Today was an easy day, and we got a good early start. But that didn’t prevent us from arriving late at 6pm. That means we covered 45 miles in about nine and a half hours. We were a bit worried early on that we would arrive before checkin at 5pm, but then we got side tracked after lunch in Phoërmel buying lunch at a boulangerie, looking at a very old church, finding the toilette, and then revisiting the boulangerie for dessert before resuming our route.
Birds were the usual distraction as well.
The stop for the night was at the Aux Agapanthes Chambre d’hotel. It was excellent, the rooms, the grounds and gardens, and the dinner were all excellent. For dinner we had galletes, crepes for dessert, apple cider to drink along with apple juice from the owner’s garden. The owners were super nice. The husband spoke a little English and spent much time talking to us in broken English while searching for words. I used French when I could.
What I’m finding is that despite my best attempts at speaking French, most people will attempt to speak English back. This leads to a lot of one-word conversations with us each repeating back to the other the word in their own language. “Hot?” the person at the boulangerie, wondering if I want my tartine heated, “oui, chaud”, I reply. It’s as if we are both trying to teach the other person their own language. I’m also finding that mixing French words with English words does not magically help someone understand the English words. But it’s fine and my French is improving ever so slightly.
Out chambre d'hotel for the night and their vegetable garden. The owners were super nice and food was excellent including apple juice from their own tree.
