Day 65: Tremereuc to Saint Coulomb

May 30, 2018

Our host, Philippe, clued us in to the fact that there was a greenway directly from where we were at Tremereuc to Dinard. Dinard is where the river Rance arrives at the sea. On the other side is St. Malo. The road crossing happens a little bit south, where a unique tidal electric station spans the estuary. But Philippe pointed out that this crossing has very dangerous traffic and no provision for bikes. He recommended we take the ferry at Dinard.

Our place last night - the excellent chambres d'hote

Philippe gave us some excellent advice on the route ahead, plus helpful maps.

The pen is pointing to where we started, at Tremereuc. It's an important crossroads of cycle routes. You can see the greenway going to Dinard, and the dangerous crossing at Barrage de la Rance. East of St. Malo you can also just make out Manoir Jacques Cartier and Saint -Coulomb, also figure in today's story.

The advice about the voie verte was spot on, as this is Bretagne route V2/V3. So contrary to what I had thought yesterday, there was no climbing at all today.

We arrived in Dinard in great shape, and had a really quick look around. There were some quite ordinary city buildings, some great views out to the water - with one cruise ship and many small craft, and some very quaint houses over on a point.

Then we set about finding the ferry. Normally you expect to see quite a lot of signage for something like that, but there was none. Of course we had a strong clue that it would be by the water side! We stopped into a seaside restaurant and asked, that way finding out we had to push the bikes along a narrow walkway below a cliff to reach the wharf. The wharf comprised a concrete ramp that descended into the water, leading us to wonder how a ferry was going to dock there. But first we needed to buy a ticket and make our way to the ramp. The tickets took €9.50 each, an amazing high price for a 10 minute ride. The reason was probably that this was not exactly a public transport ferry but rather a private boat service, from which you could also buy passage to other nearby ports or even go deep sea fishing.

You could put your money down on trips other than St. Malo

To get to the ramp one had to descend stairs. These included a helpful bicycle trough, but too close to the wall to allow passage with the baggage loaded. So OK, we unloaded, brought the bikes down, and reloaded. It's not as if we have not seen it all before. (But sheesh).

The mystery about how one would actually get onto the boat deepened as it approached, at somewhat right angles to the ramp. But eventually it swung sideways and a ramp appeared. It was fine.

The short ride to St. Malo did afford a chance to look at boats in the estuary. There was that large cruise ship, and a small fishing operation. Also a snazzy looking catamaran passed close to us. It's all blue colour scheme looked great.

The old city part of St. Malo still retains its battlements, with a 360 degree wall. Our boat pulled right up to one of the gates,so in principle we could just ride on in. The thing is, the narrow streets have been arranged in a haphazard pattern of one-ways, and every street facing us was one way the other way! The only thing for it was to push up the sidewalk, but as you can see in the photo, the sidewalk was also in use by lots of tourists.

Of course we did eventually make our way into the town, mainly by ignoring any one-way signs and facing down any cars one by one. The streets were suitably narrow and interesting, but were comprised mainly of very substantial four story structures. It was interesting, but not "cute" as in a lot of other places.

Naturally my attention was caught by a bold shop selling Kouign Amann. We looked but were not tempted to buy, because we are still thinking about those really heavy and gooey ones from a few days ago. You have to suspect that at this shop, especially if you go for the €3.50 apple-caramel specimen,you would have to come away with heavy and gooey. Instead we put our faith in two unknowns, at the nearby Cathedral Bakery. One was called a Normandy Potato, and the other a Pavé - paving stone, which they are calling pavé Malouin - St. Malo pavé. Both had marzipan exteriors and jam or rum laden cake inside. Really good!

The cathedral as is normally the case holds down or defines the very centre of town. And of course from a distance what you see first of the town is the steeple. This steeple has had a hard time of it. We read one reference to an Anglo-Dutch bombardment sometime in the 1500's, and the tower was definitely taken down by a German minesweeper in 1944. It took 28 years to fully restore things. This included some modern stained glass, which we found created a very beautiful effect. The cathedral was originally built in the 12th century, but on the site of a 7th century even earlier churches. There is a piece of the cloister of, I think, the 7th century church standing beside the cathedral.

