Saumur to Trimer, Brittany

We roasted under the eaves last night even though we directed the fan at the beds. We got up early and I was irritable again after a bad night’s sleep. We went to a bar on the corner as the hotel’s breakfast was a bit pricey. There was a large, welcoming French woman just opening up and I spied a basket of fresh croissants and pain au chocolat. The bar was typically French which was nice and we sat dunking our pain au chocolat into our cafes. I thought how much I love France and planned a return one day.

Every morning, I polish our helmets and today I found a wasp inside mine. He was trapped by the hinge of the visor so somehow he must have found his way in whilst I was riding and I’d adjusted the visor and crushed him. That was lucky. We set off from the hotel just after 8am. It was about 11am when we stopped for coffee, water and a pastry and realised we had passed the 3,000 miles mark and had in theory completed our challenge. Extra miles have been clocked up by our visit to the Croatian Island of Krk and getting lost on occasion. Finally, we made Trimer, a small village close to Dinan, at midday. Tris’s brother, Eliot, came out to greet us in his Breast Quest 2008 t-shirt.and Tris’s mum treated us to galettes filled with ham, eggs and cheese and local sausage. Delicious! For 3 weeks I have been off my immune system boosting diet and filling my face with a full fat, ‘pro cancer’ diet. I’ve brought one pair of comfortable jeans with me but they are now a little tight fitting. Tris calls me ‘Fatty’ now instead of Lou. I’m happy. When I get home I’ll go back on my anti cancer diet again.

After a walk round the village, we strung up hammocks in the orchard and I fell asleep in mine until the rain arrived. Then I went up to my room for some more kip and woke up to the church bell chiming a little later. In the evening we had another lovely meal of moules frites with friends of our hosts who are bikers and talked biker talk and stories. They told us about a guy who decided to go round the world on a Triumph Tiger in the 70’s and had counted on doing it in 2 years but ended up taking 4 years to complete the trip. I think I’ll read his book when I get home – it makes Breast Quest 2008 seem a bit tame! I was interested that he’d not long passed his bike test too when he set off.