2022.05.06 – Brittany Ferries ==> Morlaix (32 kms | Total: 656 kms)

After showering in our cabin the previous evening, we had hoped for a good night sleep, but unfortunately it was not the case, even though the bed and linen were comfortable. We were awaken by intercom music a full hour before our arrival at the port of Roscoff. Unlike the previous evening, we avoided taking the staircase with our heavy luggage and opted for the elevator down several decks. Once the ferry docked, we joined the other cyclists leaving the ship. We had our passports stamped as part of our entry in the EU – good for 90 days under the Schengen visa. We cycled into the small town of Roscoff with the expectation of having breakfast. After cycling to the town, we only found bakery opened in the morning. We bought some pastries for our breakfast. The cycling to Morlaix was fairly easy. We arrived at our hotel quite early, just after 10:30am. The hotel owner allowed us into their breakfast room where I did so much needed maintenance on the tandem. We were provided access to our room an hour ahead of the official check-in. Later, we stepped out of the hotel and attempted to find a grocery store, but could not find any. We ended buying a baguette sandwiches at a local bakery. In the evening, we ventured out to a Vietnamese restaurant for our dinner.

We learned that using the Booking.com platform in France to reserve our accommodation was not a very wise choice. Firstly, better prices could be obtained by contacting the establishments directly. And secondly, we further discovered that we would be stopping in smaller communities over the next week and most gîtes or small hotels were not even listed in Booking.com. Hence, we spent a fair amount of time on Google maps tracking down B&B, hotels and gîtes for our upcoming stays.

2022.05.07 – Morlaix ==> Carhaix (50 kms | Total: 707 kms)

As we failed to find breakfast supplies yesterday, we opted to take the “petit déjeuner (breakfast)” at the hotel. It was a nice treat. We noticed this morning in the bicycle storage room that 5 more bicycles had showed up after us yesterday. Except for a steep hill leaving town, our cycling today was fairly easy as it followed a repurposed train track. Along the way, we met a cycling dutch couple whom we noticed at our hotel’s breakfast room. They were riding fairly loaded e-bicycles. We learned that they had left Holland five weeks ago and they would head to Spain over the next two months. Upon our arrival in town, we located our hotel and managed to access our room well ahead of the hotel reception re-opening at 5:00pm. This time around we found a large grocery store to buy our breakfast supplies. In the evening, we enjoyed some pizza and wine at a nearby restaurant. Our hotel was also hosting a bunch of cyclists for the night.

2022.05.08 – Carhaix ==> Bon Repos sur Blavet (55 kms | Total: 762 kms)

At the last minute, we opted to take in the hotel’s breakfast offering. We learned that our 30 rooms’ hotel was full yesterday – a third were occupied by cyclists. Shortly after leaving our hotel, we rejoined the EuroVelo(EV) Route 1 which followed the Nantes to Brest Canal. The cycling was easy with pleasant canal scenery. We encountered many more cyclists today along this EV cycling path segment. We met on several occasions two cyclists from the UK heading to Spain over the next few weeks. It was one of our sunniest cycling day, but we faced headwinds later in the day. As arrived at our accommodation almost two hours earlier than the check-in, we had very good omelets for lunch at a nearby cafe. We were pleased to see that our accommodation consisted of a private and modern room within “Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Repos” abbey built in 1187. We really enjoyed our first crêpe culinary experience for our dinner. Breton Crêpes and Galettes were definitely the best-known specialties from the West region of France – filled with chocolate and fruits or with ham and mushrooms as a dish.

2022.05.09 – Bon Repos sur Blavet ==> Rohan (62 kms | Total: 823 kms)

It was such a serene atmosphere looking out of our abbey window this morning. We finally ate our breakfast supplies we had bought in Carhaix. We left the abbey and rejoined our cycling route for a bit. Shortly after, the route turned inland and climbed uphill. According to Maps.me we were detouring around some lakes before rejoining the canal cycling path. We later learned that a hydro electric dam was built in the early 1930 on the Brest-Nantes Canal which flooded large parts of the area and created the lakes in question. There were no locks built to circumvent the hydro electric dam, hence the canal was forever separated in two unconnected parts. We now understood why we saw so few boats/barges on the canal. The cycling was very enjoyable while the path was almost deserted from anyone. Mid-route we stopped in the town of Pontivy for some coffee and sandwiches. Once we arrived in Rohan, we visited the only three restaurants in town and confirmed that each one of them was closed on Monday (or Monday evening). Thankfully, when we checked into our B&B, our host gracefully agreed to offer us her 3 course vegetarian table d’hôte although we had not informed her 24h ahead as requested. We were delighted by the opportunity to leverage our host’s clothes washer. Our stay at our first B&B was very enjoyable. Our hosts, Sharron and Pete – a couple originally from the UK, were very friendly and informative. We also had some good exchanges with another guest – a French single woman cyclist on an e-bike.

