Overview of Route
we head by train to St. Brieuc on the English Channel. It is from here that we will ride towards Nantes on the Loire taking a selection of C roads, the lessor known Rigole d’Hilvern path and the more well-known Brest to Nantes Canal. We are expecting this stage to take 4-5 days
An early start with a short ride from our hotel, past the Sorbonne, the Pantheon and the lovely Jardin du Luxembourg to the brutalist architecture of Hall 1 of Gare-Montparnasse. We are catching a couple of trains to get to our starting point in St. Brieuc in Brittany by mid-day. Our first train is a TGV, and with a reservation it does allow for the transporting of our bikes with no issues. That said, it doesn’t stop other passengers stacking their bags and luggage on top of your bike, which makes for a little prep as you approach your station. The second train from Rennes to St. Brieuc is a local train (“TER”), where no reservation for the bikes is required (season dependent!).
From St. Brieuc towards the Rigole d’Hilvern
Originally our plans took us to Brest so we could ride the full Nantes-Brest Canal, but during the research, we discovered the Rigole d’Hilvern (French Velo 8) which runs along an artificial feeder river to the Brest-Nantes Canal. The closest accessible town by train was St Brieuc and Google suggested that it had a few points of interest, so we settled on it as the start point. St Brieuc is on the north Brittany coast, dates to the Middle Ages and has an interesting historic Centre, where there are 16th century buildings, albeit mostly run down. We spent a couple of hours walking around the town, but given the rain and the hail, and with everything shut on a Sunday, we have not had the opportunity to fully explore the place.
A thank-you to the manager of the Contact Hôtel du Champ de Mars for letting us check-in early, and store our bikes inside, given our desire to be out of the hailstorm. Also, apologies for walking my wet bike across your recently mopped floor.
With the threat of rain always a possibility and the worry that our fitness might fail short of the goal village – St Caradec, we set off from St Brieuc quite early, so we had time to rest if needed. A series of climbs greeted us as we meandered through dairy farms and other fields of produce for the first 35km of our day, reminded us of Gippsland in Victoria (outside Melbourne), but with more history in the buildings. The smells were reminiscent of the mature cheeses and the fields filled with staples of garlic and onion that France is famous for. The lovely village of Uzel bought welcome relief as this was our highest point of the day, followed by a swift 1.5km decent to meet up with the Rigole d’Hilvern. The Rigole d’Hilvern provided a tree lined canopy over a rolling, flat gravel path for the next 25km. We had expected to use our first days to build fitness and can confirm that we hit our maximum, arriving just in time to avoid collapse at the Camping Village Guerzaille. Although out of season, the owners welcomed us warmly. We now have the luxury of our own toilet block and dining room – complete with a fully stocked kitchen…not bad for €15
The Nantes-Brest Canal
Some historical context – the Nantes-Brest Canal was the most ambitious canal completed in France at 360 kms long with 238 locks. It was commissioned by Napoleon B in 1811 after Brest was blockaded by the English. The French required another way to continual naval activities with it other large Atlantic point in Nantes. It was finished by another Napoleon, Napoleon III in 1858.
We joined the canal near Saint Caradec, and passed the lovely villages of Saint Gonnary and Rohan and finished the day in the very spectacular medieval city of Josselin, a must see in these parts. the Camping Cerisiers (Cherries) for the night, which has some interesting camping options.
After a camp site breakfast of baguette and laughing cow cheese, with half a mandarin each, we managed to cover the same distance as yesterday, but with no wind to speak off. The rain that was expected came the night before – check out the Insta post for a look from an elevated tent. The riding today was more in line with what we had expected during planning with the weather even providing the chance to drop the ‘longs!’ In Malestroit we stopped for a café crème around mid-morning, sitting in the historic centre which whilst lovely, was not as special as we found Josselin to be. Redon is our base for the night, and it too has a nice medieval centre, but was ghostly quiet given we have arrived on the May Day public holiday. We have continued to dodge the rain during our riding – lets hope it holds out and the sun also begins to be less shy. We will spend the night out of the tents at the Hotel Le France to catch up on much needed laundry.
We started the day with a pit stop at FJ Bike Store (right on the canal), with Janette requiring a readjustment to her front derailer. No doubt a carryover problem from the shipping, and quickly rectified by the expert mechanics hand. We got on the road around 9:30 for a planned shorter day. Although the temperature was still in the mid to high single digits, the sun was shining for the first time. The ride continues to be enjoyable and pretty, even when some jet fighters buzzed us in low level fly-by that tested the integrity of the bike pants. We had a break outside of Guenrouet where impromptu church bells rang out over the valley and the canal – check the insta post for the sound and sight. We have pulled into Blain for the night at a camping ground on the canal with the added benefit of a bar for a drink later. After going for a walk, we also discovered Blain had 2 amazing medieval and midcentury structures – one a chateau, the other a castle, which fell interestingly feel into disrepair and was renovated by Marie Bonaparte of the Greek royal family (descendant of Napolean 1st) in the early 20th century and handed back to Bretagne.
We set out to follow the Voie Verte entre Notre Dame Des Landes et Blain, an old rail route that links Blain with Le Chapelle sur Erdre but the path was basically a farm track for the most part – complete with a horse and sulky! Although the track is earmarked for development it remains undeveloped and not suitable for bikepacking yet but the overnight rain may have contributed to this though! We took shelter from a hail storm in a café in the village of Le Chapelle sur Erdre, and then followed the EV1 into Nantes past the University and the Ile of Versailles – a pleasant inner city pedestrian harbour area. We have decided to stay at the IBIS Hotel on recommendation of fellow bikepackers.
Stage 1 is now complete and we will transfer to La Rochelle by train.
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