Day7 Friday 24th January 2015

The last cycling day.

 Nice and easy today, another 70km on the flat.  It is nothing to athletes like us!

The canal path we cycled along was pretty and quiet but not particularly interesting until David fell off his bike.  He tried to make it as dramatic as me falling off earlier but in truth it was fairly dull.  I think he was attention seeking!

As we cycled my mind drifted to the culture of the French based on what I had seen during the week.  It seemed to me that France was closed on Sunday and Monday, it opened briefly on Tuesday but it seemed closed again on Thursday morning when we were in Lorient and it closed again on Thursday evening in Pontivy.  It was certainly open on Friday afternoon as I got back in the car and drove past Rennes to St Malo because the road was chocker. 

The chateau at Josselin.

My fuzzy face and a new friend I made at Ploermel.

The boys at the end of the ride.

Wendy came to pick David up and Peter and I set off back to the hostel at St Malo.  We stopped off at a supermarket and made a few essential purchases.  They were mainly in bottles!  We had a great night out in St Malo, it is a super place with lots of bars and restaurants in the old town area.

Day 6 Thursday 23rd April 2015

We had a good night sleep despite me sleeping in a double bed with David.  I missed a good opportunity to photograph two 'fat lads a la derrière'.  Not a nice thought. 

We didn't have to go far before we got to Hennebont for our coffee stop.  It happened to be market day and these little beauties were on offer on one of the stalls.

The castle gateway is quite impressive but there isn't much of a castle inside.

We started cycling along the side of the river Blavet and it would take us all the way to Pontivy.  It wasn't long before we had lunch and broke our record for best value lunch of the holiday.  It was a four course meal including wine for 11 euro 50.

Our Ile Flottant was not as pert as last years offerings but they tasted nice.

The riverside cycle path was on the level but had lots of bumps to keep us out of the saddle.  Our distance was again 75km.  The weather was superb and there was no wind to speak of.

Here is Peter by the river where we had a little break for one of Wendy's anzac biscuits. We also spotted  a bite that Peter and family had stayed at in the past.  Strangely we saw a yellow budgie on the cycle track

When we arrived at Pontivy we were hot and dry and went in search of a nice ice cream shop.  We failed!  We struggled a bit yesterday looking for a decent ice cream shop.  If anyone is looking for a business opportunity in this region of France we suggest that an ice cream shop would fill a very necessary niche in the market.  At the hostel I played David at table football and won! We never grow up!

We had a walk out in the evening and managed to find a nice restaurant (just for one course, in case you were thinking we were greedy) and then back to the hostel for the return match which David won to make it even, not that we were competitive!

English lessons!

Here are a few English phrases that probably.didn't get in the English French dictionary.  David can explain in greater detail if anyone requires further detail.

How do - how are you doing?

How's yer fettle -  how are you doing?

How's yer belly for spots - how are you doing?

Fizzog - face

Codger - David

Sprog - Peter

What's what - title of my next blog. Could mean, a real truthful explanation (if someone tells you what's what) or it could be not having any explanation as many of us rarely know 'what's what'!

Lastly, I would like to know the meaning of:-

Rah rah chicca rah, infiniani, roh nee poh nee, cara cara weston, chan tee poo!

Answers on a postcard please.  I haven't made it up it was a silly rhyme passed on through my mums mother to us.  We inflict on our children but haven't a clue where it came from!

Day 5 Wednesday 22nd April 2015

Old Concarneau town in the harbour area.

Early morning in the old town.

Another beautiful day for cycling.  Our destination is Lorient.  Before anyone asks its is not the place where Leyton Orient play their football!  There are no established cycle routes to help so our early route took us on main roads and where possible some smaller roads.  Our coffee stop was at Pont Aven a famous town for artists and art shops.

Who has taken the giant bite out of the pain au chocolate?

We cycled on for lunch at Guidel Plage for our lunch where we all had moules et frites overlooking the beach.

From here we cycled along a beautiful coastline with superb beaches.  Peter had another swim at Lamour Plage and then we entered Lorient, after 75km.