2022.05.10 – Rohan ==> Malestroit (53 kms | Total: 876 kms)

We had plentiful and delicious breakfast prepared by our host before leaving for another one of our cycling days. We continued our route along the Brest-Nantes canal on a very gentle incline down or level area. Again in mid-journey, we stopped for a 45 mins rest in the lovely town of Josselin. Shortly after resuming our cycling, we met the same Dutch cycling couple we encountered on our 2nd day of cycling in France. Upon our arrival in Malestroit, we stopped for some lunch supplies at a local grocery store. After that, we made our way to our very uniquely decorated accommodation which was only recently opened for business this season. For our evening meal, we returned to another crêperie restaurant.

2022.05.11 – Malestroit ==> Redon (39 kms | Total: 915 kms)

Our gîte hosts prepared a nice typical continental breakfast for us. As we left our gîte, Jenny agreed that our accommodation with shared washroom had been a much better experience than she anticipated. We easily covered the short distance to Redon aided sometime by a tail wind. In Redon, our hotel’s check-in only opened at 3:00pm, hence we found refuge in a nearby cafe and stayed there for 1.5h while drinking coffee and eating some lunch snacks. After we gained access to our room, we took a good rest until our evening meal. Our hotel manager convinced us to try out a crêperie one last time since we would be leaving the Breton region tomorrow. We really enjoyed our evening meal at the crêperie restaurant recommended by the manager.

2022.05.12 – Redon ==> Saint-Nazaire (53 kms | Total: 968 kms)

After our hotel’s continental breakfast, we set out to rejoin the canal cycling path for another 10kms. We kept hoping to come across one last lock number before leaving the canal in order to take a few photos. Since we started cycling along the Nantes to Brest canal from the town of Carhaix, we cycled passed 183 of the 236 locks along the 360 kms canal route. We left the canal path which continued to Nantes in lieu of more direct route to Saint-Nazaire. Although we were expecting a few climbs along the way, it was quite easy cycling into Saint-Nazaire. The hotel staff was nice to allow us to check-in by 1pm – a full hour before normal check-in. Later, we visited a pastry shop and a grocery store which allowed us to get enough provision for an evening meal and next morning’s breakfast.

2022.05.13 – Saint-Nazaire ==> Saint-Nazaire (0 kms | Total: 968 kms)

As yesterday marked our arrival to the head of the EuroVelo Route 6 which was meant to lead us to Romania, we took a day off to celebrate. We started our day with a breakfast stop at a nearby bakery. Later we went back to our hotel and spent an hour or two researching accommodation options for our upcoming week of cycling. The task of making reservation remained always a bit stressful as we didn’t want to mix up any dates nor the location of our accommodation. Whenever one of our targeted accommodation showed up as full, we got concerned that we might be out of luck for a decent accommodation and we might need to revert to camping out. Up to date, we managed to secure our accommodation ahead of time. We had met different type of cycle touring folks along the way – some of them booked their accommodation from the start to the end of their trip while others only looked up accommodation for the current day. We were somewhat in between those two types of travelers.

In the early afternoon, we took a city bus and headed downtown to visit two tourist attractions: Escal’Atlantique and écoMusée. Both were related to yesterday’s travelers journey onboard ocean liners, namely those were built in Saint-Nazaire. Interestingly, the building, in which the Escal’Atlantique mockups were housed, was built by Germans in WWII as one of their famous submarine station base. Back at our hotel, we repeated yesterday’s evening food routine.

Tomorrow we will need to cross the 3kms Saint-Nazaire bridge by either pushing the tandem on a narrow sidewalk or cycling on narrow road shoulder. We are hoping for some light vehicle traffic and mild wind condition to ease our journey across the bridge.