Rennes afternoon · Le Mont Saint-Michel et sa baie

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Rennes

   Rennes is the capital of Brittany, a handsome, youthful city of two hundred thousand people on the river Vilaine, with a large student population and a lively street life. The old quarter has a surprising number of half-timbered houses from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, leaning at crazy angles, which survived a great fire in 1720 that destroyed much of the rest of the town. After that disaster, the centre was rebuilt in an orderly grid of stone, and the contrast between the two styles is part of the city's charm.

   Read the complete Rennes write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Rennes is where the day begins. Next is Ancien moulin de Moidrey.

2. 2. Ancien moulin de Moidrey

   If you have ever seen a photograph of Mont-Saint-Michel standing alone over flat green fields, with a small windmill in the foreground, there is a fair chance it was taken here. Moidrey is a village on the Couesnon, close to Pontorson, and its old mill stands in the polders that were reclaimed from the bay over centuries. The mount sits on the horizon, a few kilometres off, shrunk to the size of a thumbnail and a little unreal, and in the early morning when mist lies in the hollows it floats above the grass.

   Read the complete Ancien moulin de Moidrey write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ancien moulin de Moidrey comes up about 83 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay.

3. 3. Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay

   The tide here is one of the great shows of Europe. In the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel the sea can retreat for kilometres and return with a speed that has caught out many walkers, and at the biggest tides the difference between high and low water is around fourteen metres. On those days the mount, a rocky island crowned with a Benedictine abbey, can be surrounded by water, or stand alone on a plain of wet sand, depending on the hour. The causeway that used to link it to the shore has been replaced by a bridge so that the water can flow freely again.

   Read the complete Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   At least about 88 km into the recorded legs you reach Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay. Next is Le Mont Saint-Michel et sa baie.

4. 4. Le Mont Saint-Michel et sa baie

   The Mont-Saint-Michel is a rock that thinks it is a cathedral. It rises from a flat bay of sand and silt on the border between Normandy and Brittany, crowned by an abbey whose spire is topped by a golden statue of the Archangel Michael. According to the old story, the archangel appeared to a bishop of Avranches in the early eighth century and told him to build a sanctuary on the rock, and Benedictine monks settled there in the tenth century. The abbey that grew over the next centuries became one of the great pilgrimage sites of medieval Europe.

   Read the complete Le Mont Saint-Michel et sa baie write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Le Mont Saint-Michel et sa baie, about halfway. Next is back through Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay.

5. 5. back through Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay sits at 108 km, about halfway. Next is back through Ancien moulin de Moidrey.

6. 6. back through Ancien moulin de Moidrey

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Ancien moulin de Moidrey write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Ancien moulin de Moidrey comes up about 95 km into the recorded legs. Next is Rennes.

7. 7. Rennes

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Rennes write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Rennes closes the day.