Lorient seems to a place where Germany hid their U-boats in the 2nd World War.  There are not many historic buildings in the city centre.  Never the less there is a nice harbour that leads up to the football stadium.  We did have a very nice meal (you will have gathered by now that everything revolves around food and drink).  The hotel we are in is the best B&B in the city but we have only paid for the bed.  I haven't had a pain aux raisin yet, tomorrow could be the day!

We are expecting the weather to be cooler but hopefully still dry and with occasional sunny spells.  Our destination is back to Pontivy.

Day 4 Tuesday 21st April 2015

Wow, what a super day.  The weather has been perfect.  

We all wore our jazzy outfits today!

It was my turn for a tumble today, it was like a slow motion fall as I tried to.climb up a steep hill but my bike wouldn't switch to granny gear until the moment I least expected it.  I fell and the whole bike somersaulted over me and of course the chain came off.  I only scratched my thigh and chuckled to myself because David and Peter didn't see me fall.

Our coffe stop was at Gourin and our lunch was at Scaer.  Lunch was a simple affair rather than our normal 3 course meal.  We had French bread with pate, cheese and tomato, followed by a melon bought from a small supermarche. It was washed down by a couple of bottles of cidre.  

We managed to find a Decathlon store on the outskirts of Concarneau and Peter bought two pairs of swimming trunks.  Little did we know that he and I would be using them on a beach at Concarneau within the next half hour.  We took a longer route into Concarneau so the we  could follow the coast and found a lovely beach.

Peter and I went for a swim and found out the true meaning of chilli Concarneau!

The hostel where we stayed is right on the coast.  Our cycling for the day was 75km.

This is the view from our room. Unbelievable for about 16 euros each!

Concarneau is a very pretty town with an old quaint walled area in the harbour.  We walked around in the evening and had some local beers before having our meal sitting outside on a warm evening.  We probably over indulged in the wine because I was accused of talking a load of rubbish, I can't believe it!  At least I didn't snore all night like some others!

Little know facts about the Vernon family

It came to my notice that several of David's French friends were reading the blog and they may not know the historical significance that the Vernon family played in history throughout the centuries.

There are actually many French connections from the past.

Until recently the surname of Asterix the Gaul was not know but we have evidence that he was actually Asterix Vernon and he lived in the town of Vernon in north west French.

In 1066 Richard de Vernon was one of the Norman Knights who came with William the Conquerer to England.  He had his ancestral home at Haddon Hall in Derbyshire.  He was linked to King Richard the Lionheart (Coeur de Lion) who owned vast lands and castles in France and fought bravely in the Crusades.  It is ironic that our Great Great Great Auntie Joan (on our mothers side) would fight against the English.  She is better know to our French readers as Joan d'Arc.

Another of our Great Cousins moved to North America and the first President George Washington where they lived happily at Mount Vernon.

More recently our family tree has become less remarkable until the Trois Frere of the current generation.  It seems that David is trying to take back the English lands that are rightfully ours, in the Vendee area.  We have the annual cycle trip in Brittany to seek allies in our venture.  We have had little success so far but we are not disheartened. Maybe our tactics are outdated.  We must stop burning local women at the stake!

Day 3 Monday 20th April 2015

Wall to wall sunshine today.  We had a standard youth hostel breakfast and David had to audacity to complain about the volume of my cereal crunching!   Our destination for the day was Carhaix-Plouger.  According to Peters research it is an unremarkable place that he has never heard of....we will see!

This is a lake at Beau Rivage.  Can anyone spot what is missing?

We had our coffee stop at Mur de Bretagne, it was up our first long hill.  I'd like to say it was worth it but it wasn't, in Miranda's mothers words, 'what I call' exciting.

Beau Rivage was supposed to be a special view over a lake but someone had pulled the plug on it.  

We weren't too sure where our all important lunch stop was going to be but came to a place called Bon Repos and found a restaurant tucked away in the Abbey grounds.  It was a little more expensive than usual but excellent.

This is the Abbey.

