Gouarec

Cumul EV1: 97 km, Total 110 km

Sunny weather comes with cold nights.. and cold it was! Locals mentioned 6C…
We leave An Uhelgoad (the breton for Huelgoat), through a pleasant landscape, rolling between fields, watermills, and orchards. The main difficulty is to avoid fallen apples on the ground.
We reach the Canal de Nantes à Brest, and enjoyed our sandwich in the company of a saxophone player practicing under one of the numerous bridges of the Canal.
Unlike the canals in burgundy, this one is really beautiful, big oak trees looming, lock gates are flowered, shutters of the houses brightly painted in blue. Some are in disuse but maintained.
The banks are green and mowed, huge bouquets of iris must be a striking view in spring time.

This canal was build by convicts to connect two major harbors Nantes and Brest, but was quickly supplanted by the railroad in the early 1900… As we cycle along the canal, we can only wonder at the titanic work : over 200 gates each paired with a tiny granite house.
We reach our camping in Gouarec, on an island in the heart of the village. We sit with the locals under the stone halle for a bretons IPA. And unexpectedly enjoyed a Rougail Saucisse for dinner !Read more