The Bikepacker: Bikepacking 2024 - St Malo to Plévenon

Day #

State of Legs

:-|

	Distance (miles)	Distance (km)	Ascent (feet)	Ascent (metres)	Punctures
Today	49.1 miles	km	2126 feet	metres	0
Trip Totals	122.9 miles	km	6470 feet	metres	0

Today's Route

Route So Far

Travelogue

We arrived in St Malo at about 07:15, right on schedule. We disembarked and cycled immediately into the lovely old town, about 5 minutes from the port to have breakfast. We found a boulangerie and M2 chose a Kouign-amann (Ka) and coffee so M1 followed suit. A Kouign-amann is in fact a pastry and a Breton speciality so that was a very good choice to start the French part of our trip.

Having fed ourselves and taken onboard some caffeine, we set off on our bikes, following Eurovelo route EV4 to the west, staying close to the coast most of the time.

We'd cycled part of EV4 last year, from Dieppe to Calais but this section was much more scenic. We passed beaches and estuaries which hosted a variety of birds.

Our legs were still pretty tired from the day before but we were able to keep up quite a pace all the same. According to Strava we averaged 7.9 mph which is probably twice the speed a person walks at! Listen, if you knew how heavy our bikes were (have I mentioned that the bikes are rather heavy?), you'd be impressed. Maybe.

Part of the route passed through a beautiful neighbourhood. The houses were large, old and stylish, each with a large garden full of enormous, mature deciduous trees. M1 wants to live in one of those houses. Maybe one day.

We found the supermarket that M1 had identified in advance as being close enough to the campsite and M1 headed into it to forage for (i.e. wander around with little clue as to where anything was) food for the evening, for breakfast and for a long overdue lunch. We were both starving.

M2 was so hungry that she refused to relocate to a more scenic spot to eat the lunch M1 had acquired and more or less growled at him to hand over the food right now. She can get quite feral when hungry! So, we sat on a small area of grass adjacent to the supermarket car park and ate our bread, cheese and crisps (a classic combo) right there. M2 grew much more tranquil having eaten her fill!

Eventually, we rocked into (which is code for struggled up the last hill to....) the campsite at Plévenon. It's one of those municipal campsites they have all over France. Like all the others we've stayed in, it was basic but clean and quiet. You could camp anywhere on site so we chose a secluded spot under a large tree.

After showers and camping mush for dinner, we collapsed into our tents and slept.

Guess what? That's right. We took some photos.