Our final ride. And wouldn’t you know it, there’s a Voies Verte between Dinan and St Malo.
We had to walk our bikes out of Dinan as the cobbled lane was so steep and precarious. Especially bad with cleats on. But we made it down to the port. It’s a port town because of the river Rance which goes all the way out to the coast at St Malo. As we started our ride, April somehow got it in her head that she could take a boat down the river, but luckily that thought seemed to float away.
Exquisite morning riding along the river. Not much development right outside of Dinan. Just us and the river. One could easily imagine Robin Hood jumping out of the trees at any moment.
But it didn’t last, after a few miles the VV curved inland to follow the old train tracks. Even for me, a confirmed VV heretic, the route was rich and rewarding. Rolling countryside. Farms and fields. Tiny towns. The abandoned railways stations. The VV was in good shape, a harder surface than the previous VV so we rolled along at a pretty good clip. As we were headed to the coast it was more downhill than uphill.
We were heading for Dinard which was west of St Malo. The two towns are linked by a bridge across the bay created from the river Vance and the ocean. The guidebooks suggested taking the 10 minute ferry ride across rather than crossing the busy bridge. Dinard was supposed to a be sophisticated Brit vacation spot.
Sure enough Dinard was over the top. Those Brit aristocrats sure weren’t afraid of worrying “how the poor people were doing today“. There’s the most amazing collection of stone manors along the coast that we had ever seen. Clearly each owner/structure aimed to outdo its neighbor. Fantastic turrets, domes, arches, tile work, gorgeous slate patterns. Really magnificent. Monster houses, 4-5 stories high, all with huge windows looking out to the sea. Incredibly steep roof lines to give them even more height. This all happened in the late 1800s and Dinard became known as the Nice of the North.
April declared a deep, intimate relationship with the area immediately. She felt she had been there before. It was in her blood. Ahh these anglophiles; good thing there’s some strong Greek peasant blood added to the mix.
We checked out the beach, I suggested a café for lunch, April didn’t like it so we pressed on. Near the main beach April suggested a Brit looking type of place. I rode past it, she stopped, I came back and read the menu and vetoed it cause the food looked terrible and no ambience/view. So now we’re both put out, thinking the other vetoed our personal choices. But since I had vetoed last I was at a slight strategic disadvantage. Her veto seems to have been forgotten, the pressure was now on me to make sure we hit a good café and soon. (Yes unfortunately after 3 weeks on the road 24/7, this behavior seems normal). We ride a few blocks, nothing, I’m starting to sweat a little now, then we turn down the road to the harbor, voila!, a delightful little café, beautiful view out to the harbor, an outside table opens up as we pull in! Turns out the food is superb, April has a nice baked cod dish, I have the special - fried red mullet? Some nice wine, warm sun, we linger over tea. We’re the last ones to leave. Better to be lucky than good!
We catch the ferry after a 10 minute wait. Hit St Malo. And it seems PACKED! There’s an old walled city, We’re wandering around with our bikes. Both uncomfortable as there are too many people. We exit to find the Tourist Info place. We find that our hotel is away from the old city. Hmm. But we end up in a purely local’s beach, great little hotel. Sea view. Clean. 3 fantastic locals seafood restaurants within 2 blocks. We hit the jackpot here. Shower. A late afternoon beer in the smokey café. Then a nice seafood dinner. Then hit the sack. Great day. We’re loving this location in St Malo.
BTW - I got another showing of April’s bug bites at the end of the day.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Dinan
Today and tomorrow are really short rides (15-20 miles) as we had to arrange our schedule around the available hotels in Dinan and St Malo, two of the most interesting and thus crowded towns we’ll hit.
Dinan is the best preserved medieval town in Brittany. In the 9th century some monks settled on a hill on the banks of the Rance river. The first Breton king, Nominoe, promised them some land and certain priveleges if they founded a monastery there which would include the remains of some saint. Any saint? Who knows. So these enterprising monks snuck over to an island named Sercq, stole the freaking remains of Saint Magloire, showed up with their prize possession and got their land, thus the region first became settled. What a bunch of wanksters. Perhaps the ten commandments hadn’t reached the shores of Breton by that time.
Anyway the town started to grow. In 1065 William the Conqueror had some skirmish here and torched the defensive wooden enclosures; this event is captured on some Bayeux tapestry. History on tapestry!