We set off for Carhaix and had already passed signs telling us it was 42km away.  We subsequently saw signs saying 50km, then later 14km and then 20km.  We didn't care as the weather was so good and we were going so well.  We had the first caller when Peter ran in the back of me but no damage or injury occurred.  However, as we got within 300 metres of our destination Peter got a flat tyre, which we sorted fairly well.

This is the Chambre d'Hote that we were staying at.  The lady and husband were very welcoming and we relaxed with a nice cidre. Today's distance was 85km.

As we thought Carhaix on a Monday night wasn't up to much.  We managed a pizza and a drink of the local lager. Tomorrow we head for Concarneau, I hope it's not chilli!

Day 2 Sunday 19th April 2015

Whilst getting off the ferry I joking told Peter that it would be funny to hold back other cars trying to get off the ferry.  As it happened we were rather late getting back to the car and ours was holding back the last few cars trying to get off.... Whoops!

We drove about an hour and a half to Ploermel to meet up with David and Wendy.

This picture was taken in Ploermel and we discovered Peter is still ticklish.

According to legend there are several connection with Arthurian knights in this area.  Merlin is believed to come from the nearby forests.  We said goodbye to Wendy and headed for the Nantes to Brest canal, our destination will be Pontivy.

Here we are along the canal approaching Jossellin.

We had a nice lunch sitting in the sun in a small square at Josselin.  The subjects of conversation were random in the extreme but we decided that it is about time that Top Gear got new presenters and we were the people to do the job.  Peter could do the daring stunts and David could be a new Stig and I could go round insulting people and hitting them!

Josselin Church.  We climbed up the steeple and admired the views of the Castle.  It was a nice place  but "not tonight Josselin" as we cycled on towards Pontivy.

This is at Pontivy.  I think it is a cardboard cut out of me!  The castle is closed to the public for repairs.

We checked in at the Auberge de Jeunnesse which was a nice modern building on an island in the middle of the river Brevett and we had a room to ourselves.  It was nice to get back to creaky bunk beds.  We had cycled 72km for the day but it was nice and easy going in pleasant sunshine with a cool breeze.

Pontivy seemed a medium sized town but because it was a Sunday evening it was completely dead with the exception of a triathlon award ceremony on the town square.  We had to use our detective skills to find the only bar open in the town.  It masqueraded as an Irish bar but it had run out of Guinness.

Day 1 Saturday 18th April 2015

Peter and I have travelled down to Portsmouth for the ferry to St Malo.  It's been a lovely day with the exception of Burnley being beaten by Everton and going bottom of the Premiership as a result.

We arrived in Portsmouth with an hour to spare and visited a shopping mall on the waterfront.  We managed an early drink in a nice bar.

We are waiting to get on the ferry in lovely sun shine.

I laughingly told Peter that we never get searched on the way onto a ferry.  However, I spoke too soon as we got pulled over and I had to take out a pannier and go through an x-ray machine.  I refrained from telling the security staff that Peter was smuggling 'skittles' into France to sell on the black market as a legal high!  He must have had such an innocent expression that he didn't get searched at all.

Don't tell David but we had a proper meal on the ship in the posh restaurant.  It was really good food at a decent price, of course it was washed down with some nice French wine.  We quickly made for the cabaret lounge and were disappointed to find out that the balloon modelling act had finished and we missed getting a balloon poodle and a ballon sword!

We are meeting up with David in the morning and looking forward to starting the cycling part of the holiday.

Nearly 24 hours into the trip, one 3 course dinner, a bottle of Brouily and not a sniff of cycling yet. It's going well!

Le Route

Here's an image of the proposed route (roughly ish). Not to scale

Tour de Brittany

Here is our new blog for David, Richard and Peter cycling around southern Brittany starting Saturday 18th April 2015.

The name, for those who are 'affluent' in French means 'Fat lads at the rear' which indicates that when we cycle in a larger group of cyclists we will be the slow ones at the back.  It does not necessarily mean we have fat bums! but that is a matter of opinion.

There will be a normal amount of silly photos, long lunches and a few drinks along the way.  We may do a bit of cycling too, you never know!

The Vernon boys are off on their travels again!

Here is a selection of last years photos to remind you of whats to come!