Geoff Jones

Day 9 Rennes to Nantes now reached 25,257 days old.

After another good nights sleep on a firm bed I was out on the road at half past eight after my croissant and coffee.

It was amusing to see all the kids walking to school with their duffel coats, hats and scarfs on with me feeling OK in T shirt and shorts :-).Once out of the city, skilfully guided by maps.me I met the really thick mist with quite poor visibility and my spectacles getting steamed yp all the time.

At Chavagne I managed to find a Carrefour open so I could stock up on water and Mars Bars 🙂 By 11 the sun had burnt through and it turned into a lovely day.. The route Strava had worked out for me last night was perfect, not to much traffic at all. Its certainly faster on the road than the towpaths etc. I re-discovered the V2 cycleway at Maure de Bretagne so I thought I would give it a try, but it was a real pain having to zig zag around barriers every 5 minutes so I rejoined my trail at Lieuron.

I discovered the Atlantic trail that runs alongside the Brest to Nantes canal at Blain. However, I was going so well I stuck to the road although I’ve got to be a lot more careful on which way to look first at junctions! and which side of the road to ride 🙁

Nantes is a vast town with a maze of trams and cycleways so the last 30 minutes were quite exciting, compared to the UK a set of lights is missing at every junction 🙁

I’m staying at The Grand Hotel de Nantes, Grand is in the name but not inside! I forgot that when booking.com gives it a 8.2, it’s only for the location element not anything else. The bike is down in the basement, a first and it will be a struggle bringing it up the spiral staircase tomorrow.

My Etrex says II did 81 miles and 2511 feet of climbing at 11.5mph so thats on Strava

The pics are on Dropbox here

Day 8 St Malo FI Hotel to Rennes on my 25,256 day

I had a really great sleep, rock hard beds suit me I think, Should modify the bed at home with a sheet of plywood as a topper 🙂

At brekkie two English cyclists were complaining at the hills between Rennes and St Malo they didn’t seem to happy when I said they was a canal side path and a old railway line. How nice to be smug sometimes 🙂

I set of to on a route suggested by maps.me that avoided the dual carriageway. However when I reached the Parc de la Briantais its gates were firmly locked 🙁 🙁 I followed the track around the humungous wall and slid down to eventually reach the dual carriageway fortunately they drive on the right so I didn’t have to attempt a perilous crossing of one high speed traffic lane.

I was quickly onto the Barage de la Rance and just to see the sheer power of the rising tide going through the turbines was amazing. To think the Severn Estuary barrage could generate 8% or so of UK electricity and we can’t be bothered to build it 🙁 After a bit of side roads I was soon on the old railway line at Pleurtuit and the V2 cycle trail. Excellent riding and at Taden smoothly dropping onto a riverside path. Dinan is truly incredible not only for its ancient buildings but its patisseries 🙂

The route then carried on the Canal d’Ille et Rance. I dropped of at Tinteniac for a bite to eat and started chatting to the young couple next to me. Turns out that they are friends with Paul & Diana in Jersey and he is a pilot too! small world.

Eventually I reached Rennes a bit parched & hungry as I couldn’t find any shops after Dinan – must try and stock up tomorrow. The Hotel Lorient is OK although it only opens at 5.30pm.

Strava says todays ride was 72 miles with 1,579 feet of climbing. So not quite flat 🙂

The photos should be here

Day 7 – I make it to France with my bike, 25,255 days old.

I arrived in St Malo with 15 Belgium Harley Davidsons just before midday, Condor had bought the start time forward by 2 hours because one of the boats engines had failed, apparently they needed to make sure it would catch the tide to dock in St Malo.

I couldn’t easily change my booking at the F1 Hotel so I had a whole afternoon to do some sightseeing and checking out a route to get to Spain.

Whilst on the net in my rather dismal room, sans WC (Well for €35 what else do you expect) I happened upon the Cycling Brittany website which described the R2 route from St Malo to Arzal with a convenient gpx file for the first 110km to Rennes, so a decent day’s biking along the canals & rivers. It was quickly added to my Gaia app 🙂

The next find was La Vélodyssée, the 1200km Atlantic cycling route from Roscoff to Hendaye on the Spanish border. My route from St Malo should hit it at Redon which is only 75km from Rennes. So hopefully, should be a decent route all the way to Spain.

First task tomorrow is working out a route across The Rance Barrage to get across to meet the R2. A task made really easy with the maps.me app, although it has a bug which wants you to go around rounabouts the wrong way 🙁

St Malo is well worth a visit. a historic walled town with lovely sands and a busy port importing timber from Russia

The very feeble Strava of 16 miles and 626 feet is here

The pictures are in Dropbox here

Day 6 – A days holiday in a holiday in retirement and 25,254 days old

Due to the vagaries of the monopoly supplier of ferries to Jersey, Condor Ferries, there was no ferry to St Malo today 🙁 So an official holiday was declared by me.

With the unexpected day here I decided to revisit the North coast, this time dropping down into the coves and also practising the Boulay bay hill climb unfortunately I had a laden saddle bag etc so the heart rate went out through the roof on the 24% gradient:stretch -( It still brought back many fond memories of the Bolsover hill climb, which was 33%, that I used to do as a kid.

Jersey with it’s so called “Green Lanes” is a bit of a cycling paradise. Quiet, well surfaced roads are ideal plus you can choose to do some pretty good hill climbing short and sharp! A lovely prevalence of reasonable cafes means you are never far from a cuppa or cake.

It’s easily accessible by bike from England (Condor Ferries willing) using Portsmouth, bikes are carried free and compared to flying totally hassle free. So I’m sure I will be back for a long weekend with Sally 🙂

After the ride I took a 10 minute dip in The Sea Lido, apparently the oldest in the UK even more astonishing is that at high water the pool is 40feet under water 🙂 as usual I was perished when I got out and after chatting to the oldie regulars :-), fortunately The Runnymede Hotel , where I’m staying, is literally 100 yards up the road so a hot shower did the usual thawing out trick.

All in all a very relaxing day for me, at this rate will I make it to Ibiza? even more does it matter 🙂

The Strava says I cycled 16 miles and 1132 ft of climbing. Meanwhile my son, Nick RAN nearly 41 miles and over 5,500 feet of climbing 🙂 shurely shome mishtake….

The pictures will be found here at some point.