Cycle Touring in France: Flowers

Flowers seem to be highly regarded here in France. They have a system where towns and villages that put on a good show get awarded a certain number of 'flowers'. So you might get a one, two or three flower town depending on how beautiful and extensive the flowers are. Most of the lock houses also have little flower gardens outside and sometimes they decorate the lock gates as well. They have also ceased to cut the verges along some of the tow paths in order to let the natural plants thrive. Today was a particularly flowery day and some of the photos below illustrate that fact.

We set off in the morning along the Nantes-Brest canal after visiting the local market to get some fruit for our daytime snacks. The fruit at the moment is excellent and cheap. We bought six apricots, eight figs, two apples and a punnet of raspberries along with some pastries from the boulanger. It was a bright day with some white clouds and despite the forecast we received no rain. Most of the day was spent by the canal, as the towpaths tend to avoid the towns unless you branch off them. The canal shared its route with a river or two along the way and so was very wide in parts. It went through woodland and an area with cliffs on the side. One of them was being used as a climbing and high ropes adventure centre for children. They had a via ferrata and some climbing aids fixed to the rock along with treetop ropeways and platforms. It looked like good fun.

We arrived in Malestroit fairly early and had plenty of time to look around the medieval quarter, the river and surrounds before having a few wines and then dinner. Now that we are in Brittany the choice of food has changed remarkably with lots of Breton food specialties and cider to drink. Apples are plentiful and we passed plenty of trees with fruit when traveling by the canal.

Redon from our hotel window this morning