Day 57: Josselin to Mur de Bretagne

May 22, 2018

We did learn a little bit more about Trisha and Tony, our hosts in Josselin. They had lived in Japan for many years and had been in lots of other countries too. Trisha has a doctorate in Celtic studies and had been a dancer and a teacher. Tony had worked in real estate and also is a squash coach. He was well aware of Jonathan Powers, our one Canadian squash star. Obviously with all that background we could have chatted for a long time, but of course the trail is always calling.

The trail in question - the Velodysee along the Nantes-Brest Canal - runs right by the B&B, so to get on it we did not even return to pass the castle. It was just zap - back in the watery and green pedaling dream. Before waxing more lyrical about what that was like, maybe we should check on where exactly we are. First off, this is Brittany, a place for which our appreciation is growing mightily each day. It is lush - much like southern England, and it has the Breton language, which adds a foreign or mystical touch to everything. The place names sound like they are from Tolkien, and actually some argue that Tolkien took a certain lot of his inspiration from here.

If you look closely at the map, you will see Nantes in the lower right. That is where we started this leg. Then diagonally to the north and west there is Redon, where we slept, and continuing the line, Josselin from last night. Now we are at Mur de Bretagne, still on the same line. Mur is the point at which the Velodysee parts company with the Canal, and continues north and west toward Morlaix, and Roscoff on the coast. The Nantes-Brest Canal, of course, is more interested in heading for Brest!

Once we do reach Morlaix, we will turn East and begin to follow the Tour de Manche, wiggling near to the rocky coast and generally going to St Malo and Mont St Michel.

So yes, we took to the trail, making initially for Rohan, which you can also spot on the map. Rohan is the name of the family that took over the Josselin chateau somewhere in the 1300's (as I recall from the pamphlet), and they still live there. They were also at the chateau in Pontivy, and no doubt the Rohan name was given to the town we were headed for. I just joked to Dodie that maybe this had something to do with the Riders of Rohan. Later in the day we learned that maybe it actually did.

Today, maybe a little more than in the quite wonderful past two, I had the feeling of riding through a garden or park, all the time. You could easily call the Canal a bicycle Parkway. It's amazing that something this long, this well paved, well signed, and beautiful is seemingly less known than the problematic Canal du Midi. Have a look at some of the canal side photos from today. Hopefully you will see what I mean:

We have become accustomed to this lovely view

The sound of flowing water. The fact that it is coming towards us, though, shows that we were gradually climbing for most of the day. For one section the direction did reverse and it was glorious.

Restful green and brown patterns of adjacent fields.

We believe the lillies bloom for only very short periods, so these were a luck find.

We went in to Rohan to mail our little parcel to Gabin, Aurel and Chloe's son from Nantes, to find some food for lunch, and also to get a tourist map of Brittany. All of these chores could happen in the central square of the little town, and I enjoyed watching the people come and go while I was standing with the bikes. The square is not so perfect, because cars are parked in the centre and in front of the shops, but still it did have a bakery, post office, two banks, city hall, news stand-tabac, etc. The market and church are around the corner. In the news stand Dodie found about six cycling guide books for Brittany, and was sorely tempted to buy one that covered all the major routes -Canal, Velodysee, Tour de Manche, EV 4, etc. But we know these are too heavy to be dragging around, and too thick to easily go in the map case. We were still looking for a tourist map, and one thing missing from the town was a Tourist Information. So I went in to City Hall. A glass door from the small entry hall led to an office, where a worker stood chatting with someone by a counter. I went in and was immediately asked to go wait outside. No "I'll be right with you" or "How can we help you". Well la de da I thought, and took the rest of my business out of Rohan and to the next town. So Rohan got downgraded in my book. And I didn't see any evidence of Riders, either.

The next town was Pontivy. This is a much bigger place than Rohan, and boasts a major (oh,oh, Rohan controlled) chateau. We climbed high enough to get a shot of it, and then rolled down through the streets back to the canal. I was looking for that really great shot of medieval buildings in a narrow street, but Pontivy did not seem to quite offer this. I did record what we saw, which is fair enough.

Pontivy. As far as I could see, those decorative umbrellas were functional ones.

Pontivy to Mur was more of the idyllic scenery and riding that I tried to illustrate above. The lillies closeup, by the way, came from a whole pond or basin in the canal of them, which also happened to have a shaded bench. That is where we ate our lunch. It was really something to remember.

As we approached Mur, we were also coming to the Guerledan hydroelectic dam. This, and the lake behind it, are no big deal by Canadian standards. But the thing did become famous when in 2015 they drained the lake in order to repair and maintain the dam. Apparently this uncovered a drowned village, which some former residents were allowed to visit.

We only got to within 1 km of the dam, because at that point our route, the Velodysee, deviated from the Canal route. We were directed to a right turn, and wham - a long 15% grade. I had suspected that this idyllic canal route was leading us into such a trap! But ha ha, the e-assist bikes were up to it and we cranked our way to the village.

The place we had booked is called "Pear Blossom House", which is owned by a British couple, Carol and Harvey. The building is typically Brittany, built of brown stone, with blue trim, and old. We were warmly greeted by Harvey and his 11 year old grandson George. George had lots of questions about our bikes, especiallythe batteries and how we charge them. George is very interested in little electrical things, so this was right up his alley.

Our room, up the wood stairs and with rough wood floors is wonderfully outfitted with plush armchairs, soft bed with big quilt, desk, armoir, bathtub, and large windows allowing a cross breeze, and with a view down to the fields in the valley below.

In an old house, with big windows, fresh air, and fluffy quilt - we could not be happier.

p.s. The idea of links between this land and Lord of the Rings is still something unresearched and undeveloped in my mind. However the place names and countryside do seem to fit. And just now I am looking at a pamphlet for a presentation that happened at the Abbaye de Bon-Repos, which is coming up on our route tomorrow. The elf-like lady on the cover does seem to have been conceived with something Middle Earth -like in mind. Comments?

Today's ride: 78 km (48 miles)
Total: 3,821 km (2,373 miles)

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