After the somewhat longer blog entry from last week, there is a shorter one today. On the one hand this is due to the fact that we "only" write from Sunday to Friday, on the other hand we noticed after last week that not only the body needs a break every now and then, but also the head. When you experience as much as we did lately, it takes a few days to process everything... This week we spent with the family of Hauke's (Tilman's brother) girlfriend in La Vicomté-sur-Rance. We were warmly welcomed by Barbara, Dominique and Emi - thank you very much for the nice time! :-)
The very sporty Saturday was followed by a leisurely Sunday (28.08.). We took it easy, slept late and enjoyed breakfast with everyone. As you might have noticed in the last blog entries, Tilman's uncle set us a goal for our time in France: to visit at least 30 of the most beautiful villages in France. And one of them is right around here: Saint-Suliac. For once, we didn't go there by bike, but all together by car. During this car ride through hills, valleys and many curves we realized again: Man is not made for these speeds and driving a car goes fast on the stomach! And so we reached Saint-Suliac on slightly shaky knees. In our opinion, this village has more than earned the stamp "most beautiful villages in France"! Many small streets, houses made of stone and in between every now and then beautiful flowers. It was so beautiful that the loops in the stomach were also quickly forgotten! Our first destination was a small church, which stood on a hill. Sometimes it is really good to enjoy the silence in churches and just let it work on you. Back out of the church, we went downhill towards the Rance, the river that flows from here to Saint-Malo, becomes wider and wider and finally flows into the English Channel. Here the Rance has already a considerable width and invited old and young to swim in the cold water. Who knows us knows: cold water is nothing for us and so we just watched the brave people swimming. In the process, Dominique and Tilman both dozed off a bit... In their coziness, they are probably very similar :D Soon, both were torn from their sleep, because Emi has kindly reserved a table for all of us in a good Galletterie. Of course we don't want to miss that! For those who don't know what gallette is: something like a crêpe, only made with buckwheat flour. Accordingly, it is served with hearty things rather than sweet Nutella. But as a dessert, a nice crêpe with butter and sugar is still recommended ;-)
After this delicious meal we went back home, because in the evening guests were supposed to drop by for an aperitif. We helped with the preparation and decorating. The result is definitely something to be proud of! Sophie her husband were super nice and we enjoyed the evening very much! (despite some language problems on my part)
Similar to Sunday, we let Monday (29.08.) start quite easy. We explored a bit the surrounding supermarkets, ate delicious tuna salad and garlic baguette and then sat down quite busy on the new blog entry for you! After the nap, we tried it once again with the car to reach our todays destination: Pointe du Grouin. As Barbara told us, this headland divides the weather somewhat. On one side you look down on the bay of Mont Saint-Michel. Here the sea and weather are comparatively calm and there is a lot of vegetable growing. On the other side, however, strong winds dominate. At the Pointe itself, we definitely felt the strong wind! And it was super fascinating to see the tides play. Back at the cozy house, Dominique played teacher to Tilman in matters of crepe and gallette making. I am very grateful to Dominique for that, because I can still benefit from good crêpes and gallettes from Tilman back in Germany!
On Tuesday (30.08.) we made quite relaxed (as the days before too) and took a little walk with Emi to the nearby mill. It went a bit through fields, a bit through woods and the one or other blackberry bush was plundered. In the afternoon Barbara and Emi took the time to drive with us to Dinan. A super nice nearby town. In general, the houses here in Brittany are very beautiful and especially very different from what you know from Germany. Here there are many natural stone houses, which are sometimes more, sometimes less decorated with flowers. In one street we walked past a large and noisy scaffolding. Barbara explained to us that it was one of the oldest houses in town, but unfortunately it was very damaged by a big fire some time ago. Currently everything is being done to rebuild it. In general, the city is full of old and historic houses. From our city guide Barbara we also learned that during renovation work in a house in the basement were found ancient treasures from the Celts and Romans. Afterwards, of course, everything was examined and sealed again. Finally, we went to the church of Dinan. Beautiful, but also newly made windows and an old cemetery on the city wall, which was rather rebuilt as a park.
For Wednesday (31.08.) a big visit was announced: Hauke and Vivian wanted to arrive in the evening from Germany by train. Our day was again very relaxed. But slowly we missed cycling already and so we made a little bike tour with Emi to Pleudihen sur Rance in the morning. In the super cool and famous (and quite ordinary) carrefour was on our shopping list then some things for dinner and chips to snack. For the evening we prepared Chiles en nogada. A Mexican dish and you could describe it as peppers/chiles stuffed with minced meat and fruit with rice and feta-walnut sauce. Super tasty and danger to overeat! We then spent the rest of the evening chatting.
On Thursday morning (01.09.) we were woken up by the smell of fresh waffles from Barbara's kitchen. Today we had planned a joint excursion of the youth: to Saint-Malo. This time neither by bike, nor by car, but with a crazy bus driver. The majority relatively pale in the face, we then got off at the station of Saint-Malo. A short walk to the city center took us past the harbor, along beautiful boats. When we finally passed the gates of Saint-Malo, we treated ourselves to a nice sandwich for lunch and set off to explore the city walls. Saint-Malo is an old seafaring/pirate town and accordingly the city wall is still beautifully preserved. With the one or other creepy seagull, which wanted our snacks. Also in the interior of the city much is still preserved from the past, and with a little stroll through the alleys we let the flair of the city affect us. At some point, unfortunately, it would be time to say goodbye to the city, because the bus connections back are not so super regular. After another adventurous bus ride with the crazy bus driver we arrived back home and I needed a warm peppermint tea and some rest. In the meantime Tilman and Hauke started to prepare the mole. Another Mexican meal. Super tasty sauce with chicken. One does not get to eat otherwise so fast in Germany!
And now to the last day of this entry: Friday (02.09.). A very special day, because it was Emi's 15th birthday! We enjoyed the beautiful and very elaborate birthday breakfast and watched the birthday girl unwrapping her presents. For the others it went then to the birthday excursion, while we continued our tour. After about 26 km we stopped at a nice rest area. Besides the packed snacks from Barbara we then watched some smaller lizards climbing up the wall. When we got back on the bike, we found out that our rear wheel had a flat tire. So: everything off the bike, wheel out, tube out, check the jacket, new tube back in and everything back on - on it goes! (No direct cause was apparent to us) No 5 km later we both then felt a small jerking from behind, on a slight downhill ride. Quickly brake and pull over. Tilman looks behind and sees: a flat tire. That was one flat tire too many for one day, and so we decided to spend another day at Barbara's, get new coats and new tubes and service the bike in peace once. Sometimes Barbara's wishes come true after our return (probably she had not wished our return so dramatically!). :-) We called Dominique if he could pick us up with his van. Until then, we changed our spot a bit to have a nicer meadow with a nicer view, and also promptly listened to the new 5 Minuten Harry Podcast. [translators note: a very funny podcast from a german youtuber, i can really recommend it, if you can slightly understand german ;)] Many thanks to coldmirror, who always releases new episodes at the right time! Around 19:00 we were then kindly picked up by Dominique with the van. So we still had the opportunity to celebrate Emi's birthday together with a nice dinner.
And so again a blog ends with one or the other twist :-) We have a destination for the next week: Brittany! So look forward to the next entry :)
Tilman & Ida