Friday 18.05.2018

Carentan - Tessy sir Vire

The day started with an interruption to our breakfast by a couple who wanted to pick our brains - their mistake! They had hoped that we might be able to help them locate a good cycle route but as they were heading for Paris, we could offer little except encouragement.  They had undertaken a charity ride from Dublin to Paris with even less preparation than we had made. She was Irish and he was French;- she had done little biking and he had done quite a lot! He had a 'cargo’ bike which had a massive bath like carrier on the front (very heavy) and unusual. We had only ever seen them in Sweden with small children in the basket. Hers was a good ordinary touring bike with a couple of small panniers. We had to leave them to the mercies of Google maps!

Our day was grand. If yesterday was very green, today was very watery. Carentan is in the middle of the Marais (marshes) and we continued to follow a voie verte - pretty flat, alongside the river, with a whizzy wind and lots of sunshine - a good day to be alive!

We had a small hiccup in the town of Carentan where the hitherto marvelous signing, disappeared. Spotting another couple having similar problems we added two more brains? and in a trice, we were all on our way.

Flowers on the roof

By mid afternoon, we reached Tessy sir Lire where we planned to overnight. Betwixt Garmin and Al’s phone, we managed a great confusion! Ultimately, a phone call ascertained that we could have a bed  for the night in a 'posh’ B & B as long as we could wait for our hosts to return from a shopping trip! With little/no alternative, we agreed to wait. It was VERY posh with extraordinary attention to detail. We had a door into the garden, an enormous bathroom, a stunning lounge area and a first class meal. None of which came cheap so we decided to mitigate the expense by making it the celebration of our ruby wedding anniversary. As we spent so much time admiring our surroundings and making all the right noises, there remained no time for the blog. Being polite and interested is very tiring!

Saturday  19.05.2018

Tessy sir Vire - Soudeval

The nice flat voie verte of yesterday lasted a very short time! We waved to our friends from yesterday, Mo and John, as they were putting the final touches to their decamping. Pretty soon, the inevitable hills reared up and pushing became inevitable as well. On summiting the fourth   such incline, we collapsed onto a picnic bench to speak nicely to various body parts and take a cup off coffee. A short while later, we were, once again, joined by Mo and John looking equally puffed. At this point Mo apologised for having kept us in ignorance of the 'mountain chain’ she knew we must cross as her research had said so. Our research was non existent but hills are all part of the fun!

We had been following signs for the site de viaduct Soulevre, about which we knew nothing except what a viaduct actually was - a bridge spanning a deep valley. It transpires that, sadly, this viaduct extended only about 100 metres and stopped which meant (yes, you guessed it), we had to plunge the depths and then haul up the other side. However, the passerelle which hung over the valley was being used for bunjy jumping. We stopped at the bottom to listen to the terrified shrieks of the jumpers as they yo - yoed up and down. Didn’t really look much like fun to me. In addition to the jumping were many other, less scary, activities - zip wide, toboggan run and high and low ropes courses which we admired while pushing our cycles up another hill. I’m not moaning, it was a very nice hill!

We reached the town of Vire around three thirty - not a specially nice town and one where we would almost certainly get lost. So, we made a phone call and a decision to carry on to Soudeval and Murphy’s chambre d’hote. “Only 20 more kms and mostly downhill on another voie verte”’ he said. Twenty eight kms, twenty of which were uphill! Nonetheless, we were welcomed by Sean and Schnitzel (the dog). Although, we hadn’t expected it, Sean rustled up the best sausage and cheesy mash I have tasted in a long time and washed it all down with can couple of glasses of wine. Now , it was passed bedtime, so still no blog! Sleep instead. (I forgot to mention, that even with the hill we exceeded 70kms for the first time this trip)

Sunday 20.05.2018

Soudeval -. Mont St. Michel

By contrast with yesterday, it will be a challenge to keep you entertained with today’s exploits. Nearly a full day on an old railway line in perfect weather with a following wind, is super cycling but, generally, uneventful.

We shared our breakfast with the other guests a family of three from Paris. Unbeknown to us, they had commenced their meal by saying grace, so we were grateful to have been spared that experience by arriving late at the table. Sean,our host, absented himself to feed the chickens (yeah) so our meal progressed in a mix of French and English.

We were en route by nineish after bidding farewell to the chickens and horses and determined to reach Mont St. Michel with enough time to relax and catch up with washing, planning and blog writing.

Tomorrow will see us fighting our way through St. Malo on a French bank holiday! Bon courage I say.