Brittany Rain Tour 2014 - Day 2

Today I went from Landerneau to Morlaix. The weather fluctuated between sunny/hot and cloudy/cool, with only a few minutes of very light rain. When it started to get hot, I stopped to put on sunscreen, but by the time I was finishing putting it on, it was cloudy again. Likewise, when it was cool and I stopped to put on more layers, the sun started shining just as I finished putting on my last layer. Overall though it was pretty good weather for cycling. I saw dozens of cyclists on the road, in groups. Maybe training for the Tour de France? :-)  I saw one or two cyclists being pulled along by cars. I wonder if that's for training or just thrill seeking :-)  One cyclist told me, as he passed me by, "Gotta take advantage of the good weather!" I think that was 10 minutes before it sprinkled. Coincidence? I think not.

I arrived at Landivisiau around noon. I got my lunch at a supermarket and ate in a park. On my way to Morlaix in the afternoon, I met a friendly horse, and went through a dirt road in the middle of some farms. Perhaps this road was on private property, but my Garmin GPS said it was ok, so it must have been ok.

The last twenty minutes or so approaching Morlaix were a pleasant descent. I arrived a couple of hours before the hotel opened, so I went to a laundromat. This laundromat doesn't exist on Google maps or the Yellow Pages: I happened to find it navigating with Google Street View last week. I thought going to a laundromat would be a step up from hand washing clothes in the hotel bathroom. In most cases, this would be true. But not when the machine is broken and there is no phone number posted to call if there's a problem :-) The machine I chose kind of worked, but every now and then it would stop and just click click click for ten or fifteen minutes. I couldn't stop the machine to retrieve my clothes, so I was starting to think that hand washing wasn't so bad after all :-) Fortunately, a man who knew the machines in this laundromat came in, told me my machine was broken, and helped me to open it to retrieve my soapy clothes. Then he started his own laundry load. In ten minutes his load was further along than mine had done in one hour.

While I was waiting for my washing to stop click click clicking and move on to the next phase, I went to the bakery next door to get some dinner. Maybe people from Bretagne are not used to speaking with Americans living in Paris, because I had to repeat myself multiple times to the person at the bakery, and Mr Laundry Helper asked me several times, in a strange way, what time it was, before I understood him.  I have no idea what he said the first couple of times before he just gave up and said it simply: "il est quelle heure ?"  As for my dinner from the bakery, I ordered a feuilleté de jambon (the thing I had to say 3 times), a bag of chips, orange juice and a "pommé". Now, I didn't have the pommé yet, but it looks exactly like the "tartelette aux pommes"  in bakeries in Paris. In this bakery, I pointed to this desert and said "tartelette aux pommes", to which the employee replied : "that's not a tartelette, it's a pommé." I'm looking forward to discovering what the difference is, but I'm suspecting it's the same :-) At least the same for me. Maybe not the same for a French pastry chef.

Today's trip was about 44km. Tomorrow I head out to Lannion, about a 35km trip. So far, feeling in good shape still! :-)