St. Coulomb

A peaceful night beside the canal last night, The sun set around ten o' clock, setting the canal alight.

Moored nearby to us, was an English couple on a narrow boat. The man, spent most of the evening jumping on and off the boat, shouting into his mobile phone,  jumping on his bicycle and riding up the road, only to return a short time later, when. he'd repeat the whole process. He was really quite manic.

At lunch time we stopped at St. Malo for John to look at an inflatable kayak. The shop was right beside the port. After, we were hoping to stop at Cancale, for John to buy some oysters from one of the stalls on
the beach, but the town is small, and does not along motorhomes within 2km of the port. So instead, we journeyed to tonight's aire at St. Coulomb.

We are lucky, to have a space at the end, with views of the surrounding countryside and St.Malo.

A short walk in either direction, takes you to the beach. Angela walked out on her own, choosing the path that ran above the beach. The coastline is pure Brittany,  stretches of white sandy beaches and rocks off the shore. Despite it being warm, there was a keen breeze. "What's that flapping in the wind?" "Look, there's another one". On 'closer' inspection, it materialised that amongst these men, there was a smattering of ladies, also displaying their wares. As Angela walked back to Marge, several men on bicycles, were heading to the beach. It was just approaching five o' clock, the start of 'Happy Hour'.

This evening, we will both take a walk out to view the..... idyllic view. Our plan tomorrow, is to drive to Mortain, known as 'Little Switzerland'.

La Chapelle-aux-Filtzmeens

We were quite late leaving this morning, as Marge needed a wash. John assumed his 'tank commander' position up on her roof, and began the job. Marge always looks 'the lived in' van on the aire, the French vans gleaming, like they are valeted daily.

We stopped for lunch at a picnic area, just south of Rennes. Suddenly, we were surrounded by English people. Where had they all come from? We have barely seen a dozen English registered vehicles, in all the time, we've been away. We were on the main road to St. Malo, and these people were obviously heading to the car ferry.

Mid afternoon, we arrived at Montreuil-sur-Ille. We walked into the town, both agreeing, that the church with its concrete spire, was the ugliest we'd ever seen, and we've seen a lot of churches.

We then walked out to the edge of the town, and along a footpath than ran along the side of a cornfield.

In the back garden of a house, a solitary sheep, posed for a photograph. Finally, we were back down by the canal, and could see Marge in the distance. But once back at the van, we noticed some young people hanging about, and decided we wouldn't stay the night here as planned, despite its pretty location.

So we drove on for a further half an hour, to La Chapelle-aux-Filtzmeems. We are sited alongside the moored boats, by the same canal as our last stop.

Tomorrow, we plan to head up to the coast, to St. Malo.

Blain

Last evening, we walked down to the edge of the Lac de Grand-Lieu. Scattered on the ground, were many crayfish shells. The waterlilies floated on the surface of the water, their flowers not far of bursting into a sunburst of yellow. The sun was just beginning to set, the lake surface catching the last of its rays. As we walked back, we could see the observatory, towering above the tourist information office. Walking back to Marge, we discussed how the 'aires' directory, had led us to see some sights, we would never had seen.

This morning, before we left Passay, we once again walked down to the edge of the lake. On one of the small fishing boats, we could see the 'king' of fishing. A heron stood still, and statuesque, whilst keeping a keen eye on the surrounding waters.

In the lake, a van belonging to one of the fisherman stood. We presumed he'd driven it into there, to gain easy access in and out of his boat.

Around eleven o' clock we departed to a nearby town, where John was hoping to visit a company who sold a folding canoe. But after some investigation as to their whereabouts, including being taken into a ladies house, he learnt the business was no more, after closing down as the result of a fire.

We didn't want to travel so far today, after yesterday's drive, and also because we preferred to stay south for as long as possible.

So we drove to Blain, slightly north of Nantes. Stopping on the edge of the town, to do a fairly large shop. This will probably be our last now, until Sunday or Monday, when we will stop to buy wine to bring home. The supermarket was quiet, a very large girl, drove around on an industrial sized floor cleaning machine, better suited for outside. We felt, it perhaps would have been more beneficial to her health, to have issued her with a broom!

Our aire tonight, is near to the Nante-Brest canal. In fact the path that runs beside it, is literally a few metres from us. Before we set off on a late afternoon walk, excitement broke out outside the aire. A large supermarket delivery lorry, the female driver obviously mislead by her sat nav, realised she was heading into a nearby residential area, and needed to back up. But. The roads on the junction were narrow, and frequented with road signs. The French, who love a drama, and equally love to all have an opinion, gathered to assist. We all know, when you're in a tight spot, you really would rather 'Joe Public' left you to it. Not here. Two individuals, not realising that driving a lorry with a trailer, is not the same as driving a car, decided to give direction. Not wanting the French to think the English weren't interested, we walked down to watch the circus from a safe distance. Then, a municipal police lady arrived. Should all be O.K. now, she'll take over the directing of the lorry, from this totally clueless pair. No, totally clueless pair, you carry on doing a bad job, and I'll just halt the traffic, whilst you do. Just the one van! But give her, her due, she did look a little concerned when the lorry was heading for a give way sign! After, some slow reversing, the red faced, flustered lorry driver sighed with relief, thanked the 'helpful' police lady, and set off towards the main road. We couldn't help but feel if the police lady had not been there, the lorry driver would have taken down all the signs, and thought 'to hell with it!'

The French, now having something 'exciting' to talk about for the rest of the day, remained in huddles.

We took a walk to the Chateau de all Groulais, where a photographic exhibition was being held.

To view the exhibits', we had to climb the many steps of the tower, making us comment on the Wallace Monument in Stirling, Scotland, where John's mum worked as a young girl.

After the chateau visit, the temperature now in the 'cool' thirties, we walked to a nearby bar, to ask if they would be televising the women's world cup match, England versus America. 'Non' was the reply, but we might try a bar up by the church.

After a long walk into town, to no avail, we were directed to The Cafe Clap! A run down bar, on the edge of town. The man at the bar, confirmed they would be showing the match, and that he'd be supporting England, so all good then.

We left, deciding to give Cafe Clap a miss, for obvious reasons, and instead will watch the football on our pad.

All quiet at the aire tonight, shame the lorry driver didn't displace a sign or two, it would have given the locals something to talk about until the end of the week!