We woke up in our airless internal cabin only an hour before our arrival in St Malo. We grabbed a quick drink at one of the ferry's many cafés before finding our bike on one of the lower decks. Thanks to the helpful dockers, we were one of the first to get on the ferry and one of the first to disembark. As far as we know, were were the only ones cycling onto to ferry – although there were plenty of cars and campers with bikes on bike racks.
After grabbing a quick pain au chocolate at a bakery in St Malo, we headed towards Mont St Michel via a coastal road that was mostly traffic-free. Unlike our coastal riding in Cornwall, the coastal road was quite flat and the weather was beautiful. The otherwise perfect morning was slightly marred by an exploding inner-tube caused by over inflation mixed with hot weather – and we managed to break the pump (a torn rubber seal) while inflating our spare tube. Luckily, we have also been carrying a spare mini- gas canister for emergency inflation.
For lunch, we stopped for a gallette (ie a Breton savoury crepe) which Simon washed down with a bottle of Breton cider. By the time we reached Mont St Michel, it was 3pm and the whole place was awash with tourists (including fully uniformed American and German (?!) soldiers in Normandy for the D-day celebrations). We took a whistle-stop tour and snapped the mandatory holiday pictures (see above) before jumping back on the tandem towards Combourg.
The route took us past a working windmill (and many non-working ones) and through some beautiful forests and villages. By the end (or perhaps slightly before the end), Brittany was completely exhausted – we may have lost some cycling fitness by taking a week off. We eventually found a hotel by a pretty lake just across from Combourg's château.
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