Day 21: Dinan to Mont St Michel

On By Sharron YaxleyIn Europe, France

Today was an interesting day that did not go quite according to plan. It started off fine. We enjoyed our breakfast and catch up with Christophe who insisted on taking our photo in front of Patricia’s house (his multi-talented Tasmanian friend).

We also both like the song Caberet (Liza Minnelli) and enjoyed remembering the words…..I used to gave this girlfriend known as Elsie, with whom I shared a flat in Chelsea….that song was to play in my mind a lot of the ride 😊. We both said we’d felt like we’d known each other for year, so a lovely holiday memory.

Tony at breakfast, some of Christophe’s eclectic collection behind him
Tony and Christophe in front of Patricia’s house

Hugs and goodbyes and we went around the corner to grab these photos of the chateau. Check out how thick the walls are.

We descended down the hill and crossed the river, climbing up and down. About 15 km in, I heard a loud noise on one climb like a gear drilling back and missing cleanly. Thought it might be a cyclist behind me, but no.

A little further on I noticed Tony’s rear wheel seemed a bit off. He was discovering the same thing and stopped knowing what it was. A rear spoke had broken.

Not an easy fix being the rear wheel with the cassette. What to do. We googled bike shops and the nearest was 15 km away in Dol de Bretagne. There were more at St Malo. Could maybe grab a taxi there?

We rode a bit slower and carefully, then I took Tony’s rear panniers, and he took mine so that we could minimise what weight was being borne by the rear wheel.

It was worrying for sure. Stressful thinking of the ‘if, then, but’ options. The downside to touring alone but we would figure it out.

The first two bike shops both advertised as electric bikes but we thought worth a shot. The first involved a hairy goat track so we gave up on that as it was the last surface we wanted a weakened wheel on and headed for the second.

The internet said the second one was open now, but there was a FERME sign (meaning closed) on the house gate. However I did find out that there was a third bike shop in centreville named Cycles Rome. We dashed around there and certainly the front was more promising.

We walked in the door and there was a guy with a wheel on the wheel truing frame. He had been fixing a broken spike on another bike.

We knew we had found our man. He spoke no English, but with my minimal French and some charades we got by.

A sight no cyclist enjoys seeing

He finished the wheel he was working on and then got cracking with ours. He is over the back in the picture. Obviously a cyclist as he had the smoothest looking calf muscles ever!

He was fastidious making some adjustments to the brake caliper when the tyre went back in. He was able to close the shop door at 12 noon for lunch and off we went, very thankful and happy and relieved.

We decided to grab some lunch. A fresh baguette from the boulangerie, bananas from a small fruit store and we sat down at the Tabac ordering coffee.

A peculiar rule is Tony could not consume the drink from the takeaway cabinet in the tabac at the table as I drank my coffee, but it is ok to eat food purchased elsewhere. We’ve often availed ourselves of the latter.

Dol de Bretagne was founded in the 6th century and like many other villages, long occupied by the Vikings! Some lovely old buildings.

The town is also the reputed origins of the royal House of Stewart, who became monarchs of Scotland, England and Ireland.

If we had to have the problem we did, it was the right day. We had a shorter day planned on the bike as we wanted to be at our accomodation right on check in.

We cruised through multiple small villages. Some putting effort into their quirky welcomes.

Cute newer cottage
That’s me sitting on the beach chair as we enter this village
Baguettes and bread ovens
Mont st Michel
Tony sitting at another beach scene
Nice church?

The last 10 km or so into Mont St Michel was on a shared pathway. Gravel for the most, then sealed. There was a super strong headwind, and the closer we got, the more people there were.

The Mont was clearly in view.

Passing by buildings with nice artwork.

We got to our hotel at 2.40 pm. Check in was 3 pm and not a minute earlier per the man at reception so we sat and waited. Right on 3 pm the man at reception nodded and he gave us the key. 🤣

A quick shower and we walked to the Mont, 3 km along the boardwalks. There are free buses continually ferrying people back and forwards and they were packed.

Mont St Michel “Merveille de l’Occident” (Wonder of the West) is an important pilgrimage site since the Middle Ages, and now a famous UNESCO World Heritage site.


Dedicated to Saint-Michel in 708, it is one of France’s most visited sites with around 2.5 million visitors and pilgrims. Think they were all there today!

It rises in the middle of a beautiful bay, with the abbey perched on top of a rocky island, the medieval town by ramparts.

As you get closer you can see the hordes on the walkway.

We headed straight to the abbey which costs 11 euro each. There is lots of climbing. Lots of steps! There were lots of people ahead of us and behind us. Conga line. One seagull.

Looking down across the buildings to the empty bay, low tide.
Looking up at a transport means for goods up to the chapel
Looking up at an old travellator.

The view from the top across the bay was astounding. Right to the cape the tide is out. There are multiple groups walking across the sand including one nearer the little island. It would be interesting to watch the tide coming in.

The abbey spire

This view is looking back along the boardwalks. Our accomodation is down in the darker green area adjacent to the river. It is 6 km return trip plus walking around the Mont.

