Saturday 19th May St Malo (1) to Mauron (2)
55 miles 5hrs 10m riding time Average speed: 10.7 mph
The ferry docked in St Malo at 08.15 on a gloriously sunny morning. I set off excitedly to seek out the small bac (ferry) a few hundred metres away which sailed from directly below the towering granite ramparts of the citadel of old St Malo town. It was a tiny converted fishing boat and surprisingly, for the first sailing of the day, it was nearly full. My plan was to cross the wide estuary of the River Rance to Dinard on the western bank and pick up a voie verte (ex-railway line converted to a cycle path) south to a town somewhat confusingly called Dinan. The approach to the tiny little harbour was lovely. Dinard looked to be preserved in aspic from the late 1800s with numerous elegant individually styled villas and hotels climbing vertically from the water’s edge up the cliff. I really wish I’d taken some photographs but I was far too busy trying to manhandle my bike and luggage around the deck to disembark as the boat bobbed up and down in the swell at the quay. I felt my trip really started here.
I rode up the hill into Dinard to search for the voie verte, which was very well hidden. Eventually I was directed to it by a couple of helpful French cyclists. The voie verte’s surface was hard packed earth and gravel and progress was steady, if a little dull to begin with as I was riding in a corridor of greenery with very little to be seen through the trackside bushes and trees. After about 15 miles the trail ended and a few short tarmac lanes dropped me back down to a pretty riverside pathway along the river Rance, then on to Port Dinan where I delayed in a bar for a coffee in the shadow of the viaduct. There was a sharp climb from the river up to the main town of Dinan … where I promptly got lost. I had trusted my GPS (who for reasons far too obscure to go into here I shall refer to as Jane) but Jane had sent me back down another road to the same river. Jane is programmed to take motor vehicles on either the fastest or shortest route to a given destination, which is fine if you have an engine: I don’t. She takes no account of busy roads or gradients that may trouble a cyclist. Suffice to say I went the long way around and added over 7 miles to my intended route. From now on I’ll spend a bit more time manually plotting my exact route into Jane along the roads I want. This afternoon’s roads were typically French quiet lanes through the beautiful rolling Breton countryside. Incidentally, I found out that the densely forested areas around here are known as the Broceliande and are steeped in the Celtic legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
Mauron is my destination for today and is a quiet little town built of the local grey stone, as is the Hotel-Restaurant Brambily which is a pleasant enough place to stay at. Tonight, I craved pizza and ate in a bustling little pizza restaurant tucked away in a side street off the town square. I’m settling in quite nicely again to the routine of writing up my day’s journal each evening at the restaurant table. I’m planning to have an early night tonight; last night’s disturbed sleep coupled with a long day in the saddle and a full stomach has left me very sleepy. I hope the handful of moped Grand Prix riders currently screaming around the town sounding like giant angry wasps in a tin-can get the chequered flag before I get to bed. They’re riding little two- stroke 50cc Motobecane mopeds with loud expansion exhausts. They ride in typical French teenager style with their feet comically high up on the footrests so that their knees are tucked up under their chin. Crash helmets, although full face, are worn perched on top of the head like a party hat – they’ll learn. The hard way probably.
