Friday 19th – Week 1 – Saint Malo, Dinard, Rance River sightseeing

Learned a valuable lesson last night – the paraplegics get the normal toilets..... Might seem obvious when you read it, but when your not in the habit of searching out “normal” toilets, it came as something of a revelation. Unfortunately, I only learned this after my second encounter with what I now believe to be referred to as “Turkish style” toilets. The timing of learning from my dear wife that the paraplegic toilets were in fact “European style” was comical due to her delivery being mere moments to late to save me from my contortions, but good for her for keeping herself occupied while I was indisposed.

There we go, always good to start the day with a bit of toilet humour. Now where were we – ah yes, up early, showered and off to find breakfast, but not before stopping at what is now our favourite pass time in France – camping shopping. Decathlon is the sporting megastore in France and it's camping gear is so ridiculously cheap that we should have bought everything when we arrived and given it away at the end of the holiday. Stand up tent - $EUR90, airbed - $EUR20, camping chairs - $EUR11, Sleeping bags (good enough for summer) - $EUR20. All set up for less that $EUR200. Other stuff like polar fleece tops are $EUR15, so it's all really cheap.

Anyway, after the purchase of the two camp chairs, we were off to Saint Malo to start the days sightseeing. Saint Malo is at the easterly end of the Brittany Coast and is a fortified town. In the 17th Century, it was France's foremost port and controlled all the trade to the East Indies. Some people made some serious coin as a result of the trade, but it was then attacked by the British in 1693, which resulted in the fortified town being built. Sadly, 80% of it was destroyed in 1944, but it has been rebuilt in keeping with its former self and so today there are impressive ramparts to walk around.

In addition to the ramparts, there is also Fort National, which is build on a rocky outcrop just out in the harbour. At low tide you can walk out to the Fort. The day we were there, the weather was sunny but cold, so we were walking round in polar fleeces, and jackets – and shorts of course. Inside the ramparts, the town is all stone buildings, but it had a rather touristy feel to it, so we left and headed around to Dinard, a town about 10 minutes along the coast, where we stopped for a lunch of Carpaccio, crab salad and goat cheese salad.

After lunch we drove down the Rance River, which goes from Saint Malo all the way to Rennes(long way inland), which we will visit on Sunday when we drive to The Loire. Our first port of call was Plouer Sur Rance before going on to Vicomte Sur Rance where we did a walk beside the canal and locks. Finally we stopped at Evran, where there were more locks and we saw a great house boat – basically a caravan stuck on top of a barge, with its wheels removed. (see the photos). Lots of the boats we saw at our stops were British, so it's obviously a popular trip to bring your boat over to Brittany and then sail them up the Rance.

On arrival back at the campground, we tried out our new chairs, while enjoying a glass of wine before heading on the river walk (again by the Rance) into Dinan for dinner.