Quetembert to Malestroit, France

The hotel in Quetembert, with its owner

Me, in one of the dining rooms at the hotel, taken by its owner

I had a good day Quetembert. In the morning, while it poured rain, I finished my day19 web page. About 10 AM, I called Francois and asked him to lunch. He said no to the lunch because he is diabetic - on a pump and all that -but said he would come by before lunch to have a drink. I repacked my stuff, packed my tent which had needed to dry out a bit after being caught when the rain started, and read a few chapters of my current Willa Cather novel. I also took a picture of the hotel and it owner and he took one of me with my cameera.

When Francios arrived, we visited, and drank, till about 12:30, then he headed home and I headed into the dining room. Lunch, which cost less than 15 E with wine and cafe. was excellent. Francois came to get me at 1:30. Before we left, with Francois there to translate, I asked for room for tonight. The owners wife, Marie said no problem.

I went with Francois to his house - it felt weird to be in a car - met his wife and two thier three kids, and worked on their computer for two hours and fifteen minutes uploading web pages, checking mail, and then setting up, checking and fixing web pages and generating ride reports. Then Francois and I went to a sports clothing store where they had some bicycle gloves. There weren't manyc choices, but this store did have the kind of gloves I wanted in the size that fit me. Then Francois took me back to the hotel.

I asked for a room, and the owner said they were 'complete' - full. Apparently his wife had not told him I wanted a room ;-{. My bike was packed and ready to go, so I changed into my biking shorts and headed north at 5 PM. I passed the other hotel I knew about, two km away, and headed towards Polerme, a bigger town some 25 miles away. There was moderate headwind from the north and it was very hilly - climb 150 feet, descend 150 feet, repaet - so the going was slow, but I had four hours if I needed them, so I wasn't too concerned.

I only made it about half way to Polerme because the direct route became an autoroute, and that was the route I had planned to take tomorrow as well. That is a real problem in this part of France. It seems like all of the express road - the N roads - are now autoroutes. Since I couldn't head north anymore, I headed north east toward Malestroit and, father on, Guer. I found a chambre'dhoit, or bed and breakfast, in Malestroit. The lady initially asked 50 E, but came down to 35 - the cash I had in my wallet - for a room and breakfast. It is an interesting room, but not very well serviced. The towels and some bath stuff for the last tennants were still there.

The lady that runs the place is Polish, but she married an Englishman and spent a lot of time in England. She has only been in France since 2002, so her English is much better than her French. It was strange to have somebody in France respond positively - Francois did, but he taught English - when I asked if they spoke English. My room is noisy - the only window open right on the main street/highway, but probably fine for sleeping.

Tomorrow I Plan to ride on east to Guer, then north, then north east, the north again through a series towns to get to St Malo. It would have been nice to be able to take the direct route, but that generally isn't possible on bicycle in this part of France. The little roads I will take are hillier, curvier, and much more interesting than the direct route, so I shouldn't be complaining.

Previous Page Next Page