A wee bike ride VII (Erquy - Saint Malo [48.3 / 50.8 km])

I noticed that I am getting a Zebra tan around my eyes from squinting in the bright sun.  So yesterday I got myself some shades at Super U (A nasty mix of Superstore & Walmart).


Here are a few teaser pictures, so you'll check back later (I am in Saint Malo !!!! and I'm not sitting in a room in front of a computer.

Saint Malo

Sit at my desk while the sun's up?

Here are the trip teasers (more later0

In the backyard of the hotel I stayed (Don't ask me why ;-)

I assume it means  "Bon Yoyage"

Knights Templar (is it Friday the 13th yet?)

I'm driving through this forested valley with a stream running through it and suddenly I see this:  A chapel of the Knights Templar !  HOLY!!  I feel like I'm in the Da Vinci Code !

Just in case you never knew or had forgotten why hotels in the Western World have no 13th floor or why Friday the 13th is considered particularly unlucky: Here is one theory: The Knights Templar were getting SOOO powerful at some point that the French king of the time (maybe with a bit of help from the Pope?) hatched a secret plan to get rid of them. So one nice day in the year 1307 were hundreds of Templars were arrested and charged with heresy (the last thing you wanted to be then was a heretic!). It was a day in October of 1307; in particular it was Friday, the 13th of October.  And that's why (so one theory goes) hotels in Hong Kong don't have ah 13th floor ;-)

Then I get lost because Google maps insists that THIS is a bike route:

God knows how bad it gets further in ;-)

When I consult Mr Smartphone for a re-route, I see in Maps a village called La Temple ! How could I not go through there ?

And my hunch was right. What does one find in La Temple?  A Templar Chapel ;-)

Knights Templar did whatever in there!

built right at a creek

Nice way to build a bridge: Two slabs of rock.

Someone please translate!

The sign on the back door:  If you would like to see the chapel, come get the key at the house across the street.  Formidable!

It is the year of the snake, so of course I go to the house across the street. An about 80 year old woman with an adorable running & licking old tiny dog is in her yard, gets the key from her house (this takes a while) and then rubs her thumb and index fingers together and mumbles something like "une petite piece" which I just googled and find to mean "a little coin" ;-) She gives me the key and I wonder back across the street and open the door to the Chapel.

I'm sure everything but the walls itself is of a much later date.

 especially the stained-glass windows ;-)

But still, just the thought that 800 years ago Templar Knights were hanging out in here gives me the shivers! I return the key to the old woman across the street (with a 'bit of coin' wrapped around it ;-) and ride off (without the crucifix or 2 flags in my backpack). Can you  imagine this happening in Vancouver? Not me ;-(

After crossing a river (bridges are not that common up here, one has to plan one's route by them ;-) I see a castle on the other side of the river and of course can't resist.

Castles

Estuaries and borders between kingdoms

When I can already see the names Dinard & St Malo on direction signs, my legs are telling me they need a break. And there is a beach right there. Not a soul on it.OK, not actually a beach but more one of those ocean bottoms temporarily without water like in Baie du Kernic. And I remember how I could ride the bike on the concrete-like ocean bottom.  Works here too ;-)

A good opportunity to take an auto-shot.  There must have been something wrong with the mirror in the Super-U! They didn't look like that there ;-

Our beloved Leader

When I'm done with my photo-op there are two other cars parked at the entrance with one driver having lunch on the beach, one touring cyclist is just arriving and also tries the sand's consistency (if two mountain bikers hadn't done that in Baie du Kernic, I would have never thought of it), while two other bike tourers actually just pass by the beach and keep going. FOLLES!

The end of the world (or is that why the beaches are always bare of water ?)

It's really going somewhere else!

FREAKY!

He doesn't seem worried though.

 Before you sell your house cheap and start running naked through the streets, I better clarify this a bit.  The water comes out the other side of the dam and it's all part of the dam being a Tidal Power Station.