Ka Pai Kiwis - Europe 25

 Unusual today, we did not stay in a hotel but a private apartment last night. Therefore no hotel breakfast we had to go on the hunt. Fortunately it only took a few km’s to find a nice brasserie with outdoor tables overlooking a lovely bay. “Deux petit dejeuner si vous plais” gets you tea or  coffee a glass of orange juice, 2 baggettes, 2 croissants and a variety of spreads.  Replete, we hit the road and a couple of hours later we arrived at the picture postcard town of Saint Malo. Just another amazing fortress town although this one has grown substantially beyond its original fortress walls. However it is the old town we came to see.  The cars were parked along the road for miles, we knew it is a popular tourist town but really?  Soon we realised a half marathon event was in progress, people absolutely everywhere.  One advantage of the motorbike is that parking is never an issue, just look out for other parked bikes and line up alongside, usually on a foot...

 It is still very grey and moody in these parts. It was dry when we set off, we knew we would be in rain soon so donned our ww gear. Sure enough just up the road it started and it didn’t really let up all morning. Our first port of call today is in fact another port town called Brest.  We were headed to the maritime museum. This museum is housed in the town fort. There has been fortifications on the site since roman times, they have been destroyed and rebuilt at various times since then. The last major demolition occurred during WW2 when the allies bombed the place to dislodge the Germans.  The museum is fascinating and traces the history of the early French explorers who joined all the other great powers of the time to explore and conquer the new world.  Brest has always been and is to this day a major ship building and repair port and a major base for the navy.  There was a very cool display of models of nuclear propelled and armed submarines. Crikey those mis...

 We woke to rain this morning, and quite a bit of it. But after breakfast it eased a bit so we packed up and headed out of town. We had less than 100km to go today so pretty easy.  The first leg was to a very old town called Loncronon.  Incredibly old and the church there dates back to 1430. It is still pretty much as it was then, in fact the whole town is very original. I did notice one or two wooden beams with steel underneath to stop them falling down.I wonder if our buildings will be around in 1100 years time?   The town itself it full of art and craft shops. The tour buses hadn’t arrived so everything was closed. We are in the heart of Brittany which has Celtic origins. There is a Brittany language separate to French, not widely spoken but it is still alive.  Translated - workshop of weaving - sadly closed today.  The rain persisted and I’m happy to report that Robyn’s new raincoat passed the test. ( Mark has jacket envy now and wants a new jacket...

  A bit of a change from houses and cathedrals.  This is a really nice town with really cool old town and obligatory Cathedral . This is a serious Cathedral with two spires. There must have been a massive imbalance of resources for the incredible architecture that the Catholic church managed to build during several centuries. Not to mention what the aristocracy built as well. Anyway it is a marvel to behold even to this day.  Today for us has been a mix of sightseeing and chores. Robyn needed a raincoat so we tracked down a hiking store that had a great selection. We also got some washing done at a laundromat. We had a nice lunch, then wandered some more and back to base for a bit of forward planning. It is coming together nicely and we only have a few gaps left to fill. I did suggest we abandon the whole thing and go the the Dutch Grand Prix but changed my mind when I saw the only seats left are 550 Euros each and it’s most likely going to rain on all 3 days.  Our p...

  A very good day today.  We headed out of town and got gas really easily. Yay good start. Then we wound our way along D roads which weren’t too bad but slow all the same. Like any journey through the back blocks every day you will cross 1000 round abouts and bump over 2000 judder bars. All the same we saw some quite posh houses in this area and many with thatched roofs.  Rain threatened all the way and we were on wet roads but apart from the occasional sprinkle we remained dry.  We stopped for lunch and good wander around the coastal port town of  Auray. Tourists everywhere, mostly French but a smattering od German and Italian languages could be heard. Lovely port town with the requisite castle, Cathedral and defensive wall.  Left overs from the market. We saw this on our walk. Beautifully crafted out of wood.  We messed about here for ages and the weather was looking decidedly dodgy so we went on the route nationale for 50 km to make up a bit of time...