Grouin. Boris stayed in the car park and rested while we walked to the point, sitting on the rocks for a while to take in the beautiful scenery, the shimmering blue water, blue sky, fishing boats and the view across the bay to Mont St Michel…fabulous! A lovely drive then along the Emerald Coast to St Malo but once again we had the problem of not finding a place for Boris to park while we went off rubbernecking so we didn’t stay but continued on to our overnight camp, a freebie at Taden.
The Hunt for les Chateaux!
Thurs. 16th May: We left Taden after breakfasting outside in the sunshine and a drive to the nearby River la Rance, where we watched a cruise boat making its way to Dinan, waving to the passengers on board. After driving to Port Dinan (pictured)
and a wander through the streets, the plan was to then spend some time in the Rance Valley checking out a few of the chateaux marked on our map. Easier said than done as we drove through many little towns, occasionally seeing a sign pointing the way to a chateau but never actually finding one. We went around in circles and went through the town of Evran about four times! We did come across a peaceful lake at St-Andres-des-Eaux complete with ruined church and made that our lunch stop. Then…a final try to find a chateau and just before Boris gave up, we found one! We drove on through pleasant farming country and settled on an overnight stop at Mauron. (no smart comments thanks). After parking up, we went for a walk through the village, which was quite pleasant until the rain came – and then turned into hail. It was only a small cloud but it decided to sit right over the top of us.
The hunt for Chateaux will continue tomorrow!
PS the day did not pass without us finding a FA cream cake shop
This is the take away box.
Friday 17th May: Glorious sunshine! Between breakfast and departure from Mauron, we decided to take another walk through the town…just as well we did as we then discovered that Mike’s wallet was missing. After searching every nook and cranny, including the rubbish bin, it was thought…hoped…that said wallet had been left at the boulangerie the previous evening when we bought our daily bread. Armed with MM’s trusty French dictionary, we were able to ask the shopkeeper if it had been left there and she triumphantly produced the guilty wallet from her till…what a relief!! We stopped then at the markets and bought some fresh veges before returning to Boris for a delayed departure.
On then to Paimpont Forest, visiting
la Joie Notre Dame, a 20th century monastery
where we bought eucalyptus drops (big spenders)
and continued on to Vannes, making a small detour to the Maquis de la Nouette monument, arriving at Camping de Conleau at about 12.30pm, only to find that the office was closed until 2.30pm so we sat in the parking area and made a sandwich for lunch while we waited. We find the French habit of closing businesses for a couple of hours in the middle of the day just a little bit different but I guess we’ll get used to it eventually. After we’d settled in, we decided to have an afternoon off and sat outside in the brilliant sunshine and did nothing! Mike even donned shorts and cooked chicken on MM's BBQ!
Tomorrow we’ll be back into tourist mode and heading further south towards Spain..
2 comments:
Wow! Very lucky finding Mike's wallet eh? What a relief.. and thank heaven for MM's French Dictionary. I'm going to see Ben Witte on Monday. Had enough of the pain now. I've waited the 12 months he asked for between ops - it's time, can't put up with anymore. xx
Advertised yesterday Chitty Chitty with Hobbo in Perth early September. xx
Post a Comment