Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2 bicycle tour of Brittany in May 2023 was a relatively short tour and not quite the 500-mile bicycle ride threshold that Garry classes as a tour, but it was as near as. It was late April, and Garry had been waiting for his passports to return from the Irish passport office for a couple of months. He’d applied for an Irish passport so he could travel freely around Europe again. But they seemed to be taking forever to return. Garry’s new EU passport and his Uk passport eventually arrived on the 28th of April, and Garry wasted no time in heading abroad.
Unfortunately, the long delay in getting his passports meant that Garry only had a week to spare. He had to be home for some more hospital tests. So where could he go on the continent in a week that he hadn’t cycled before? After some thought, Garry decided he’d not cycled around Brittany since 2008, so that might be something a little new, if not completely new. Although the first day or so of the tour would be on very familiar routes while he cycled to Redon.
After catching the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to Saint-Malo, Garry headed south towards Redon. Once Garry had reached Redon, he turned right (so to speak) and headed out along the peninsular towards Quimper. After reaching Quimper, Garry headed north to Morlaix before returning to Saint-Malo. He had hoped to explore more of Brittany and stick closer to the coast. But time and weather weren’t on Garry’s side. Neither was his fitness as he struggled to cycle sixty miles a day. Although, after saying that, sixty miles does seem to be Garry’s usual distance nowadays.
Despite the bad weather, it was an enjoyable ride, although it seemed too early for many of the campsites to be open. On more than one occasion, Garry struggled to find an open campsite, and hopefully, it was because of the time of year and not because they were permanently closed.
491 miles cycled, although it may have been a little more as Garry’s trip computer was playing up.
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