St Malo - Rennes

Urban Camping

I arrived in St Malo and thought I would camp for a night and have some rest. The camping ground there was closed so I carried on and made the journey to Mont Saint Michel.
It was rolling hills for the first few hours then flat around the coast. I arrived hungry and tired again and headed to the super market. This is Brittany so cheese, baguette and cider were the order of the day and I sat in the sunshine for the rest of the day and dined on the cullinary delights of France. I would visit the church tomorrow.

I made my way up to the church the next day and I arrived when the lunch time service was beginning. Its a very simple church and the singing of the 6 monks/preists and nuns was spetecular. Spiritually revitialised by my first church visit in a long time I now had Jesus on my side so the rest of the journey would surely go well.

The area around Mont Saint Michel was very touristy and there was a wonderful collection of bovines.

After a day of rest I packed up and began the bike to Rennes. The plan was that I was to stay with Ceciles mother Therese for a few days rest and then move on.
I plotted the most direct course for Rennes and set off.
It was an amazing day of hills and valleys and beautiful countryside. At the peak of each hill would be a small town and a large Church.

There were a few climbs on run into Rennes and once again I under catered. I arrived at Therese house exhausted, hungry after eaten nothing all day and I was looking forward to some home cooked french delights and a bed to sleep in. I arrived at 6pm but there was no one home so I waited as I thought she would be back soon. 
6pm became 9pm and it was around 10pm that I thought she might not be back tonight.
It was too late to go anywhere so I pitched the tent in the park opposite here house and slept. The neighbours kept looking at me while I pitched the tent but I carried on and slept the night there.

I waited until 9am the next day then left for the nearest camping ground 10km away.
There I ate, slept and spent the day doing nothing. My legs were empty and I couldn't have gone anywhere even if I had wanted to. I messaged Cecile to see when Therese would return but I later found out she was out tramping for the weekend so it was a case of wait and see.

The next morning I was woken by a french voice and there was Therese at the campsite. She talked to me in French and I replied in English but it was smiles all round.
I loaded my gear into the car and set off for Ceciles house again.
 
Therese took me for a tour of Rennes via the metro systems.
There is no driver for the metro so being at the front of the train and knowing there is
no body in control is a bit odd.
Rennes is well organised and in parts very beautiful. A combonation of some huistoric areas

and new architecture made it appear a very livable city.There was a day trip to Carnac to look at the stones that were put there by Obelix 

 

From there we had a quick trip to the beach and then onto the house where Therese grew up. She still has the house there and we spent some time time looking after an very impressive vegetable garden and 2 chickens.

Gardening seems to be a big past time in France with most houses having a garden and a
variety of vegetables growing.

There was time for a dinner of sasauge gallettte which was senational and some wine which too was outstanding.

We often made use of goole translate but often therese would speak in french and I reply in english. We didnt always get the meanings correct but it was good fun anyway.We would make use of google translate and skype with cecile at the end of the day to clear things up.
It was a great time and I am thankful to therese for looking after me and giving me time to recover from the first stage of the trip.