Adventures In France!

Alright.

We discuss our options and come to the conclusion that there is only one.


“Let’s stay here another night, hike a daytrip thing tomorrow, then let’s walk over to the next village where we can catch the bus, and drive back to St. Malo, from where we then can take the train back to Rennes.”

Ok. Decision made.

Cheers to that.

Well, it’s OK, it just means that we shortcut our hiking trip by two days, but will hang out by the beach instead, drink french wine and I am sure also a bottle of Crémant!

Who am I to complain about that, heh!

So alright, room here is booked for another night.

.. And it’s a rather cool place I shall think!

Time to sleep!

Today, we hike further along the GR34 but will return here tonight.

The weather seems OK with our decision, sun and blue skies are back out!

Now as this is “holiday-hiking” as of today, we linger around and have tea (aka French Crépes!) in an old super cute village!

We linger to the top of this peninsula thing here, and as it is low tide, we walk out a bit on the now dry ebb seafloor.

Cool!

“Errr, Sandy!!”

“I think we should rather quickly go back to the shore! The bloody tide is coming in, holy shit, fast!!”

Fuck!

The water is coming back!! And we are still way out here!

What silly Swiss tourists we are, having no clue about keeping the tidal schedule in mind!

Oh man!

This is really scary now!

We hurry back, rather very fast!

Oh man, that was something!

We sit down on a save dry spot and watch the sea coming in.

Oh man, let’s hike home and call it a day!

Tomorrow, we will have another mission! We need to catch the bus.

Sandy thinks we have to actually call the bus company and announce our mission.

“No way Sandy! This is a normal public bus on a schedule, I don’t think we have to call them ahead, we can just go to the bus stop.

Sandy insists and calls.

Her French is good, so she can actually have a normal conversation with these French guys! (Unlike me, who had eight years of French in school and still can’t do more than order red wine in a bar…)

Sandy was right!

Booking ahead is apparently mandatory!

They confirm that we can take the 15.17 bus, but Madame wants to know Sandy’s telephone number and how much luggage we carry. And we learn that we have to be at least 10 mins earlier by the busstation and that we have to waive at the driver when he comes.

Weird!

We speak about a public bus here…

“Thank you Sandy for being smart about this!!”

We grab our stuff and hike/stroll to the next village. As a little supplement, we get to see this middle age castle, which is pretty cool to look at. I know Dunja would love this!

We hike to the busstation and hang out here, as we are way too early.

“Let’s have a coffee over there while we wait for the bus”.

“Do you think that place is still in service? It looks a bit shabby aka grotty”.

“Ah yes look, there is somebody in there, let’s have a seat here on these plastic chairs.

“Bonjour mesdames, qu-est-ce que vous voulaiz?” the lady asks, her apron is a bit filthy.

“Deux cafe s’il vous plait.”

“Oh Sandy, I am glad we are not hungry so we don’t have to eat here!”

“Yes exactly, Sandy says, “and with a coffee they can not do much wrong!”

The sticky-apron lady brings the two coffee cups.

Sandy and I are looking at each other:

“Seriously?!”

Both cups are, well, unpleasantly dirty….

Oh man.

“I have little alcohol whips in my first aid kit, which I usually use to desinfect my hiking blisters on my feet! How about we use those to desinfect the rim of our coffee cups! “

“Brilliant idea Heidi! Go and grab ‘em!”

Here we go, we wipe our cups!

Problem solved! Cheers!

“The bus will come soon, let’s better be ready for the waving!”

We go over to the bus station.

The bus approaches, we both stand there and wave! The bus slows down a bit, and drives right past us.

“What the… fuck…?!”

We scratch our heads, look at each other, and swear!

“This can’t have been our bus?”

“Right?

Now what?!”

Do we have to hitch after all?

We keep standing here at the bus stop and decide to just wait and see what happens next.

Somewhat 20 mins later, another bus arrives and actually stops!

Yes!

We ride with a driver who loves “The Rolling Stones!”.

Full blast!

A fun ride!

We are back in St. Malo, our hike has now almost come to an end.

We check into the same hotel as we had last time. Because we adored their breakfast buffet!

Only a few hours! And we will sit at the buffet again tomorrow morning!

 

6 replies
  1. KelLe Malkewitz says:

    Hi Heidi – Are you interested to meet and have a glass of wine in Basel sometime? I am from USA and am avid hiker. Enjoyed your PCT blog (my husband and I lived in Big Bear for 20 years!) and now glad to see you are back on the trail. I just finished 3 weeks on the Lebanon Mountain Trail.

    Cheers!

    Reply
    • Heidi says:

      Yes! Very interested! :). How about a drink @ the Rhein? Looking forward to hear about the Lebanon Trail!

      Reply
  2. Marlise says:

    Es macht einfach immer Riesenspass und Freude, deine Berichte zu lesen und die Bilder zu bestaunen…
    Habt weiterhin viele tolle Abenteuer zusammen ?….

    Reply
  3. Cristian says:

    Huh, seems north-western France is almost as adventurous as the PCT, but nor really in the same sense ;o).

    I wonder, Heidi, if after so much long-range hicking, you feel it is easier to plan for the little details (emergency kit, one-off must-have things etc.).

    Oh, and great, marvelous, travelog, again. Thanks a lot for the very much enjoyable reading.

    Have a great time!

    Reply

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