According to the birdโs eye view of Morlaix in the image below, thatโs the motto of the town. Original, no? Itโs been a hot day so far, despite Brittany being the cold corner of the map of France on last nightโs TV forecast. I’ve returned to the hotel for a siestaโฆ Iโll head back out soon for anothercwander. Thereโs a festival of all things Breton taking place in Place Allende this afternoon so Iโll perhaps update this later. In the meantime, note that episode 055 of The Cycling Europe Podcast was published this morning – part 4 of my โGrand Tourโ series – so if you have 55 minutes to spaceโฆ All the links can be found by navigating over to the podcast page of the website.
Finally writing this upโฆ Not many will read this (as the post was published last night without any text) but it will, at least, be an aide-memoire when I later use these notes to write a book. In a way the โMercedes afternoonโ I had experienced on the previous day continued until the following morning. Yes, it was a cheap, municipal campsite but it was packed to the rafters with screaming children. One particular specimen gets his / her starring role in episode 055 of The Cycling Europe Podcast which has now been published.
The omens were not good at 8am. The campsite at Saint-Quay certainly lived up to its name by having a โbelle vueโ. Indeed my pitch – as with many others – was facing north-east and if there were no clouds, we were in for a cracking sunrise. I happened to be awake at 5am so I clamped the GoPro to its tripod and set in motion a time lapse video. Alas it was cloudy and the resulting video merely showed black clouds become grey ones. Nothing too spectacular there. However, by 8am the sun had risen and was beginning to poke through the clouds. Perhaps an opportunity to get the drone in action to capture the magic. And it did. You can see that shot at the start of todayโs video.
A shorter day – just 50km – but it helps me out when it comes to getting to Morlaix by the end of Saturday. Where I am now – a place called Saint-Quay – is about half way between Mont-Saint-Michel and Morlaix and this makes the two planned long days of cycling to Morlaix a bit shorter and hence more manageable. My average has now dipped below 80km per day but Iโm sure that will be rectified as I speed along the flat(ish) lands of the Velodyssรฉe next week.
You are not reading this on Wednesday 20th as, yesterday evening, my 25GB of data ran out. I was expecting this to happen at some point and also expected to be able to easily purchase more data. But thatโs when it got problematic. A phone call to Vodafone is on the cards when their call centre opens on Thursday morning. I suppose if all else fails I can buy a French SIM card. Thereโs also the matter of me having had to change my mobile number (could that be complicating things?) but that sorry tale is for another day (and probably another websiteโฆ)
If I wanted variety after having cycled along the seemingly endless disused railway tracks of the Veloscenie, I certainly got variety today after my day of rest / escape from the heat. The cycling was varied, the landscape was varied, the weather was variedโฆ
Last night on the campsite there were at least seven cyclists and another four walkers in the cycling-walking section. All except me have now left and I have been joined, so far, by just two cyclists. It will be interesting to see if people are, like me, staying put for the day and not travelling in light of the extreme temperature. That said, it clearly didnโt dissuade any of my fellow campers last night. Perhaps it was something I saidโฆ
If cycling along disused railways for fun (and why else would you do it?), then the Veloscenie is for you. Prior to embarking upon my Chartres to Mont-Saint -Michel section of the route (which is about 80%) Iโd read that the Veloscenie connected the capital with the north coast by linking up defunct railway lines but I wasnโt expecting them to be such a dominant part of the route. It must be at least two-thirds of the total length and, in temperatures such as those provoked by this current heatwave, you couldnโt wish for a better place to cycle, the sun been screened for much of the time by the surrounding vegetation.
