We know where we went, but a lack of diary notes means that at the time of writing this we cannot remember just where we stopped for coffee, lunch and similar cycle-touring necessities.
DAY 2 A warm sunny day greeted us as we disembarked and we soon found our way out of St Malo onto small country roads. A good first view of the River Rance as we reach Saint Jouan des Guerets; and at Port Saint Jean we cross the river by suspension bridge to climb uphill to reach Port Saint Hubert. After 35km we reached Dinan and clamber up into the town, resorting to pushing the small wheeled trike over some of the more bumpy cobbled streets. Time for a refreshment stop. We leave on the D12 for Calorgen and continue through Trefumel and Pouasne. Finally at 92km we skirt the lake and chateau at Combourge and head into the town to the Logis de France hôtel where we are booked in for the night. DAY 3 The Rue de la Renaissance takes us into the town centre, from where we continue to leave Combourg and head for Lourmais. A coffee stop also gives us a shopping opportunity to find a Breton flag. We have an orange safety flag on the trike together with a St George cross flag for England and so need a Breton one too in order to complete our twinning relationship (more than once on future tandem tours in the south of France we are asked by local French people what place the black and white flag represents?). In good time we roll along the Route de Robiquette over a lake (la Cantache) to reach the home of Guy and Marie-Annick, our twin family hosts, who live just outside Vitré. After greetings, trike admiring and some refreshment we head into Vitré town centre to meet the rest of our twinning party who are travelling by coach. Quite a long wait gives us plenty of time to photograph the trike with Vitré in the background and to chat to other waiting French hosts. Finally, whe everyone has arrived we leave, taking time to stop beside a Vitré town sign (and two-flowers Ville Fleurie sign) so that Guy, who is following by car, can take a photograph tp record our arrival in our twin town by pedal power. Route Sheet directions St Malo to Vitré via Combourg and return by direct route Click on any photo to enlarge and scroll through gallery
                  **************************************************************************************************************
|
Sattelbach again. Unfortunately our camera broke on this trip and not only could we take no more photos, but we also lost all but a couple of those previously taken. (more about this trip in Tandem Tours)
**************************************************************************************************************
travelled on through Newport, exited a roundabout and the offside front tyre burst with a loud bang. We were on a quite busy road, but managed to lift the trike onto a narrow grass verge out of the way of passing vehicles. This was not good - a two-wheeled tricycle is not a lot of use and we had used our spare tyre and had a cross channel ferry to catch in Portsmouth. Mobile phone time - lengthy call to directory inquiries to find a bike shop that might be open and numbers of taxi services, followed by lengthy call to Halfords somewhere the other side of Newport. Yes, Halfords had two 406 BMX tyres of unknown provenance. Called taxi and sat down to wait. Taxi arrived and departed with Sheila. Decided that there was no point in Judy also risking not catching the overnight ferry to France so she set off for Fishbourne leaving John sitting on the verge watching the cars go by and trying to be positive - after all it was not raining. Waiting always seems to be for ever, but eventually a car stopped and asked if he could help, explaining that he to was a cyclist. The situation explained he gave John his phone number, saying he lived nearby and to call if Sheila had failed on her tyre mission and we required further assistance. After another long wait the taxi + Sheila + two BMX tyres arrived. They were unbranded low pressure objects, but heck they were tyres. One was fitted to the front wheel and the other was lashed on top of the panniers as a spare.
Fishbourne was reached with no further excitement and we found Judy still there. With time to spare before the next ferry to Portsmouth we headed for the cafe. The crossing to Portsmouth went smoothly and (unlike on the Yarmouth ferry) there policy was to park bicycles at the front and let them off first, giving us a good start to head across Portsmouth to the cross-channel ferry port with still a comfortable amount of time to spare. On board, refreshed and snuggled down in our cabins for the overnight crossing. DAY 2 An early call, breakfast and disembarcation into a bright sunny morning. Because we needed to have a balanced pair of front wheels we stopped to swap the tyres about to give us a matching pair on the front. Nothing else to go wrong.....well......the Garmin GPS that we had hoped would navigate us across town with a pre-loaded track refused to switch on despite lots of fiddling with batteries. We used to tour in the days before electronic assistance with navigation, so without to much fretting we set off. Managed OK until we ran into a stretch of brand new roads and development that all post-dated our maps ans where we rather lost it. A bit of to-ing and fro-ing and turning around ensued, but we cracked it and were under way heading in a southerly direction again. The irony of all this was that we were supposed to be the experienced cycle tourists who were "looking after" Judy. We tried to explain that normally we did not have quite so many problems before we had travelled less than 100km from our front door. The day warmed up and all went well as we continued, although not on the route that Sheila had intended, until we came to a minor road T- junction devoid of signposts without quite knowing where we were. Tried asking some passers by, but we were not convinced they had any more idea than us. We decided on a left turn and a short explore. In not too far we came to a level-crossing. The great thing about railways is that they tend to stay put so we now had a precise locational fix, knew we should have turned right and not left, but most importantly actually knew where we were. A garage provided us an opportunity to buy some new batteries for the GPS, which, in the annoyingly sly way that such devices have, immediately sprang to life as if by magic (before we put the new batteries in, but not before we had purchased them). Nothing could go wrong now.....well.....the good news was that we spotted a suitable cafe and cruised to a stop for welcome refreshments. The less good news was that we then noticed that our rear tyre was de-laminating at an alarming rate and the carcass would have collapsed completely in a short distance if we had not stopped at this moment. More tyre swapping and changing and once again we are without a spare. at least there was a nearby rubbish bin. On again. The day got hotter and hotter and we were slightly worried that Judy, who was fully covered in an attempt to avoid sunburn, was in serious danger of collapsing with heatstroke. Stops in the shade and lots to drink takes us to the outskirts of Vitré and the home of Guy and Marie-Annick. No one at home. No matter, we sprawl on the grass under a tree in the back garden. Guy and Marie-Annick's daughter Nathalie from Paris is also staying and she demands a spin on the trike, first as passenger and then as pilot. Also, while we are there Guy takes us to a bike shop where we buy some more tyres. 406 tyres are not common in France, but we find some Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres at great expense. They are very very stiff and heavy. Getting them over the wheel rims was a struggle spread over several hours and requiring lots of diluted washing-up liquid as a lubricant. I doubt that we could get them on and off to repair a roadside puncture, but they are so heavy we reckon that to be a very low risk. Steering the trike with these tyres is now a two handed heavy push. Nothing could further from the experience of "flying" the Windcheetah. (see cornering without steering) Click on any photo to enlarge and scroll through gallery
             **************************************************************************************************************
**************************************************************************************************************
|