Another big thing about the cathedral is that is is the spot where Jacques Cartier received a blessing before setting off on his voyage of discovery to Canada. Cartier is the one who claimed the land for France. It also turns out his tomb is in the cathedral, but we managed to miss it!

Coincidentally, our son Joshua lives just by the Jacques Cartier bridge - in Montreal.

Generally speaking as one or other of us stands around waiting for the other to come out of a bakery, post card shop, or church we attract people who want to talk. This time out, I got to talk to to two couples who had arrived by car. They were friends, one couple from near St. Nazaire, on the Loire, and the other visiting them from Montreal. We had fun chatting, and I asked the French couple if they noticed the strange accent of the Canadiens (french canadians). The Canadiens parried that it was those from Brittany that talked funny. Later we visited Quebec House, a quaint place overlooking the water and run by the Quebec government. Dodie talked to the fellow behind the counter there, who was from eastern Quebec (Gaspe), with no problem. But when I went in, I couldn't understand a thing he said. Finally, here is Dodie with two ladies she encountered while waiting for me at the church. They had asked her for some kind of guidance or information about the church. Of course, Dodie had it. On the other hand, I had struck out when someone, seeing my yellow vest, asked me for directions. It looks like Dodie 2 (or 3) and Steve 0 for today. Typical.

Dodie fields tourist questions by the church. She would go on to chat easily with the representative from Gaspe at Quebec house.

At Quebec house, we were tickled to see the blue and white fleur de lis flag of Quebec, which together with the red maple leaf of Canada, is our native flag. Nearby is a statue of a corsair, or pirate. A corsair, or privateer, was actually a state sponsored mercenary. They would receive a "letter of mark", allowing them to attack shipping without legal ramifications. This specific statue depicts Robert Surcouf (1773-1827), a St. Malo based pirate. He is pointing a a ship he wants boarded.

Our next thing was to swing around and find the statue of Jacques Cartier, which we knew to be standing just outside the walls. Again, we ignored the one way streets, else we would have never found it. Near the statue some cannons remained at their stations in the ramparts. We sighted along them and imagined what it would be like firing on the English. It reminded us of the cannons to be seen on the heights at Quebec City, and we amused ourselves by repeating our old rather unkind surmise that the only way the French could have lost Quebec from those heights was by being in the cafe having coffee when the attack came in 1759. (Actually the battle was quite complicated and we have no real idea of why the French lost.)

We made our way off the battlements and around to the picturesque harbour. We found a tall ship there which we prefer to think of as a pirate ship. This is the area where the TI is, so we naturally dropped in to see what new maps they might have to offer. Outside, a lot of cyclists had left their bikes in order to walk into the city without battling the streets. A good idea. We also noticed that 100% of the parked miscellaneous tourist bikes had e-assist. Just sayin'.

Outside the walled old city of St. Malo is the more recent city. Fortunately (unless we missed it) this does not mean a bunch of busy roads and box stores. Rather we found many of those unique (i.e. each one different) Belle Epoque type places. These seem to be limited to beach areas, but we have now seen them at Soulac, Royan, Morlaix, and St Malo, and we know there are more in Normandy.

One thing that TI did for us was to locate Cartier's retirement house, now a museum, on a map which they gave us. We followed that way off by Saint Coulomb, only to find it closed. It does not really adopt normal (for France) hours until June (Friday). Thanks TI!

Jacque Cartier's (closed) retirement house.

The Jacques Cartier museum thing was not really so bad, because our booked B&B was also in the vicinity of Saint Coulomb. We arrived there very early in this short (but eventful) day, and have been chilling out since. Tomorrow will be restful as well, since it is only about 40 km to Mont Saint Michel. We will go there and stick, in order to tour the island the next day.

Today's ride: 30 km (19 miles)
Total: 4,299 km (2,670 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	6
Comment on this entry	Comment	0