There is nothing more quintessentially French than cycling along beautiful (deserted) country lanes past inquisitive cattle taking in the smell of freshly "brewed" manure while trying to find an open bakery with a singing mademoiselle ("bonjour" !) and the ever perfect baguette and patisserie !
We'd stocked up on a beaut breakfast of freshly cooked croissants in Mortain before venturing out into the still overcast and foggy conditions ! How can this be - not more than 3 weeks ago France was sweltering in 40c temperatures ! No sooner do Rick and Noel hit the Nthn Hemisphere than there is an ice age !
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| Leaving Mortain ! |
With Rick back in charge after being placed on a good behavior bond for yesterdays induscretion, we soon joined our well signposted Mont St Michel route, a rail trail of varying surfaces some of them even good enough to plaster mud all over our bikes and panniers !
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| More Rail Trails ! |
After 15 kms, at Harros urging, we shot off track in search of a coffee at some largish but now forgotten French town. At the traffic lights entering town Harro took off forgetting to hand signal to Noel following leaving him stranded in the middle of the road facing cars that looked like they were about to start an F1 race !
Quickly surrending with a passive shrug of his shoulders Noel retreated before we all followed Harro into the towns centre for our traditional (fast becoming) morning coffee.
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| Coffee time ! |
Back on the trail after our coffee fix, the sun finally made an appearance and what a difference it made to our moods ! Green fields and even a downhill gradient took us to the village of Ducey where we gate crashed probably one of the smallest Boulangeries we've ever seen . It was so small that only 3 people could stand inside while others queued outside waiting to be tagged by those exiting !
Eating in a sunny park setting we studied the maps in the nearby toilet block (the only pace where we could actually read the map !) before venturing cross country to Pontorson . A few kms out of Pontorson the breathtaking site of Mont St Michel magically appeared like a huge rock growing from the sea !
Arriving Pontorson we few wasted a few minutes trying to find our well hidden Gite having to resort to assistance from a nearby hotel.
We then quickly off loaded our panniers before jumping back on our bikes and cycled the 8 remaining kms to the Mont, self down a cycle path and the gang on road to a holding point where they jumped on a bus to venture across the causeway to the Monastery itself !
A wonderful if touristy experience !
We then quickly off loaded our panniers before jumping back on our bikes and cycled the 8 remaining kms to the Mont, self down a cycle path and the gang on road to a holding point where they jumped on a bus to venture across the causeway to the Monastery itself !
A wonderful if touristy experience !
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| The Mont ! |
Back at our accommodation we washed the days accumulation of mud off our bikes before heading down the lane for a late night (by this stage) meal mainly of pizzas and the like served by our feisty / supposedly humorous Cheers style waitress !
After dinner there was only 1 unresolved matter to tackle and that was to get Noels bedding down from the 2nd floor to the ground floor to allow him to sleep in a room slightly bigger than the upstairs closet.
For me it was also a matter of sleeping on the downstairs couch as any midnight foray to the toilet in the 2nd floor ensuite would have been almost suicidal, wobbling banisters, beams placed at head level and steps slightly steeper than the rocky face on Mt Everest.
For me it was also a matter of sleeping on the downstairs couch as any midnight foray to the toilet in the 2nd floor ensuite would have been almost suicidal, wobbling banisters, beams placed at head level and steps slightly steeper than the rocky face on Mt Everest.
Somehow we survived the night to live to do it all over again !
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