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......