Pont l'Abbe - Tregunc: On a round-about route - Brittany - Loire Valley - Burgundy 2010

June 9, 2010

Pont l'Abbe - Tregunc: On a round-about route

We're ready to leave but the weather isn't ready. We wait until ten for it to stop raining, and then decide we would like to be on our way if the weather isn't going to cooperate. I'm soon sweating inside my rain jacket and again feel cold and clammy.

We decide to dress for the weather and get going.

Castle in Pont l'Abbé, but we aren't stopping for sightseeing in the rain.

I would have loved to try the specialty with this intriguing Breton name but it was too early in the day for lunch. I have since read that the name in Breton literally means "meat and flour", with flour typically alluding to buckwheat flour. The dish contains salted pork knuckles and beef along with vegetables such as carrots and cabbage.

Nice stone architecture, La chapelle Sainte Brigitte du Perguet

An early stone sculpture depicting St. Lawrence with a gridiron on which he is said to have been martyred. According to the legend, during his torture Lawrence cried out "Assum est, inquit, versa et manduca" (This side is done, turn me over and have a bite). This is often quoted explaining why Lawrence is the Patron Saint of comedians, butchers and roasters.

We make an early lunch stop in a restaurant and get a bigger lunch than I really want in the middle of the day. My French wasn't functioning well today and I must have been saying "oui, oui" when I should have been asking the waitress to please repeat what she just said.

We would have loved to take advantage of the hard discount but it was too cold for a picnic lunch.

By the time we have finished lunch, the sun comes out. What a difference! We make some poor road choices on our way to Concarneau which result in some rather senseless detours, the first one to avoid traffic and the second one to avoid steeper climbs. In the end we have many unnecessary kilometers but don't manage to avoid the busy road or the hills.

The sun is out for Notre Dame d'Izel in La Foret Fouesnant

But the indirect route does afford us a view of the ocean, always rewarding.

We have cycled down to the coast, the coast is always down, but to continue we must go back up.

When we reach Concarneau, a medieval walled town and a large fishing port, we see there are masses of people. It's a lovely town and no wonder it's so popular, just a little crowded for our taste. We don't stay long.

We head a few more kilometers down the road before we stop for the day. In Trégunc the tourist office recommends a B&B in a private home which resembles a manor, a little way out of town. The grounds and garden are lovely, but our simple room, cramped and damp, was probably a garage at one time. We do no laundry today.

We ride back into town for a pizza. Either I never noticed or it's a relatively recent development but in small towns you will invariably find a pizzeria even if there is no other eating place. Once I wrote (I think it was four years ago) that the French do not know how to make pizza, they top it with smoked salmon and creme fraiche and other strange things. Mama mia. Now if that were a quiche, okay, but on a pizza? Things have changed and we enjoy many excellent pizzas on this trip.

Today's ride: 46 km (29 miles)
Total: 236 km (147 miles)

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