Normandy et Brittany

Normandy and Brittany
Well a rainy day in Pontivy, central Brittany, and free internet access gives me time to update this blog. Up to now the weather has been great for the past couple of weeks, in fact ever since leaving Ireland a month ago!

Started on the beaches of Normandy visiting the sites and cemeteries of the DDay landing, and looking over the geography fought for those days 60 years ago. There are still mant who visit these sites, and I've talked to Brits, Americans and Canadians, many with personal stories to draw them here on 'pilgrimage'. Remarkably the artificial harbour, Port Winston, created by the allies at Arromanches, is still quite visible and obvious, on a rather bland shoreline, that only begins to rise more distinctly from the sea further west on the 'American' beaches of Omaha and Utah.

Rode into Bayeux for the day to see the famous tapestry and check out the cathedral. This town was captured so quickly after DDay that it survived intact, unlike Caen, St Malo and Brest that were largely reduced to rubble. Similarly Portsmouth, Plymouth and other s. Eng cities suffered the same pounding during the war, and then suffered from post war architectural reneawal!!

I've discovered that rural France largely wraps up and goes to sleep on Sundays! Last Sunday I arrived in St. Lo, a decent sized town, and you could have shelled the city centre without fear of hurting anyone! Then in the next town that I was considering a spot in, the hotel was actually closed on sundays! Which caused me inadvertantly to ride over 100km that day, but also taught me to beware of Sundays in rural France. Yesterday, Sunday, I stayed put in Pontivy and had a lovely ride along the towpath of the Nantes-Brest canal - lesson learned!

I have to admit I do like the sidewalk cafe scene. Its a ritual each day to sit down with a cqfe au lait and update journal while watching France go by. It also seems that many French make time for this acitivity too, sans journal. the coffee is good and the patisseries are tres bon aussi!

Other sites along the way have been the famous abbey of Mt St Michel, around which the tidal waters rise each day, almost cutting it off from the mainland but for the recently installed causeway (1870 recently that is)
It rises dramatically from the flatness of the bay and is visible for miles along the coast. It's also a hive of tourist activity, even in Sept, so although I was glad to visit, I was relieved to get away to the relative quiet of Dol de Bretagne, an equally impressive ancient site not far away. The old city of Rennes is not far from here by train, also worth a visit for the older medieval quarters since extant, a really good museum, a food market, and all this while my broken spoke is being fixed back in Dol by Romè Cycle.
(Sorry there are no photos to accompany this entry - that will have to wait until another day and another place)

Visited St Malo, the port from which Jacques Cartier sailed to Canada. While his star fell dramatically when all he returned with was 'fools gold', he's still a hero in his home town. The old city of St Malo was completely rebuild after the war to the same plan as its ruined original. But it lost something in the process, and I found it a bit sterile compared to other towns in the region which still house the original buildings eg Rennes, Moncouture, Dinan, Lamballe.

The other thing that may have clouded the experience in St Malo was hostelling again! A night in the company of 3 other peers who displayed prodigious snoring and farting capacity (not me! mon dieu!) I survived the night but only after poking and prodding my bedfellows into temporary periods of quiet!

I have come across Leffe beer on tap here in France - abbey brewed beer from Belgium - magnifique, highly recommended. Ive been sipping these and also watching some of the Coupe de monde du rugby thats going on here, although the French lost their opening game which caused a national funk as expectant hosts.

Well, I think its time to sign off as I have taken up a lot of time on this free terminal.
Bon chance and see you soon.
Henri