Cycling France - Part 1: Brittany, September 2005
18 photos & movies (
) by Rebecca Heald & Steven Hill, steephill.tv
(The free QuickTime player may be needed to view the movies)
Pointe du Grouin
Bonjour from France! This is part one of our report from an ongoing cycling trip in Europe. Our first stop is the north Brittany coast on the English Channel where Rebecca is attending a conference: "Molecular Machines in Cell Division." We spent one night in St. Malo and four nights in Roscoff. Although cycling tour companies use this area, Brittany is not the focus of our French cycling trip, but is serving as warmup for the main event.
Tomorrow we will drive eight hours to the Pyrenees where we plan to cycle for one week up and down the famous Cols featured in the Tour de France. But while I had internet access today, I put together a small album from the first five days of our excursion. The cycling here is mostly flat with some rolling hills. The one-lane back roads that cut through farms, pastures and old towns and the coastal cycling on busier but scenic roads are the highlights of this region. Lots of forts, castles and churches along the way. Navigating is not too difficult even though a lot of the small roads aren't labeled. Most of Brittany, that we've visited, is rural so it's usually a matter of following the little signs pointing to the next town and making judgment calls when you hit the proverbial fork in the road. I gave up trying to put together a traditional cue sheet as few of the smaller roads were on my maps. Instead, I only included turns for the main roads and otherwise followed town-to-town segments.
To cut out the wasted time normally spent loitering at train stations and so we can get to difficult to reach locations in the Pyrenees, we've rented a Ford Fiesta. Renting a car in Europe isn't cheap (~$40/day) but we've got a zippy little diesel car and brought along our bike rack, so it is working out well. We need flexibility on this trip, as the weather is unpredictable. Who knows, the next installment could come from Greece!
Bon soir madames et monsieurs, Steve September 14, 2005
