Day 16: Sun 26th July
Shady cycling on old railway lines and along peaceful canal paths
Today has been a very pleasant day cycling from Bains-de-Breton through the countryside, sometimes using an old railway track. The French are good at this. I did try and follow Google at one point, but they got it wrong (again!) for me. However, I was soon at Messac where I stayed some years ago with some of my Lewes cycling chums. I is on the which is on the River La Vilaine, which takes me north to Rennes. The river is also a canal, and this means there’s a towpath and therefore a good cycling path. It’s route number 42, which actually goes on eventually to Saint-Malo.
So there’s nothing more to do but just cycle along what would’ve been the haulage track alongside the canal and enjoy the ride. Shade sometimes, quite often, and it’s been very pleasant. The temperature’s been very pleasant, and there’s been very pleasant views, and it’s very calming compared to the stress of cycling up through those pine forests further down at Cap Ferret, where, as we know, a short while after I was there, they went up in flames. But even before that, it was very hot and very tiring. Today is a dream compared to that. Very enjoyable.
And so I arrive in good time to check into a hotel in the center of Rennes. I selected a hotel very close to where the La Vilaine canal and river join up with the River La Rance, and that means in the morning of the following day, I can just cycle a few hundred yards and get on the track. Going through Rennes on the cycleways is a dream, quite frankly. Superb. Only a short piece had to be done on a road. So all in all, it’s been a very pleasant day.