In the 12th century the Arab geographer, Idrisi, reported the town was an important trading center and it was now enclosed by stone walls.
In 1283, they added ramparts and the town played a more significant military role. The wall continued to get built for the next 300 years, and reached 2650 meters in length.
In 1488 the French troops defeated the Bretons, but not before the Bretons managed to demolish their church so the French couldn’t use it. That’ll show ‘em. The church was later rebuilt inside the Wall.
A whole bunch of inter-royal marriages occurred in the 1500s and thus ensured that Brittany would become part of France. Voila.
Back to present day…..
After an easy morning ride we got to Dinan and rode around until we found our hotel. It looked empty, April pulled on the doors but they seemed locked, so we went for lunch. We ate at an Italian place for lunch (pizza, lasagna) then tried the hotel again, around 2:30. Still locked but it looked like there was a guy in there. Sure he came to the door and just pulled it inwards and it opened. No skills! It was always opened but the doors pushed in, not pulled out. Feeling slightly sheepish, yet thrilled it was opened, we checked in. Great room, especially in comparison to the box from last night. The Tiger was happy - so I was happy. Will nothing ever change?
Showered, chilled then went for a late afternoon walk. The town was fantastic. Old half-timbered houses everywhere. Great little alleyways. Lots of galleries and restaurants. All cobbled streets. We went to look at the church but had to run out because I had to crap. Ran out and found a public toilet within a minute or so. We’re really getting good at scoping them out, know just where they’ll be. As usual I was much more pleased by being inside of a bathroom rather than a church.
Then we found a perfect café and sat for tea/coffee while watching the world go by. Lots of tourists here. Too many for us. We used to being off the beaten path. This was the most crowded place of the trip so far. It started to drizzle, but we were under an umbrella, the streets cleared and we felt wonderfully isolated, strangely surreal because of the architecture, yet happy and settled.
Stopped at a Moules place for dinner. They had about 20 different moules variations. I had Moules Curry and it was 800gr and served in a cast-iron pot so it stayed hot the entire time. That’s critical. April had an omelette/frites. Then we hit he sack in our nice, clean, quiet room. But not before April told me once again the room the previous day was a rip-off. In fact she showed me her flea bites from the previous night.
Dinan is the best preserved medieval town in Brittany. In the 9th century some monks settled on a hill on the banks of the Rance river. The first Breton king, Nominoe, promised them some land and certain priveleges if they founded a monastery there which would include the remains of some saint. Any saint? Who knows. So these enterprising monks snuck over to an island named Sercq, stole the freaking remains of Saint Magloire, showed up with their prize possession and got their land, thus the region first became settled. What a bunch of wanksters. Perhaps the ten commandments hadn’t reached the shores of Breton by that time.
Anyway the town started to grow. In 1065 William the Conqueror had some skirmish here and torched the defensive wooden enclosures; this event is captured on some Bayeux tapestry. History on tapestry!
In the 12th century the Arab geographer, Idrisi, reported the town was an important trading center and it was now enclosed by stone walls.
In 1283, they added ramparts and the town played a more significant military role. The wall continued to get built for the next 300 years, and reached 2650 meters in length.
In 1488 the French troops defeated the Bretons, but not before the Bretons managed to demolish their church so the French couldn’t use it. That’ll show ‘em. The church was later rebuilt inside the Wall.
A whole bunch of inter-royal marriages occurred in the 1500s and thus ensured that Brittany would become part of France. Voila.
Back to present day…..
After an easy morning ride we got to Dinan and rode around until we found our hotel. It looked empty, April pulled on the doors but they seemed locked, so we went for lunch. We ate at an Italian place for lunch (pizza, lasagna) then tried the hotel again, around 2:30. Still locked but it looked like there was a guy in there. Sure he came to the door and just pulled it inwards and it opened. No skills! It was always opened but the doors pushed in, not pulled out. Feeling slightly sheepish, yet thrilled it was opened, we checked in. Great room, especially in comparison to the box from last night. The Tiger was happy - so I was happy. Will nothing ever change?
Showered, chilled then went for a late afternoon walk. The town was fantastic. Old half-timbered houses everywhere. Great little alleyways. Lots of galleries and restaurants. All cobbled streets. We went to look at the church but had to run out because I had to crap. Ran out and found a public toilet within a minute or so. We’re really getting good at scoping them out, know just where they’ll be. As usual I was much more pleased by being inside of a bathroom rather than a church.
