The first few days of bike touring are always a bit of confusion….figuring out which pannier to put what and getting comfortable with the loaded bike again. You haven’t hit your rhythm yet. And so we didn’t do anything too dramatic in terms of distance for Day 1, only 22 miles to a campground just past Roscoff where we had started our last trip that ended in Bratislava. The campground was so-so in Roscoff, and it drizzled most of the time we were there so we just heated up a can of cassoulet for dinner, accompanied by canned Brussels sprouts and some nice rustic rye bread.
On the way out of Morlaix, we stopped at the outdoor superstore Decathlon and bought some clothes, some fuel for the stove (can’t bring canned fuel on a plane) and a few other things before proceeding towards Roscoff.
It inevitable that we compare our last trip, just 13 months ago, with this one. The corn is higher in July than June, and the temperatures are about the same. This year we will probably get more rain, and more wind. But it’s important to remember that we are are heading west instead of east and the winds are mostly westerly. You don’t notice tailwinds as much as headwinds! We’re in the département of France called Finistere, meaning End of the Earth.
We remembered some of the route from Morlaix to Roscoff and certainly remembered places we ate, shopped and stayed while there. Lots of tourists but overall a lovely town.
We stayed in a campground just past Roscoff, which was kind of run down but it didn’t matter that much since it as raining anyway. We ate a can of cassoulet, drank a bottle of nice wine and some accompaniments, and went to sleep. As is typical, we slept really well in our tent.
The next day was beautiful…mostly sunny with some low clouds, enough to keep it cool for riding. The landscape mixed with seascape was lovely. In some places we’ve been, you know you are close to the ocean but you can’t see it, but the route we took gave us lots of lovely views of the sea.
In the next couple days we’ll be in Brest, but we need to get through a few rainy days.
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