First day riding. First day lost.

Finally we start our ride. Up early for bfast at 8:00. Nice host, nice B+B, bfast was only ok. From our walks yesterday we knew how to ride out of town, we pass by a beautiful harbor and head out on nice little side roads.

A few map comments. We have a German booklet describing 3 rides in Brittany in good detail, 1:75000. But they don't cover much of Brittany. Then we have a Michelin road atlas for all of Brittany that is 1:200000. Not bad under usual circumstances. But it turns out Brittany has a million little side roads. And a few main roads that have too much traffic. Not too many middle type of roads. So we're always on the tiny side roads.

They also have a ton of of bike paths. They even have some maps of the larger bike paths called Voies Vertes which are built on old train/farm paths. these are cool but usually hard-packed dirt. Slower and somewhat boring but April likes them.

Anyway away we go and before long we realize, it's not going to be the case, like the coast-coast walk in England, that we're occasionally lost; we're going to be unsure of exactly where we are almost all of the time. It's almost impossible to stay on a planned route. the German booklet, which we can't read the descriptions by the way, seems accurate, but there are lots of roads it doesn't show. And we don't have a bike computer to calculate distance because it's too high-tech (also there's the small factor that I never put it on my bike because I have these high-end carbon fiber handlebars that are too wide for the mounting clamp, (I heard about that a few times today)). So we ride along, merrily missing our turns, happy knowing there'll be some other turn/path that brings us to our target destination. Or we hop on some bike path that seems to be heading in the right direction.

Anyway the morning works out fine. We're riding along the Gulf of Morbihan which is a brilliant (whoops that's British), or should I say superbe inland gulf. We're on these tiny roads, no cars, hayfields, marshes, islands, seagulls. It looks just like the marshes behind Drakes Island Maine, and in this moment I know the trip will be a success. We can just feel it. What a great place for a bike ride!

I don't know why we (I?) have a penchant for making comparisons (like Avatar was "Dances with Wolves with Aliens"), perhaps it's cause everything relates to everything else, or that we always need a framework for absorbing something, anyway this place is like Maine plus England plus France all rolled into one. Kind of looks like Rhode Island but with French food.

We find our first ferry, there's a big ferry sign on the road. We get to the point and there's this tiny 10 person flat-bottom aluminum boat, and sure enough it's the ferry. Takes just 1-2 minutes to cross. We ride along, often on the wrong road, then we find out first bike path and take it even tho we don't know where it goes. Then we hit the town of Sarzeau and it was market day. Now I'm really happy as the first booth we see is doing rotisserie chickens! Yea baby. Our stomachs have settled and we're ready to eat!

We get a local type of baguette, lots of seeds in it, 1/2 chicken, some pan-fried potatoes, April also gets an eclair. It's all fantastic. And the French people all say bon-appetit as they pass us. They were so happy to see someone enjoying their food. This is my kind of place. the market was fantastic, a huge range of seafood, great fruit/vegies. April found some great prunes, tasted one, but the guy only sold 1 KG bags (2.2 pounds). But our bags are too heavy for 2 freaking pounds of prunes, not to mention the dangerous side-effects. But we did buy the most amazing little chocolate cake/fudge like thing. Was sort of like a flourless choc cake but more pudding like. It's so rich and satisfying you just need like a little pinch. But April ate about 1/2 of it.

We continue on after lunch, wind our way too far down a penisula cause we were lost again, then get on a good bike path that brings us right into Port Navalo, where we wait for the ferry to Locmariaquer. What a great name. If I have another child I think I would name her Locmariaquer. Ha-ha. For those interested in the local culture, I'm recommending a summer read of "The Oysters of Locmariaquer". Dan/Diane/Katie?

We wait with a beer/coke, the ferry comes, the skippers head up to the cafe for a coffee. no need to rush. I take a picture of April at the helm. It's an easy yet beautiful boat ride across the mouth of the Gulf de Morbihan. This huge bay is gated by this small opening just a few KMs across. We locate the Trois Fontaine hotel which we had researched on tripadvisor. April is a little testy because I had found it, she likes to find all the hotels, but the owner was was super nice so April started to like it more. Had a great dinner on the harbor, April ahd scallops and I had salmon, also had risotto, some shredded zucchini, and a little souffle thingie on the plate. All delicious. April was thrilled because she had a Far Breton, which was a prune/custard like thing.

We walk back to the Hotel thrilled with the day and the dinner. Superbe!

Funny note of the day: about 1/2 way thru the day I noticed April had the these bright red marks where the front of her helmet was pushing on her forehead. Then later in the day she says "I'm getting a headache". So I say, "well loosen your helmut". Sure enough she's like, oh that's much better. No skills. That's my travel buddy. She doesn't complain about much.