We Love France

France greeted us in full with abundance:  a sunny day, a beautiful landscape, small cute villages and patisseries with pain au chocolate and other delicious baked things.  

On our first morning in France we  visited and breakfasted with Tifane and Olivier, friends through Suzanne’s job teaching at the Ecole Bilangue in Berkeley, and Olivier’s family.  It was an excellent first stop as they were all from Bretagne and gave us pointers on where to go (in short: the coast) and helped us figure out what trains we might take for those parts where we don’t want to bike. 

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First of many pain au chocolat to be eaten in France.

There is no getting around the fact that France is just an easier place to bike tour than Ireland.   There is camping facilities and bakeries  everywhere, providing cheap and easy shelter and fuel for wandering cyclists.  The food is amazing.  And everyone drives on the right side of the road (we had to swerve across the road a couple of times when we accidentally reverted, Irish-style, to left).

We spent our first night in an amazing campground in Primel-Trégastel, part of the town of Plougasnou, with Carmel-by-the-sea grade views but at $10 a night and half the campground was empty. 

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We also biked through nearby Morlaix, a scenic town of 16,000 with two stunning bridges overhead and hundreds of sailboats in the channel running through town. 

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We’ll be continuing east along the coast over the next few days to Mont Ste Michelle and then getting on a train heading south — probably from St. Malone to Bordeaux. 

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6 Comments

  1. So good to hear of your delightful time in France. The photos are clear and colorful; your narratives are detailed and colorful as well! I trust you’re using your French and impressing the locals. Continued blessings on your way! We’re experiencing quite a heat wave like so much of the country “over here”.

  2. Joe and Suzanne,
    What fun to see you enjoying your travels; what beauty. Too bad Ireland is so dreadful on ease of travel and lodging! Suzanne, what joy to see your relatives and introduce your terrific Joe!
    Blessings on your days.
    Love,
    Sue Schreiber

  3. Hi, I am happy that you enjoyed your bike trip in my country. We are accustomed to say that France is the most beautiful country in the world. May be for that reason we are the first for the number of tourists (70 millions each year). But, mor serious, I think that there are many most beautiful countries in the world. I began that year to make a bike trip in France, from Alsace, in the East of France, where I live, until Royan, by the Atlantic coast: 1027 km in then days. It was marvelous. I hope now that I ‘m going to continue, and discover other countries and continents mab be. Au revoir to everybody. Friendship of a biker Claude, from Alsace (59 years old)

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