For thirty years we visited Brittany in winter. Now we cycle it in (late) summer.
This summer is very similar to winter. Midsummer has said ‘goodbye’ from one day to the next. It is like in the movie ‘Welcome to the Sch’tis’: As soon as the border to Brittany is crossed, it pours out of holes. It winds and storms. If we are lucky, 15 minutes later the sun will shine again, as golden or even more golden than in winter.
The broom blooms. The light of the colors of sea, sand, and plants is unique. The temperatures are between 25 and 30 degrees celsiusand thus much higher than in winter.
Thomas, Edwige and Mathurin, our ‘amis bretons’, spend the summer weekend with us: a bike ride through the area, Saturday errands in the most Breton town in Brittany, Pont l’Abbe, visit the area where the migratory birds pause on its flight to the south. Edwige tells us that in winter here, in the bird sanctuary we are exploring, the frogs croak. Crazy! Our Breton friends do not imagine the Hessian winter. With the binoculars we squint at the Naturiste . Bathing in the sea.
And then there is the whale. Nineteen meters long, it lies on the beach. This is ‘trés triste’, very sad. Hundreds of onlookers walk to the beach section whose parking lots and driveways are largely closed.
In the evening there is French diner with our friends. This is overwhelming for us, especially since we have been sizzling with a flame on our stove for more than four months.
Finally, the next day we go to a beach bar in Ploévan, right by the sea with great surf, surfers on the waves and a band plays surf music from the 60s – awesom. Pays Bigoudin (= Beautiful Land) is the name of this area.
We stay three days in the Dutch enclave Camping Kerluic, three kilometers from the Hamons and three kilometers to Pont l’Abbe, where Mathurin goes to school.
Via Carhaix and Lamballe it continues. Lunch and coffee break in Saint Malo and overnight stay in Dol de Bretagne, whose cathedral we only know at night from the highway in winter times.
In the morning light we cycle towards Le Mont Saint Michel. The weather is great and much better than the rain and temperature forecast.