Then we found a perfect café and sat for tea/coffee while watching the world go by. Lots of tourists here. Too many for us. We used to being off the beaten path. This was the most crowded place of the trip so far. It started to drizzle, but we were under an umbrella, the streets cleared and we felt wonderfully isolated, strangely surreal because of the architecture, yet happy and settled.
Stopped at a Moules place for dinner. They had about 20 different moules variations. I had Moules Curry and it was 800gr and served in a cast-iron pot so it stayed hot the entire time. That’s critical. April had an omelette/frites. Then we hit he sack in our nice, clean, quiet room. But not before April told me once again the room the previous day was a rip-off. In fact she showed me her flea bites from the previous night.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
The Tiger and the Shitty Hotel...
Awoke to rain. This was more than our previous mists; real rain. But it stopped as we ate bfast, and just threatened for the rest of the day. We had a very short day planned because we ran into hotel booking troubles. It’s now the beginning of the French Holidays, much of France takes all of August off and goes on vacation. We called a ton of places yesterday via skype but couldn’t find a room in Dinan as it was Saturday night. We did have a room in Dinan for Sunday nite. We finally found a nite in a larger hotel in Plancoet which is about 20Km from Dinan. Dinan is supposed to be one of the best preserved medieval towns in Brittany.
As you can imagine April wasn’t too happy with the prospect of a nondescript larger hotel in some no name town.
Nice country ride again. We’re heading inland, so it was all rolling farmland. Looks a little like the farms/fields of eastern Pennsylvania (Valley Forge et al). As usual huge hedgerows along almost all roads. They love the freaking hedgerows here. I don’t get it. They build up at least a 3 foot hedgerow along the roads. A pretty good one is 5-6 feet, and we’ve seen some monster 10+ footers with all sorts of old tress and roots on them. And some of the roads are even sunken. The field are 3-4 feet above the road. April read something about these sunken roads, but now we can’t find that info.
Btw - We’ve seen all sorts of crops on our ride: corn, wheat, oats, hay, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, cabbages, cauliflower, zucchini, artichokes, peas, peppers. And the farms are very intermingled with the villages. Lots of birds, I think it’s the dove’s that are constantly calling a 6-note song.
Ride was easy, we’re powering up the gradual slopes in a fairly high gear. Two old guys passed us on racing bikes as we were studying the maps, and we almost caught them on the up hill. It’s usually been old guys who are out on the road bikes. A few young guys, but 80% old bucks.
We get to Plancoet and find our hotel and April freaks. It looks shitty, the guy shows us our room, it’s even shittier. Truth is it’s a square, simple room with no character, but large, almost clean and quiet. I give April a lecture on craving and aversions. She goes to look around and I unpack and shower knowing that if I don’t she’ll try to change the room and maybe even the hotel. She comes back pissed that I had moved in. Ha-ha. Ah the games people play.
We walked around town, hit a great Brasserie for lunch. Nothing fancy but the best moules of the trip so far. Not much in this town. Visited a very large antique/junk shop. Then went back to the room to nap. Unfortunately we napped almost to dinner. On these biking trips the body does get tired and worn down so we can usually nap anytime/anywhere.
We had dinner in our hotel because the demi-pension was a good price. But dinner sucked, I had to eat both plates (fish and chicken). Then we hit the sack again. Read and then because we had napped so long and late April couldn’t sleep. And she tossed and turned so much she kept waking me up. Then she read with the headlamp, awfully bright. Then she complained about the window arrangement. Then in the mroning she claimed she got bug bites. Then she complained about bfast price for what we got. Then she declared this wasn’t a three star hotel. I knew I was bad when I complained about the Voies Verte but this was truly world class sniping.
Morale of the story. Let the Tiger pick the hotel and the room!
Now here’s the kicker. We’re staying in this shitbox because it was all we could find at a reasonable price. Then we get a mail from Ethan who blew a wad of cash to fly over from London to Amsterdam for the weekend with his cousin POC.
In his own words, making a guest appearance in this Blog, Ethan....
