August 13, 2013
St Meen le Grand to Loudeac: Voie Vert the whole way
When you look at cycle guides you see smiling people riding effortlessly along perfectly surfaced tracks well away from the threat of any sort of motor vehicle. Of course the sun is shining and they carry no load except for the odd water bottle. Today was rather like that though of course our ever present load was with us.
Bobet having won the Tour de France 3 times (1953,54 and 55) is the pride of St Meen and a huge poster of his yellow jersey adorns the main square and the grand Hotel de Ville has a massive banner on it proclaiming it to be ‘Pays de Velo’. We left town following some local Bobet want-a-bes and soon we were on the Voie Vert which was to take us for our entire journey. By coffee time we were near Merdrignac and as luck would have it Madam was just opening up her Bar. The coffee was large and strong and we enjoyed the patrons who came in and shock hands with everyone, including us. Back to the Voie Vert we came to a group of very heavily laden French cycle tourists. Not only did they have panniers but two of them had massive trailers similar to the ones used to transport babies. In one of these of course was a very happy looking relaxing dog. ‘Tres gentile’ the owner told us. They were going relatively small distances and camping along the way. They were not young and looked as if they were having plenty of fun. I wondered what it was like with such massive loads, ours seem bad enough, then I saw the electric assist on the bikes. We set off with Ken concerned that they would overtake and pass us, I couldn’t have cared less.
The rail trail is fantastic in that it has retained and kept maintained the buildings all along the way. Many of them like the crossing houses are in private ownership but not all of them. There are railworkers shelters complete with fire places, and many little shelters which were obviously for passengers. The stations are magnificent and look extremely solidly built. The one near Pelmet, clearly in public ownership, has a big picnic area around it and many photographs of the line when it was operational. We stopped for lunch and at the adjoining table was a family of Grandma, Granddad and two children. Granddad on his racing bike (the same as Bobet’s) and the children on their mountain bikes had ridden the trail from Loudeac. Grandma had driven in the van with a sumptuous picnic. We chatted using my fractured French and learnt how he had been in the Marines before he retired and had spent time visiting New Zealand. They warmly invited us to stay in Loudeac with them but the effort of talking French, and attempting to translate for Ken, for a long time at the end of the day felt too exhausting. So we were sorry to decline the kind offer and to stay instead in the hotel they recommended.
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Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 902 km (560 miles)
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