September 21, 2021
Tréguier to Lannion
Brittany is hilly. There. I said it. I feel like it doesn't necessarily have to be, but our route takes us down to a little seaside town, up to the farmlands, and back down to another town over and over again. Don't get me wrong: the towns are great. They're pretty, they have tempting shops, and nice places to park our bikes and take a break. The farm scenery is lovely, too, if a little repetitive. We see a lot of corn, chard, and surprisingly, artichokes! Plenty of cows and steers, horses, a few goats, and even a donkey or two. The best moments are when you're cursing the climb out of town, and a clearing gives you a spectacular view of the sea and the cliffs.
We had galettes for our camp breakfast, with a casual 9:30 start to the ride. There's a 17th-century aqueduct just behind the farm, which we tried and failed to find yesterday. On our way out, we took the path on the west side of the river. We got just close enough to snap a couple photos without trespassing (much) on private property:
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We discovered that the town of Perros-Guirec was the starting point of the 2nd stage of this year's Tour de France:
We planned our lunch well in advance by including a stop at the Trégastel Super U, followed by a quick backtrack to the beach. It's a good thing we did, because this landscape was unlike anything we've seen so far:
There were even people riding horses and letting their dogs tromp around in the mudflats. And of course, we found ourselves a nice picnic table on which to spread our bounty. It was hard to get back on our bikes knowing that we were barely halfway through the day's ride. One of the tasks I completed during our break was to book a room in Morlaix for tomorrow and Thursday nights. So now we're locked in to our chosen schedule. The pressure is on!
We weren't feeling as strong as yesterday, but it was still better than previous days. The morning was calm, allowing us to rack up some kilometers, but we did face some headwinds in the afternoon. We reached our destination town of Lannion at 5:30. It's a big place, and at this time of the day, traffic is hectic. We finally found ourselves next to the river on a nice little road. It felt a little sketchy though. We found the back entrance to the campground. Locked. We found the "aire de camping car" on the other side of the bridge, which had explicit "no tents, no caravans" signs posted. We retraced our steps and found the front entrance to the campground. Also locked. We were just about to give up, when someone who looked like an employee from the attached sports facility offered to help us. We're not sure if he actually worked there or not, but he went inside a building, returned a couple minutes later, and said he couldn't find anyone who knew anything about the campground. So we gave up.
I found a nearby hotel, which we reached just after reception closed at 6:00. The door was still open, so Sunyoung went inside. The clerk said sorry, too late, I've already shut down the computer. Ready to try our luck elsewhere, another clerk chased after her and said, you know what, we can just register you in the morning. So after finding the parking garage, which wasn't easy, and a lot of shuffling of needed vs. unneeded luggage, we find ourselves in a somewhat worn but very functional hotel room, with a bathtub (great for sore muscles) and a kitchenette (great for a couple who expected to cook dinner themselves tonight). Although not nearly as cheap as camping, the price is reasonable and we're happy. We've been very good about camping. We were due for some luxury relative to our primitive lifestyle of late, but we didn't think we'd get it quite so soon. It should make tomorrow's last big hilly day a little easier to conquer.
Today's ride: 69 km (43 miles)
Total: 888 km (551 miles)
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