Day 107 Midgham to Berkhamsted

In which Sid and Doris cross the Thames and The Ridgeway, battle through the Chiltern Hills and muse on punctuation marks. !Yesterday we set off up Portsdown Hill. Are there groundhogs in Berkshire? Today we immediately set off up a steep hill and there were going to be a lot more, on small roads and rough surfaces. We go over…

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Day 106 Cosham to Midgham

In which the Epic nature of the ride continues on small roads across Hampshire and Berkshire with a stop on The Watercress Line.In a straight line, it is 90 miles from Cosham to Chez Bonkers.  It would be very easy to turn this into a simple, joyless delivery ride, taking quicker straighter roads – a direct route through central London…

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Day 105 St Malo to Portsmouth and Cosham

In which Sid and Doris take another ferry and return to England.We finished the laundry in Les Armateurs by drying the cycling shorts with the hotel standard hairdryer, the first time in many years that Sid has found this item at all useful. Even early on we are looking for conveyance of the day. We have cyclist company in the…

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Day 104 Rennes to St Malo

In which Sid and Doris make for the seaside and stay in the walled town, again.Is this your first visit to St Malo? No, we have sailed the mighty Eric through the huge lock into the Port de Plaisance. Sid and Doris have cycled away from here on the trip to Bilbao. We are old mingers at St Malo. Leaving…

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Day 103 Resting in Rennes

In which Sid and Doris have a rest day in Rennes and take a boat trip along the Vilaine River.When we set off for Rennes we decided that night we would see if we were in good shape to carry on. We are a bit tired, we are behind with the blog/diary and Rennes has enough to keep us amused,…

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Things made from tyres

It has become a bit of a running joke with Joe to find tasteful, useful and creative things you can make with tyres.  We are still trying to find anything that qualifies on all three categories at once… Meanwhile I’ll put any interesting photos in this thread.  Latest photos first, so come back here for Exciting Updates later… (I’ll also…

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A-spire-ations

I have been thinking about church spires, as you do. Many of the spires in France (and probably in the UK too, I will check when we get back, cf “Hertfordshire Spike”) look like they built a tower first and then went for the post-factory upgrade once they’d saved up some more money, or as spire fashions changed. As we…

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Day 102 Abbaretz to Rennes

In which Doris’ birthday is spent laboriously on the toboggan roads across Brittany The rodents bring the birthday post and Doris is 35 again. Older people might struggle with an epic journey so it is best to stay young. High paws on the trip so far. Today we go through very small farming villages to Rennes, capital of Brittany. Across these…

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Day 101 Beaupreau to Abbaretz

In which Sid and Doris cross the Loire and visit the largest contemporary line of megaliths in the world. Our small road route to Ancenis on the Loire took us across some hills and what might (we hope) be our last gravel track. From the top of the last hill at Saint Florentine Le Vieil we could look across the…

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