LA MANCHE A BICYCLETTE

June 17-21, 2005

Friday we went to the Internet café to upload our reports.  Since they offer WiFi we just sat at an outside table and had a cup of coffee while the reports processed.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday have been quite sunny and warm.  We have made a point of getting an early start and have enjoyed some very nice country and oceanside bike rides.  Don has done a great job of finding pretty little country lanes with no traffic.

Saturday night there was some kind of a party going on across the street.  We could hear someone on a loudspeaker calling out dance instructions like a square dance, or maybe it was musical chairs, because the music would stop from time to time and the speaker would have something to say.  This was all well and good, except it went on until 4am.  We originally thought this was some kind of a religious service, but perhaps this building is the community meeting hall and it was some kind of a local dance or festival.  Today, Sunday, there are still a lot of cars and people there.  We hope they go home before dark!

Sunday Damien and Lydie stopped by to check in and be sure everything was ok.  We enjoyed a nice visit with them and reassured them that everything is great.  I guess I really haven’t told much about their house.  The house sits on a hill and overlooks a beautiful, pastoral scene of green hills and ocean.  At night we can watch the sun go down (if we can stay awake until 10:30 pm) and we have seen some gorgeous sunsets.  The main floor of the house has a kitchen/dining room, toilet and laundry room, and a living room.  The second floor has a nice, large study, bathroom and bedroom.  The third floor has two more bedrooms and a shower.  There is a large yard with a nice vegetable garden, huge lawn and patio.  The front of the house has a courtyard, enclosed by gates.  There are two rooms in an outbuilding, where we store our bikes.  Don thinks they should be developed into chambre d’hotes.

Monday we went to Mont St. Michel.  We got there nice and early, so beat the crowds, which were arriving by the busload as we were leaving.  We walked down the narrow medieval road that leads from the gate into the walled town and up to the abbey and church, weaving our way through the hordes of tourists.  Now, in the middle of June the tourist season has definitely started.   This place is always very impressive to see from afar because it juts up majestically on the rocky island and the golden Saint Michael statue, which tops the spire, sits high and soaring above the land.

After our tour of Mont St. Michel we rode our bikes around the nearby countryside following one of the published velo routes.  Whoever put these routes together has done a great job.  Often we find that bike routes are created by someone who doesn’t actually ride a bike, and they are on main roads with the aim of getting you somewhere fast.  These nice velo routes we are enjoying in France stick to the back roads and dedicated bike paths and are just great.  On this route we passed by an old restored windmill, which is still used to grind wheat.

Tuesday we went north for another bike ride, stopping at a partially restored chateau in Gratot.  We did the self-guided tour because the ruin looked so lovely.  It was very interesting.  The guide was available in several languages, so we picked up the English version and read all 40(!) pages.  In addition to giving the history of the manor house and information about the various transformations it has been through, there was a great deal of information about the restoration project, which was done by volunteers.  The buildings have not been completely restored, but enough so one can imagine what it would be like to live there in the 14^th century.