Day 2

From: Locquirec To: Paimpol

Arriving in Locquirec was my first hint that Brittany was not quite as flat as the ride from Roscoff had led me to believe, with a hill a couple of kilometres from the centre of town. A sign advertised a "Chambre D'hote" (accommodation comparable to a Bed and Breakfast) a little way up the hill but I decided to press on to the centre to see if there was more convenient accommodation available. What I was looking for was a place that was close to restaurants. There wasn't, which left me retracing my steps to the outskirts of the town, though I did note a couple of places to check out for dinner. At the end of the day, I ended up cycling that particular hill 4 times..

As it turns out, Locquirec is "twinned" with a town in Ireland (Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim), and my B&B hosts are members of the twinning committee. It was my first time to speak French since leaving school. I had rehearsed the opening line (the one where I asked if they had a room available for the night), but was unprepared for the conversation that my hosts wanted to engage me in. They suggested that, after dinner, I head for a bar less than 1/2k from the house to have a drink and meet with some others on the Drumshanbo organising committee. Here behind the bar in Gwaskells I met Francoise Le Scour and some of his clientele, all of whom seemed to have been to Drumshanbo at one point; a number had also made the trip to Galway (my home town). Francoise had a comfortable command of the english language so we chatted for a while over a couple of pints. He told me of his plans to take a number of others from the town to Ireland cycling the following year.

Outside Gwaskell's Saturday morning		Gwaskells "twinned" with Paddy Mac's

I repacked the pannier bags on Saturday morning to try to make the bike more stable; the heavier (denser) items were put at the bottom of the bag. The improvement in handling was substantial and made me a lot more comfortable and confident in setting out on the road. The weather was cooler than the previous day, and it had rained during the night. As I left Loquirec it was cloudy but forecast to clear by early afternoon.

Tidal conditions at St. Efflam		St. Efflam in background

I followed the road by the coast (D786), heading east toward Lannion, with a detour through Pointe de Sehar. The main road into Lannion from the west has a gradient of 8% according to the traffic signs posted. The downhill freewheel had to be controlled by the constant use of the front and rear brakes which I used alternately so that neither would get too hot. There was, as is to be expected, a similar gradient on the other side as I climbed out of Lannion heading for Trebeurden (D65). It was the first (and not the last) time that I pushed the bike up the hill, not able for the gradient with a loaded bike.

Well situated residence at St. Michel outside Lannion		View from Pointe de Bihit just north of Lannion

Just outside Trebeurden I stopped at Pointe de Bihit to enjoy the scenery, then headed cross country (D6) to come out just south of Perros-Guirec. From here I took a couple of backroads (D38 & D75) before rejoining D786 west of Treguier. I continued through Treguier and onto Paimpol, arriving shortly after 5pm.

Another angle from Pointe de Bihit		Field of artichokes on road to Paimpol

Paimpol immediately struck me as a lively fishing village, with a healthy tourist population, and a good place to stop for the night. The fact that Ile de Brehat, a popular island for tourists to visit, was close by also helped. According to my youth hostel guide, there was hostel in Paimpol. I stopped at the tourist office to get directions, only to be told that the hostel had been closed for the past 2 years for renovations. The lady behind the desk was helpful in locating a B&B for the night, but she did point out that it was Saturday night and the town was quite busy. After checking that I would take something "cheap and close to town" she gave me directions to Mme. St. James.

On the basis that you get what you pay for, this was clean and comfortable accommodation, but probably not for everybody. Mme. St. James is a character who reminded me of something from a Dickens novel; always in a dressing gown, totally disorganised and with a house of clutter to keep her company. But friendly and helpful, and keen to see that her guests speak French correctly (I must have sparked her off by saying something like "I am a bicycle"..). She seemed disappointed that I was ony staying the one night. And upon reflection over dinner later that evening I decided that this was probably a good place to spend a second day.

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