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Now retired but busy still living..

Thursday 9 June 2011

FRANCE - DAY 4 & 5

ON ROUTE ON DAY 4
After two nights at Coutances it was time to move on.
Target for day four was a small town on the coast called Genets.  We planned to pick up the coastal route and head down toward Granville and then on to our days destination.
With a mix of both map and GPS we managed to get out on to the correct route fairly easily and it wasn't long before we started to get glimpses of the coast. Weather wise it was another beautiful day.
As with any coastal route there were quite a few ups as well as downs. Chris is not too keen on hills and on some of the stiffer climbs she has to get off and walk, we would normally wait for her at the top.
Unfortunately Chris is not too keen on the downhills either, using her brakes for most of the descent. I usually tried to get in front of her for the downhill sections as I hate riding on the brakes.
Towards the latter part of the day's ride we had some great views of Mont St Michel away in the distance...


THE BISTRO GARDEN

CAMPSITE AT GENETS
At Genets we quickly found the campsite and booked in at the reception.
Chris might be slow going up and down hills but she did a cracking job as 'communications officer' managing to ensure that what we wanted was what we actually got....She tells us that her French speaking is a bit rusty but it seemed pretty good to the rest of us.
That evening Chris was back in action at a small Bistro in the town where we had chosen to have our meal. The garden of the Bistro was so 'bohemian' with some really weird items dotted around. Unfortunately the evening was a little chilly so we decided to go inside for our meal which was served in what appeared to be old baked bean cans....so odd but oh so French..!!
VERY HOT ON DAY FIVE
 The morning of day five started a bit cloudy but the day turned into a very hot day.
We were heading for a campsite about four miles from Mont St Michel and the route meant negotiating a lot of minor roads around the river estuary near Avranches.
After only about an hour Mike decided that he would have to cover his legs from the sun....he had got sunburnt on the top of his legs just above his knees the day before. We stopped and while Mike was donning his cycling tights the rest of us were putting on another coating of high factor sunscreen.
MIKE COVERING UP HIS LEGS
 The route for most of the day was quite flat with no 'nasty' hills so Chris was well pleased with today's cycling.
We found a little cafe for lunch which consisted of a ham sandwich followed by coffee. The French call it a sandwich but it is actually a huge french bread roll about 18" long....and the bread is really tasty..!
At about 1600hrs we pulled into the campsite.. We were planning on staying here for two nights as we wanted to spend a day looking around the Mont.
The receptionist at the campsite was really helpful giving us advice about a cycle route that we could take to the Mont and information on tides and viewing times.
WELL I'LL SOON BURN IT OFF ON THE BIKE..!!

CAMPSITE PITCH NEAR MONT ST MICHEL
 That evening we had a look around and found a reasonable place to eat and then we decided that we would walk a couple of miles up the cycle route to get a bit of a closer view of the Mont.
The campsite receptionist had told us that Mont St Michel would be lit up at about 2200hrs and we all wanted to get a good view of it before our proper visit the next day.
2200HRS - MONT ST MICHEL LIT UP
It proved to be well worth the walk and lots of other people were out to get a good view...After taking some pictures and taking in the view for about half an hour we made our way back to the campsite.....

TO BE CONTINUED......

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are having a great trip! Super looking dessert... I was looking at the photo at the Bistro Garden and was wondering why that tennis racket was hanging amongst the ivy. Now I know why - its just is because its a Bohemian kinda place!

GreenComotion said...

Trevor,
I love the picture of the ice-cream and the Mont.

Does your GPS have street level maps for all of UK and France? My Garmin has only US Streets.

Can't wait to read the rest of the stories!

Peace :)

John Romeo Alpha said...

I'm following your trip reports and feeling quite jealous. Sunburn on the tops of the legs is no good, I know from experience.

Melody Fox (aka the Princess of Rock) said...

hi there Trevor! how are you? biking away on the French side and having fun...Great!

Delicious food I see too! yummy yummy...

Incredible that I just stepped in to say hi (I also need your help on something with Google and have been waiting for you to *get back*), and I saw this beautiful vision of Mount Michel! Please tell me more about it...You know why? One of my chat friends, in a Forum, has written about this Mount, this evening and she posted a picture too. May I use your picture please on that Forum? I was going to tell her that I have a friend (you) who was just there today...ESP, it works all the time with me...(;o)*

You didn't go with your bike there, right? cause I don't think you can (people in general), or can you?

What a dainty scene!

hugs and smiles from across the roaming miles,
Melody Fox (aka the Princess of Rock)

Love Peace Music (always and forever...)

Gail Is This Mutton? said...

Chris sounds like a woman after my own heart. On our one cycling holiday (which I've just blogged about), I was a terrible wuss about going too fast downhill. And the struggle going up the hill was just as bad.

TrevorW�� said...

Thanks everyone for all your comments....

Chandra*
My Garmin has street level mapping for all of UK & Europe.

Six weeks off.

 The visit to see the Consultant went quite well really ...   My ' numbers' have started to creep up again so I am going to be given...