The monks cloisters

The Mont is interesting. The abbey is super old and nice to visit. Incredible structures inside but we did not take photos as quoted ark plus the constant human surge.

Mt biggest takeaway from the visit was the view of the bay at low tide.

The rest of the visit? Totally over commercialised. Tourists like I’ve never witnessed before maybe bar Venice. To be honest, that part was horrid.

It was like trying to get out of an Escape Room experience, or maybe the IKEA stores where you are trapped in a vortex and need to go with the flow to find the exit that seems to never appear.

There are shops as you descend down the very narrow, cobbled alleyway, and I am super thankful I did not end up booking accomodation on the island like I initially planned. it would have been a nightmare pushing our bikes up through the mass of people( many having brought their dogs).

Nice to look at from a distance, but not for me. The people part was overwhelming.

So I’m going to chill in the sun. Rain and thunderstorms forecast in a few days so soaking it up.

No map today as could not upload our data using the hotel wifi.

Thanks for reading 😊❣️

18 thoughts on “Day 21: Dinan to Mont St Michel”

  2. Ali's avatar Ali

    Catching up with your travels! So glad you got the spoke fixed as that could have indeed been a major hold up! The people look like swarms of insects lol. Loving the photographs

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  3. Sharron, I tried to leave this comment on your blog today, but I don’t see it there.

    Did it upload?

    Best

    Brian

    Yet another wonderful report, full of information and amazingly well constructed given you are doing it daily AND after a good shift on the bikes. Each one is worthy of a good news publication. I hope the whole series will become a book. And the treat of seeing the xxxxxGOGOCH and translation too, today. I admire you both for the riding , but also the creative writing and photography. It all looks exceedingly well planned; in reality there must be surprises along the way that you weave into a wonderful story! Allez Yaxleys!

    A history lesson and guided tour all in one! As I mentioned before, St Malo was my first ever overseas trip (aged 13 or so in 1959). Probably the most startling experience was of the wartime German underground fortifications along that coast, and the pill-boxes onthe surface above, with severe shell damage to them. We were told that many German soldiers left those underground tunnels (complete with railroads for transporting weapons and munitions) with severe mental issues from the noise and stress of the allied bombardment – and just the whole, awful experience of war, I suppose, as many participants did (called shell shock, as I learned from my Dad, who fought in the Great War (called WW1 after WW2 had happened). The country around St Malo is such a beautiful area above ground, with awful memories beneath. Your pictures do much to remind me of the best parts of my visit to that area, when we stayed in a local school. I caught an octopus in the drying rock pools on a beach walk, and the school kitchens cooked it for our table – and made sure we ate it!

    >

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    1. I think it did! We’ve had wifi issues for a day or so, it behind.

      The atrocities of war and the subsequent scars on the psyche of so many is not we,l understood by those, such as myself, who have not had to face such perils. So glad to have the freedoms that I have ❣️

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      1. I would have interacted far more on your terrific ride, Sharron, but I find WordPress, and particularly its JetPack offspring very awkward. I’ve used it a LOT previously for creating content for my Coronavirus modelling reporting (at https://brianrsutton.com) but interacting with others’ posts (as distinct from creating content) is really discouraging, with logging in the main bugbear (as I am bout to do this time to post this comment). And JetPack is a complete no-no. Many congratulations on a fine and impressive effort, both of you!

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      2. Yes Jetpack seems to have been added in the last year and if I d the whole WordPress thing cumbersome at times and I need my main computer not iPad. Thx for your interactions and I will check your page. I’ve either forgotten or did not know….not sure which 😁🤣🙈

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      3. It’s https://brianrsutton.com, Sharron. There are sections for Mallorca, Cycling, Skiing and Coronavirus, and things having been as they have been, there is quite a bit in the Coronavirus section. Tbh I hope I don’t have to write a lot more on that, we’ll see if the latest variant multiplies and spreads. It’s BA.2.86, called Pirola. I don’t have it in my model yet, as I only bother with the ones that have been a real threat, as the early ones were. Whatever the antivax idiots say, it’s obvious reading the data a lot, as I have, and looking at the charts (including mine), that it is vaccines that have sav ed us from a far, far worse set of outomes. It is truly amaing how quickly the (Oxford) vaccines were developed; I’m old enough to rmember having my anti-polio vaccine, and back in the day polio was a real scary thing; but I can remember the relief in families when the vaccine came out. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk#:~:text=Salk%20worked%20incessantly%20for%20two,Organization%27s%20List%20of%20Essential%20Medicines.

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      4. Oh yes, I have ignored all the negative posts people have re anti vax. They can have their opinions but I do not appreciate ever having any issue shoved down my throat. We are living our lives the best we can. A friend if mine is a medical specialist who ran the first Covid ward in Auckland and I follow his advice travelling.

        Also had dinner with a pharmacologist who has been heavily involved in drug pathways, winning many awards, now retired, nothing to gain or lose, and his opinions very interesting…..he’s had 5 vaccines too.

        Negativity is consuming. Not how I want to live my life. 😊❣️

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