Day 3 – Route barré

Woke up in hotel feeing much refreshed and delighted to see some bright sun and blue sky waiting for us outside. Jackie nipped out for almond croissants which we ate in our room as we packed.

Thanked the lovely hotel people for their kind help and rode out of town. Took a Voie Verte towards Vitré, passing some incredibly loud frogs on the way. Mud/gravel surface was fine in the sun but so pleased we didn’t ride this at the end of yesterday in the rain.

Vitré is a beautiful medieval town of cobbled streets and wonky half-timbered buildings. Found a great Italian bistro and had lunch of salmon tartine, beef lasagne and a tuna croquette. All very delicious. Filled up our water bottles at the bistro, wandered round town a little more taking in the sights and then headed onwards, stopping briefly at a pharmacy for some crême anti-inflammatoire for my knee.

Stopped in a small village with an M in its name for a drink at a pleasant tabac then bought yummy picnic dinner from a nice man on the deli counter in a small supermarket. A rollercoaster road through a forest took us to our campsite. Well, almost. ‘Route barré’ again. A team was working hard resurfacing the road and it was completely impassable. Trouble is that it was a cul-de-sac leading to our campsite on an organic farm half a mile away and there was absolutely no alternative route. Oh bum. And my knee had already been extremely painful for the last 30 miles so didn’t really want to go any further.

Carried on to Craon, pushing our day’s mileage up to 49 in contrast to our gentler plan, and pitched up on a municipal campsite. Reception was closed by now (approx 7pm) so we asked a man in a motorhome for the codes to access loos and showers. Ate our picnic (delish) and made hot drinks, then to bed, exhausted.

Mileage: 49
Total: 124

Good things today: