Britanny Love Coast ride

Mike Werner

Cloggie amongst Frogs
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Apr 25, 2003
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Location
Normandy, France
Well, not really Love Coast, but Cote d'Amor (close enough). The Cote d'Amor starts in Britanny (Bretagne) at the impossing and impressive Mont St. Michel. It stretches along the Bay of Mt. St. Michel for about 400 kilometers.

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The whole area is biker country. Small winding roads alongside massive cliffs, beaches and forests.

And yes, we trailered the GS !! It's a first for me, but my wife didn't want to ride the bike from our home in Normandy down to Bretagne (some 500 kms).

We stayed in a Gite (a B&B) run by the former private Chef of Aga Khan (he also worked for the French Ambassador to the UK, and cooked for the English Royal family). He now owns this little Chateau, where you hire one of his 7 odd rooms, and eat at his table. Needless to say, I've put on a lot of weight. The food was incredible !!

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Although not a real biker place, he loves motorcycles, and offered me to park the bike in his conference room. But since he closes the gates at night, that was not needed.

The scenery in that part of Bretagne is breathtaking. Small coastal villages, often with a few good restaurants, were spread around the coast. Food is centered around fish..

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Oysters are the big thing here. Oysters farms can be found everywhere, the biggest in the city of Cancales.

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If you look closely, in the horizon you'll see the Mt. St. Michel.

Everywhere you ride, you'll find very old buildings, castles, and even wind mills.

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On top of the rock where our "hotel" was located is a very small stone church, more a chapel, used by the fishermen before going out to catch fish.

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Everywhere you ride, you'll find a lot of water. Not only from the Bay, but there are countless rivers here.

You often need to cross rivers by bridge, or small ferries (bacs).

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The coastlines are impressive. Long winding roads alongside massive cliffs. If you're a hiker, you're in heaven, since you can hike the whole stretch of coastline.

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Churches and cathedrals are plenty here. We visited a very old cathedral (10th century) that was partly in ruins.

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Another item of interest were the many small islands. Several of them were private islands occupied by one stately house. Talk about privacy..

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Since there's a lot of rivers, often when crossing them you have to wait for bridges to close, since there's a lot of boat traffic.

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And since there are a lot of rivers, there are a lot of sluises and water regulators around. Many are several centuries old.

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Cap Frehel is one of the most Northern points of the Bay. There, you'll find a big lighthouse dating back 2 centuries. At the end of the cliff is a restaurant built over 100 years ago.

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The cliffs, all made of out of pink granite are to be seen. Sheer drops into the sea.

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Many of the rock are bird sancuaries. You can hike in this area lone for some 70 kms.

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A little further down is a fortress built in the 14th century called Fort la Latte. A very impressive fortress since it's built into the granite rock.

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And no... that's not a white flag... it the britanny coat of arms. The fortress can be visited since it's not a museum.

We spent 5 unforgetful days here, 650 kms on the bike around the place.
 
Did you have a GPS with you? Care to share your tracklog? Or at least your waypoint file?

Al...
 
araspitfire said:
Did you have a GPS with you? Care to share your tracklog? Or at least your waypoint file?

Al...

I did, but deleted the track file. Only waypoint I have is that of the hotel. What we did was select a city way out as destination and then keep following roads that where close to the shore. It's a pity you can't program the Garmin to hug the coastline...
 
Mike Werner said:
I did, but deleted the track file. Only waypoint I have is that of the hotel. What we did was select a city way out as destination and then keep following roads that where close to the shore. It's a pity you can't program the Garmin to hug the coastline...

Great route/pix, Mike..........you can give us the guided tour next time we come over.........

Hope all is well with you & regards to Trish.......

Cheers

Dutch
 
Dutchman said:
Great route/pix, Mike..........you can give us the guided tour next time we come over.........

Hope all is well with you & regards to Trish.......

Cheers

Dutch


Anything to stay at that Chateau again and eat his incredible food !!

Trish says hi !
 


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