A very pleasant day

     Peter and I headed out of Avranches for Mont Saint Michel, twelve miles on flat coastal roads with distant views of Mt St Michel.  Since my last visit in 1970, a bridge has been built across the flood plain between the mainland and the Mont.  shuttles taking you to and from the parking lots on the mainland.  Before it was a matter of dodging the ebb and flow of the tide. We walked about a mile over a very civilized sidewalk designed for the masses.  Nice place but totally overrun by hoards of tourists and countless shops selling the same old tacky tourist stuff. Only thirty people actually live on the Mont; god bless them.  With that "been there, done that", we bicycled westward.  Peter and I came to the fork in the road where we bid farewell. He headed south and me west to St Malo.  The week we rode together went by in a blink. His pace was a bit faster and longer than I really wanted to go.  Basically, he was hauling about forty pounds less than me, my body weight in particular.  Nevertheless, we hung together, Peter backing off a little and me pushing harder.  I like rides between forty and forty-five miles, he liked them around sixty. Riding over here in France is much different than crossing the USA.  More hills, narrow roads and very little in the way of long flat straight terrain. Thus, ride is tougher and racking up fifty miles a day can be tough.  Hugging the ocean and passing through one town after another was charming.  The French have a more laid back style of living; the market everyday, more local cyclists and tasteful old villages.
     With Forty-two miles behind me, I coasted into St Malo where I navigated over to an auberge Jeunesses.  Less than an hour later the skies opened up.  Good decision not to camp out.  After leaving Peter, my pace slowed down and my thinking shifted to how I could change the scenery a bit.  Why not, let's head for Jersey?  So off I go.  Two nights are booked at a hotel in  St Helier, right near where the ferry docks.  An adventure within an adventure; I have always wanted to visit the Island.