Vannes

Although our cycling adventure had drawn to a close, Maggie and I still had lots of travel and exploring waiting for us. Today we caught the train to Vannes and went in search of the Europcar depot. We discovered that it was actually about 10 km from the centre of town - a bit far to walk as the helpful guy at the desk had suggested.

Another short train and we finally found ourselves at the correct location. The creative staff at Europcar had kindly "upgraded" us from the car we had booked to a totally unfamiliar hybrid Toyota. Not only would we have the fun of driving on the wrong side of the road, we would also have the challenge of learning a whole new set of controls. We were not reassured when even the guy at the Europcar depot did not know how to start it.

After a few false starts we were finally underway and trying to find our way back to Vannes. Somehow a wrong turn found me right in the centre square of a tiny medieval village. It was NOT where we were meant to be. With sweat pouring down my face, I slowly extricated the car, much to the amusement of the locals.

Sometime later we reached the relative safety of our hotel and I almost collapsed with exhaustion. Was this how the rest of the trip was going to go ? And whose idea was it to hire a car in the first place ?

We decided to explore the city on foot and leave the car alone. Paul and Jan were also staying in the same hotel and we learnt that they had experienced their own traumas when collecting their hire car. In fact, their situation was a little more serious as Paul had parked the car somewhere in Vannes and could not remember where he had left it. All he could remember was driving through a long tunnel at some time.

We set off in search of Paul's lost car and eventually found it in a carpark. It was relief all round. We ended the day with a pizza dinner at the lovely cafe on the ramparts, overlooking the gardens.

It had been a long and stressful day, but we knew that more challenges would lay ahead.Read more