Yesterday we rode from St. Quai Portrieux to Erquy, a distance of 42.5 miles with elevation gain of 2,550 ft. The route navigated us around St. Brieux, giving us a brief look at an auto-route packed with speeding cars! Wow…we have not seen anything like that since we came! The route we are following is made of mostly tiny roads and paths. We are passed by maybe 50 cars a day. I guess we are getting used to that..
This morning, Chris woke up what felt like a sinus infection. Darn! But she felt better with a cup of tea and thoughts of attempting to change the next weeks reservations faded. It’s more of an issue on a bike tour, since there’s no way for one person to drive while the other sleeps in the back seat. Hopefully the infection will go away by itself aided by some salt water irrigation.
Both Chris and I have remarked about the amazing flowers we see everywhere. In Colorado the weather is so harsh that nurturing plants is fraught with constant challenges, including late snows and freezing temperatures, extreme heat, drought, insect pests like Japanese beetles, mid-summer hail and 100-mile per hour winds, to name a few. Here, the weather seems like a plant paradise. Below are just some of todays plants.
Today’s route followed the pattern of ridiculously charming and uncrowded small roads and paths, sometimes routing us over old railroad or aqueduct bridges to smooth our way. We see quite a few bike tourists, more than on any previous trip. We chat with a few, and they are all on an interesting voyage.
One thing that has surprised me about this route is how many gravel paths and small roads exist here. After multiple tours in France, I had come to the conclusion that basically all roads were paved in France, no matter how small. This route stands that conception in its ear. Today a sizable fraction of our route was on gravel or dirt, all in good condition and easily ridden on Chris’ 32mm tires.
Leave a Reply