Shifting Gears

Season 5. Episode 7. Pourquoi pas? Why not? August 21, 2025. Saint-Malo to Rennes. 58 Miles.  About 20 miles into our ride we discovered another magical village, Dinan. It’s the type of place one imagines as the quintessential French village with a cathedral at the center, narrow lanes with cobblestones, and exuding medieval charm. The only problem in my eyes is everybody wants to see it, so it’s packed with tourists.  Amazing talent and coordination to simultaneously play 3 separate instruments by mouth, hand and foot. Bet she can ride a bike and look at her phone to navigate without hitting a light pole! We’ve adapted to lunch picnics of baguettes, cheese, avocado, and fruit in settings that have survived for centuries. Bars have been very willing to refill us with cold water. So safe entering city of Rennes on bike lanes. Rennes most instagrammed pic is an illusion of slanted buildings. We had no expectations of Rennes, so were awed by what we found. Our hotel suggested a w...

Season 5. Episode 6. My pilgrimage to Saint-Malo. August 19, 2025. Avranches to Mont Saint Michel to Saint- Malo. 46 Miles.  August 20. Rest day or more accurately eating our way through Saint Malo. From the botanical gardens in Avranches, we caught our first glimpse of Mont Saint Michel (MSM). Pretty big at over 7 miles away as the crow flies. For those unfamiliar, MSM is a spectacular medieval abbey built upon a tidal island. At high tide, it is surrounded by water and was inaccessible until modern times and a bridge was built.  It’s been a destination for religious pilgrimages for years and at low tide, pilgrims could walk across the exposed land.  Now it’s overwhelmed by tourists, but still in my mind worthwhile to visit just to marvel at how they built this, imagining them bringing over all the materials by boat.  Incidentally in England there is a Saint Michael’s Mount, also a tidal island, with a castle built on top. No relation other than honoring the same Sa...

Season 5. Episode 5. Sorry Charlie! August 18, 2025. Bayeux to Avranches. 70 miles. 5,301’ of climbing.  Bayeux was a great 2-night base for visiting Normandy D-Day sights, as well as a wonderful place to visit on its own.  The Bayeux Cathedral sound and light show on a few nights of the week. And the cathedral in daytime. After another scrumptious breakfast at the boulangerie, marveling with wonder how they get their moan-worthy croissants so flaky, we began riding south.  I was on the side walk, bike path trying to figure out which way out of the roundabout, and I looked down to check my navigation on my phone and then BAM.   Sorry Charlie! (For those younger or from overseas, Sorry Charlie was a famous advertising slogan of Starkist tuna that our generation grew up with.) Heather shouted out at me something like “what the hell” and then “are you okay?”  Riding into the light pole was now my second impact with an immovable object in a course of 3 days. Ma...