Day 12 - Louscet ser Mer 51 kms - " And Then The Sun"!

There was a pretty good chance that Henley with his roof top alcove accommodation with steep spiral staircase accessory might have succeeded in breaking multiple bones with a midnight journey to the ground floor toilet unless he came up with an alternate plan. With this in mind he decided to make good use of a large Apple juice bottle by starting his own personal refinery !

Call it good timing, fate, serendipity or just plain luck, H had just walked down stairs to empty his overflowing Apple Juice bottle in the morning when there was a knock on the door. Opening it he found a girl from the nearby hotel with our breakfast hamper that included believe it or not a large bottle of Apple Juice.

How H would have explained to her what he was doing with his own bottle if he'd not just emptied it is beyond me - as it was when it came to breakfast Harro was still unconvinced that the bottle supplied for breakfast actually contained real Apple juice and not Henley's ...

With yesterdays washout and only 50kms to do for the day, we took the opportunity to take a morning walk through this lovely 15th C town (Dinan) with its cobble stoned roads and numerous half timbered houses highlighting its previous wealth.

There's no doubt though that any invaders would have given up thoughts of taking the town as the streets from the port to the towns centre are just too bloody steep !

Dinans Port

Magic Dinan ! 

As a result it was a late start near midday as we left Dinan almost straightaway floundering somewhere near the towns Abbey unable to work out where our towpath cycle route had got to.

Using some outstanding detective work (i.e. Looking around the corner) we found what we were after, described by our Warby Ghost Riding cycling friends recently as one of the loveliest trails they'd ever cycled on !

Leaving Dinan ,,, eventually! 

They were not wrong. The path took us right alongside the Rance River past numerous locks to the town of Evran a sleepy (what isn't in France) village with just enough life to attract a boulangerie and a cafe. Sitting out in the warm sun was delightful for everyone except poor Harro who's currently on baguette replacement therapy after complaining that he felt that he was turning into pastry himself !

The lovely Rance River Canal !

Finally our lead Navigator Rick cracked the whip, or his 7 day old socks (it was hard to tell the difference), and we were back on the trail after a short section on road.

All went well until we came off the rail trail on to the road again. Our rail train sign said Medreac 6kms left, Ricks map said Medreac 3 kms right, Noels Map said Medreac 35 kms with a U turn 10 kms back.

Asking for further opinions Viv stuck a wet finger in the air, Harro said just go North while H overwhelmed by all of this just simply shrugged his shoulders and said stuffed if I know !

Taking Ricks suggestion we powered into Medreac sadly not having enough time to visit their Velo (cycle) powered rail cars ! Our objectives were now clear, find the nearest supermarket to our accommodation, cycle with heavily overladen bikes then find our accommodation in Louscet sur Mer.

That's just what we did and what a delightful find our accommodation was with our lovely host taking us in like family and showing us our lovely 3 bedded house with great facilities and much to the annoyance of Henley, a spare double bed that was quickly snapped up by Noel according to H after he crossed ministerial lines !

What a beautiful days ride and what lovely scenery - this is cycling at its best !

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