Biking Day 29

• Length ridden: 80 km
• Ascent: 850 meters
• Rating: 9.0 out of 10 - nice day!
• Highlights: I would need to paste in the names of all places, but definitely Quimper, La Faou and Chateaulin, plus the calvary at Plougastel-Daoulas
• Lowlight: The food - incredible, I am in France and cannot find anything tasty...how is this possible?
• Map of the day

The first thing that I uttered that morning was a swearword, as it was raining quite constantly. As I had mentioned, I was getting a bit tired and somehow did not fathom myself riding in the rain - so I took it easy and laid back to bed, my Timeline reveals the departure was only at 10:30, with the rain having stopped and small patches of blue were showing in the sky.

Even on this relatively short day, I had plenty places of interest that day. I thought of giving Brest a second chance, but then I would have had to back-track towards the west, then return east, I dropped the idea quickly and started riding following the general direction of the coast towards Spain, with that country being quite far away.

The first think I liked, just minutes after starting my ride, was the Iroise Bridge, a cable-bridge which spans the Élorn river over 400 meters, at a height of 113 meters above the water. Actually, that bridge was just for the cars, there was a parallel bridge for cycles, pedestrians and other similar creatures, offering a wonderful view of the main bridge.

There were indeed a few other creatures walking, running and from the bridge, I could spot someone rowing.

On the other side of the bridge, at Plougastel-Daoulas (ah, these names...), I visited a church which looked less appealing than most of of the others I had visited in Brittany. A little bit disappointed, I left the church on a side entrance (exit, actually) and there I was dumbstruck. There was a calvary carved out of granite, showing 181 (!) figures grouped in 28 scenes, depicting scenes from the life of Christ. Wow! By the way, it has been declared as a historical monument as early as 1889.

As mentioned, I started late, so my mindset was to keep riding, when I suddenly saw a sign leading to an abbey, the road leading uphill. I pondered a second, then thought I would visit the place. This is how I got to the Abbey of Daoulas, or at least to the ruins of these structures from the 13th century - in addition to the very much alive medical garden, with 250 different herbs.

After the visit, I found an Italian place and got a pizza to go, found a nice park to consume it - actually, it was the owner of the restaurant who recommended the park. Yes, he was more than friendly, but yet again - I was shaking my head, as not even the pizza was good in France. It is possible that it was all by pure chance that I did pick the restaurants well, or maybe it was conspiracy of the secret agents following me so that I do not enjoy the country all too much. Whatever, it is what it is.

Le Faou (ha! finally a short name!) was the name of the next mentionable city, with an interesting church from 16th century. At the entrance, it houses a remarkable statuary of the twelve apostles and Christ dated 1721. In the below, I show only six, should you wish to, I can send you the other six as well, do not hesitate to contact me. As you will see, they are being taken care of, cleaners were busy dusting the statues. The stained windows were also beautiful.

The town had its heydays in the 16th and 17th centuries, when it was an important trading town of beech wood and oak wood that was loaded onto ships, supplying the shipyards in Brest.

Honestly, I had a hard time leaving this town torn out of a fairy-tale.

Next, I rode by Pont-du-Buis-lès-Quimersch (I gave up all hopes at finding places with short names), where a celebration was just about to take place - and it was related to the 80th anniversary of the D-Day as well.

Port Launay was the next municipality, it is located at the eastern end of the estuary of the Aulne river, which flows into the Rade de Brest, a bay of the Atlantic that extends deep into the land. Port-Launay is the last natural port on the river; from here it is canalized as part of the Nantes-Brest Canal.

Following the river Aulne, the following town I reached was called Châteaulin. Here I first spotted a nice church and a proud city hall.

I was about to leave, when I saw the outlines of chapel of sorts up on a hill - and this caused me to take a detour of an hour or so. It was a very steep, but short ride to it, called Chapel of Notre-Dame, with origins dating back about 1,000 years. It alone was absolutely worth the ride.

Next to the chapel was yet another fairy-tale house. A gentleman who happened to live there asked me if I had already found the secret look-out, I looked at him a quizzingly. He directed me on a 15-minute hike (where a dog almost attached me, almost giving me a heart-attack), from where I am a wonderful view of the town I had just visited earlier.

The owner of the fairy-tale house had a witty sense of humor, there was a plaque on the wall, proudly proclaiming that on May 15th 1856 absolutely nothing had taken place. What about the following day?

It was only around 6 pm that I started riding again and an hour and a half later I got to the final destination of the day, the town of Quimper. Another wow!

The name of the town originates from the in Breton word kemper , meaning "confluence". The town developed at the confluence of the rivers Le Steir and L'Odet. The town has a rustic atmosphere, with footbridges spanning the rivers that flow through it. The cathedral originates from the 13th century and has a Gothic façade, it is the oldest Gothic structure in lower Brittany. Next to the cathedral, you can find medieval fortifications and half-timbered houses. Really a wow - go there yourself and take a look!

Right after reaching the cathedral, I started talking to a British couple, who had been living in Quimper for years - and decided to retire there. The husband used to be the manager of the Rolls-Royce plant at Goodwood, this produced, amongst other models, the Phantom IV, which was used hand-made for the Queen. He revealed they had worked on this car for over 3 years.

That evening the cathedral was closed (which surprised me, given the size of the town), but right behind the church was a cultural event going on, with young people dancing to Britton folksongs.

I strolled (correction: biked) around the city, which was really amazing. I saw a restaurant serving Thai food, well, you know already what happened. Even though it was Pakistani cooks who prepared it, it was rather bland, they did not even have chilly. What kind of a Thai restaurant would have no chilly? Well, not sure what to think.

The weather, which was bleak in the morning, had turned much better - by the way, looking back, I had encountered quite a lot of rain on this trip, but it was either a light one or it came down during the evening, when I was not riding. Anyhow, that evening was a nice one, fit for camping. I saw the signs of a campground and followed it.

The ride was a couple of kilometers and the signs showed the signs lead both to a camping and a castle. Then, suddenly, there was a gate in front of me (it was close to 9:30 pm), which was closed, apparently with an entry to a very scenic park. Someone with access opened it for me and I was quite confused to exactly what kind of place I had entered. It seemed to be a chateau, or at least a large park, but where the heck is the campsite? Well, it turned out that I had just entered a 5-star campground, called Camping du Domaine de l'Orangerie de Lanniron comprising of 38 hectares of parkland and French style gardens, with a chateau, including an Orangerie, located there. It took me some time to find the caretaker at this late hour, there was an upscale restaurant on side of a pool, when I spotted Bernhard (if I remember correctly). He showed me around, told me the story of the campground and showed me a very secluded spot to put up my tent. I asked how much it would cost, when he quoted €45 and seeing me getting pale, he immediately went down to €30 (I believe), explaining it cost alone €10 during the day to enter the park for regular visitors. The campground was in the property of his family - so even though this was quite a bit more than I paid at other sites, I was too lazy and tired to find another place, so I paid the price quoted.

After pitching my tent, I went for a ride, to the chateau and the Orangerie, which was a couple of minutes away. The game room of the campground was a medieval room from the 17h century. Hmmm...interesting.

It was quite late when I finally got to "bed", I mean my sleeping mattress.