from combourg to dinan

yes, yes, yes this post is unbearably late - I have left you all in a void of suspense without an update for more than 24 hours - what can possibly have happened??? Death, romance, eloping?????

Sorry, none of those things, just a lack of wifi - or weefee as they say here.

I did write my posts on time, so here goes:


Dinan - possibly my favorite place on the whole trip - I left late from Combourg in the morning and proceeded to get massively caught in the rain on the way to Dinan. No matter, it was only spitting and it was very humid so it made quite a nice refreshing change.

Stopped off, as planned at Saint Suliac for lunch - it was as pretty as promised, sea, sand, small cottages, a random virgin statue in a mini shrine on a mountain:

Also managed to get a little bit lost but not too badly - obviously I have made up bike trip rules for myself and one of these is that if I get lost, I have to detour back to the route on my map, even if I happen to have ended up on a road that takes me closer to where I want to get to.

My luck was in whilst following this rule for the latter part of the ride - it was chucking it down, so much so that I had to have my shades on to see - must have looked like a bit of an idiot wearing shades in the pouring rain but needs must - I can't see properly if i'm squinting against the rain.

Turned out that the route I had chosen for myself was actually a great cycle and walking only path right along the river into Dinan - the rain cleared up, there were loads of fishermen, it was quiet and beautiful - result!!! Not such a result that Dinan is massively cobbled and massively hilly - cobbles + hills is more than my road bike could deal with so I had to push all the way up the Rue Jerusalim (found out later this is the most famous road in Dinan).

Got to my charming digs, above a pub, showered, changed and headed straight off on the walking tour of the ramparts - the brochure the lady at the hotel gave me had two walking tours: old town and ramparts> I plumped for the latter as I figured I had already seen some of the old town and each tour was two hours so I could only squeeze one in before dinner.

Two hours my eye - after a mere hour I had finihsed the ramparts tour and set off on the old town tour - much to my delight this included several vintage shops!!!!! very well behaved, didn't buy anything, I think my frame and bags will crack if I try to cram more in.......

Dinan is very touristy but that's fine because it's sooooo cute and prettty:


Stopped off at the hotel for a G&T (please note the wonderful conical flask-esque glass, this would make a great gift for any chemist) before heading to a cute restaurant on the river for, at last, moules!!!! So many I could not finish the whole pot!!!!