Life in the Manor house.

Ok, the freaking bread-only bfast is starting to get really old. And it’s always those puffy baguettes, nothing hearty. And one croissant each. So it’s nice but not enough fuel.

It was even mistier today, almost like rain. As we made our way in the morning, it was the type of day where all the hair on your forearms collected moisture. We had some nice backroads, had a pleasant walk up a steep hill, then had to get on the highway for a bit. The highways are a mixed blessing. We find we can really pick up the speed to about 18-20 MPH, but then there’s the noise and traffic. Then the rain started and the wind started blowing. We came to an intersection of two highways and ducked behind the house in the middle of the two roads. Spirits were low. Trucks whizzing by. I had to pee but we were in someone’s driveway.

Both roads lead roughly to where we needed to be. Our map indicated the highway on the left was the smaller road, but I thought I had seen a sign that said trucks to the left. But you can never be quite sure of what you thought you saw, especially on these signs which are in French and Breton. So we watched for awhile and then decided to take the right-hand road even though it was the larger highway on the map. Huge winner! The best stretch of the trip. It was a about a 5 mile down hill. Maybe 1-2 cars passed us. And it stopped drizzling and we dried out as we coasted. It was perfect. The proverbial “road less traveled”!

We’re now riding along the Tregor region in the Cote de Granit Rose. Red/pink granite rocks/cliff all along the coast. Very rocky. Being Monday lots of things were closed. But we found a Creperie open. April had a salad and I had a gallette (the buckwheat crepe) with hams, almost raw egg, cheese. Not bad but hardly filling.

Then we made our way along a few beaches and hills. One beach the tide went out for at least a mile. Seriously the tides are huge here and the beaches are flat so the low tide is always at least a few hundred yards out sometime .5-1 mile out. Bizarre.

Then we got to our town, Plougrescant, and we had reserved a room at this old Manor house, the Manoir de Kergrec’h. Fabulous. Built in the 1700s. We got a corner room. Huge room and bathroom. Sits on 10 hectares., so it’s quiet. Probably the best room of the trip. Of course April was thrilled, and proclaimed she needed a rest day the next day, so we’re staying two nights. But I was thinking of dinner. No restaurants in this tiny town. Only a creperie was open. Now last night April convinced me to have moules/frites at the town event thing, instead of a real dinner. Then a gallette for lunch. Now what a crepe for dinner? Instead I had a salad and April had the gallette. Crepes for dessert. Still not full.

Our rest day:

We read late, slept until about 9:00.

We go down for bfast and it turns out the manor has an older clientele, a little more formal than we’re used to. All the men have the ‘sweater wrapped over their shoulder’ thing going on. I’m in a white t-shirt and shorts. I’m starved after too many galettes and crepes, so I start pounding the croissants. Then as we’re eating, April notices I have croissant crumbs not only covering my little plate but on the placemat and a few on my lap and the floor. As you might expect everyone else’s plate looked clean. Not sure how they manage that as the croissants start to flake just when you touch them. Whatever.

We buy some sandwiches and go for a hike from the Manor, hit the coast and see all the oyster beds. They have these 2x3 foot metal cage kind of thing that sits on a stand and have all the oysters in the cage. There were rows and rows of then in the tidelands. There’s so much tideland at low tide so the area is great for oysters, mussels, clams. We nap, read and wash clothes in the afternoon. The sun finally comes out. But we’re in weather so much each day, we’re loving just being in the room. We find a restaurant about 3KMs away for dinner, and we have to ride to it as we’re starving. Three walking hill along the way. No skills. But the place is great. It’s a tiny place, 5 tables inside, beach and port across the street. We eat twice as much as the French folks in the restaurant. The have maybe 12 oysters and some wine. Or a bowl of Moules with Frites. They don’t eat much of the bread offered. I have 6 oysters as an app, then we each have a meal (salmon wrapped in bacon with beurre blanc for me and April has mussels and spinach casserole), and we order a side of frites, and we got thru two baskets of bread, a carafe of wine, and two desserts. April finally realizes what that chocolate thing we got early on in the trip is and gets it here. It’s called Fondant du Chocolate. Nice!!!! Finally full again. Plus no one drinks much water and we drink two carafes. We’re like the barbarian hordes marauding (or at least eating) thru Brittany. We walk/ride back to the Manor and hit the sack. Life’s good.

Oh yes a few more notes: this town was founded in the 6th century by Crescant, a Breton immigrant leader. The village used to live off agriculture and fishing. Now it’s oysters and tourism, plus they still farm.

And as we headed for the restaurant and were lost, we talked with an old buck who gave us directions, then as we chatted him up he told us to make sure we visited the Isle de Brehat, as it was beautiful and great for romance. Ha-ha.

Which reminds me, and I can’t remember if I mentioned this earlier: at one of our B+Bs, as were chatting up an older biking couple and the owner, she asked why we bring our bikes instead of renting, and I said your bike is maybe more important than your wife as you’re riding on it many hours each day! The old guy agreed with me and we had a good laugh. The wives didn’t seem to find it that amusing though.