“ i got upgraded to business class for the flight and then we got upgraded at the hotel from a deluxe room to "the super deluxe sweet". this place is insane, the ceilings are about 25 feet high and everything is designed for rest&relaxation, we are in heaven. they have these huge windows (15-20 feet high) that have a remote control curtain. we just both rolled out of our plush beds and hit the remote to bring in the sun, classic, couple of wangstas livin it up. yesterday we walked around a bunch and hit the spa, we were pretty tired but feel alot better today and are ready to crush out sights. the spa was pretty awesome, nice pool with a "starry sky" over it, 3 different saunas, steam room, hot tub, lounge chairs and a nice rain shower - talk about the ultimate leisure trip. we ate at a decent spanish tapas place and didnt stay out too late, tonight we'll probably go to some bars. having a blast, and free wireless at the hotel!”
As you can imagine April wasn’t too happy with the prospect of a nondescript larger hotel in some no name town.
Nice country ride again. We’re heading inland, so it was all rolling farmland. Looks a little like the farms/fields of eastern Pennsylvania (Valley Forge et al). As usual huge hedgerows along almost all roads. They love the freaking hedgerows here. I don’t get it. They build up at least a 3 foot hedgerow along the roads. A pretty good one is 5-6 feet, and we’ve seen some monster 10+ footers with all sorts of old tress and roots on them. And some of the roads are even sunken. The field are 3-4 feet above the road. April read something about these sunken roads, but now we can’t find that info.
Btw - We’ve seen all sorts of crops on our ride: corn, wheat, oats, hay, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, cabbages, cauliflower, zucchini, artichokes, peas, peppers. And the farms are very intermingled with the villages. Lots of birds, I think it’s the dove’s that are constantly calling a 6-note song.
Ride was easy, we’re powering up the gradual slopes in a fairly high gear. Two old guys passed us on racing bikes as we were studying the maps, and we almost caught them on the up hill. It’s usually been old guys who are out on the road bikes. A few young guys, but 80% old bucks.
We get to Plancoet and find our hotel and April freaks. It looks shitty, the guy shows us our room, it’s even shittier. Truth is it’s a square, simple room with no character, but large, almost clean and quiet. I give April a lecture on craving and aversions. She goes to look around and I unpack and shower knowing that if I don’t she’ll try to change the room and maybe even the hotel. She comes back pissed that I had moved in. Ha-ha. Ah the games people play.
We walked around town, hit a great Brasserie for lunch. Nothing fancy but the best moules of the trip so far. Not much in this town. Visited a very large antique/junk shop. Then went back to the room to nap. Unfortunately we napped almost to dinner. On these biking trips the body does get tired and worn down so we can usually nap anytime/anywhere.
We had dinner in our hotel because the demi-pension was a good price. But dinner sucked, I had to eat both plates (fish and chicken). Then we hit the sack again. Read and then because we had napped so long and late April couldn’t sleep. And she tossed and turned so much she kept waking me up. Then she read with the headlamp, awfully bright. Then she complained about the window arrangement. Then in the mroning she claimed she got bug bites. Then she complained about bfast price for what we got. Then she declared this wasn’t a three star hotel. I knew I was bad when I complained about the Voies Verte but this was truly world class sniping.
Morale of the story. Let the Tiger pick the hotel and the room!
Now here’s the kicker. We’re staying in this shitbox because it was all we could find at a reasonable price. Then we get a mail from Ethan who blew a wad of cash to fly over from London to Amsterdam for the weekend with his cousin POC.
In his own words, making a guest appearance in this Blog, Ethan....
“ i got upgraded to business class for the flight and then we got upgraded at the hotel from a deluxe room to "the super deluxe sweet". this place is insane, the ceilings are about 25 feet high and everything is designed for rest&relaxation, we are in heaven. they have these huge windows (15-20 feet high) that have a remote control curtain. we just both rolled out of our plush beds and hit the remote to bring in the sun, classic, couple of wangstas livin it up. yesterday we walked around a bunch and hit the spa, we were pretty tired but feel alot better today and are ready to crush out sights. the spa was pretty awesome, nice pool with a "starry sky" over it, 3 different saunas, steam room, hot tub, lounge chairs and a nice rain shower - talk about the ultimate leisure trip. we ate at a decent spanish tapas place and didnt stay out too late, tonight we'll probably go to some bars. having a blast, and free wireless at the hotel!”
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