If you're looking for a startup business in France then you could do worse than open a breakfast cafe as even in the touristy town of Pontsoron there was bugger all open by 9a.m. other than 1 coffee serving cafe and a couple of small bakeries.
A helpful Englishman in one cafe told us that we could get our pastries at a nearby bakery and simply bring them back to the cafe to eat them with our coffees and that is exactly what we did !
A helpful Englishman in one cafe told us that we could get our pastries at a nearby bakery and simply bring them back to the cafe to eat them with our coffees and that is exactly what we did !
By the time we'd finished and repositioned Noel's mattress back up a flight of steep stairs it was drizzle time again with the temperature once more a cool 14 c !
Rick took his customary control role and helped us out of our spiraling loop like start putting us back on our initial muddy trail in the direction of St Malo.
This was a beautiful morning cycle weaving our way in and out of tree lined tunnels with fleeting views of the mist covered Mont St Michel in the distance.
With only 55 kms to cover before our 5.30p.m. ferry this was relaxed cycling at its best. We took plenty of time taking in the views and with even plenty of banter along the way courtesy of the court jester Henley !
The trail finally broke out on to a large bay. Without the trees for shelter it was a hard slog into prevailing headwinds as we adopted a strange form of peletonic discipline to minimise our energy expenditure with our smallest person (Noel) up front !
Leaving the coast we headed inland to St Coulomb where we gate crashed an about to close Boulangerie !
"Do you have any baguettes " I asked - "non"came the reply, Henley then entered and asked "do you any baguettes" - "non" came the reply again, then came in Rick "do you baguettes" ....
"Do you have any baguettes " I asked - "non"came the reply, Henley then entered and asked "do you any baguettes" - "non" came the reply again, then came in Rick "do you baguettes" ....
I think by this time the shop owner would have been entitled to jump the counter and throttle us ! Having no sooner served us (mainly cakes and pizza slices) than the owner promptly shut for the afternoon, day or week - you can never be sure in France !
The remaining 10 kms took us into St Malo a large city with a beautiful walled section. The town and port was almost totally destroyed during WW2 being painstakingly restored from 1948-60 !
Entering St Malo |
Entering the walled town section Viv was overcome with joy not by the towns medieval like grandeur but by the fact that there were so many shops. Her favourite was a lolly shop that had lollies of every type and colour resembling the privateers / pirates heritage of St Malo !
Following our obligatory coffee we were soon queued up for our high speed ferry to Jersey just behind the Jersey Chapter of the Harley Davidison group - Henley resisted his normal "get a real bike" comment in order to preserve of lives and limbs !
On board our ferry plowed deceptively quickly across the 35 kms to Jersey a Channel Island of some significance having been the only German occupied Island under UK control in WW2.
All of this was too much for Noel to take in who quickly flat lined after eating his bucket of chips. His moment was soon captured by Henley !
It's all too much ! |
With stomachs intact we rolled off our ferry, passed through customs and set about trying to find our hotel in busy peak hour traffic having at one point to negotiate a 400 metre tunnel section.
Finally we arrived at our hotel and immediately thought we'd been transported forward to our very own future ! Every single person in the hotel was our age or older with some barely moving down the corridors .. hang on for a sec that was in fact Noel and Rick !
Arrival St Heliere ! |
Despite the obvious jokes it was great to see the oldies enjoying a holiday break in the temperate "climes" of Jersey.
We soon gave serious thought to taking in the Hotels advertised quiz night figuring half the locals would soon forget the question while the other half would soon fall asleep giving us a solid chance of victory !
As it was we still had just enough energy to go pub hunting where we found an extensive menu and for the boys a couple of really nice draft beers !
Sent from Samsung tablet
No comments:
Post a Comment