Better late, than never

So I'm finally finishing my post about my vacation in Benodet. It will have to be briefer than I originally anticipated as it's now September, I'm 2 months behind schedule and therefore officially need to go blogging crazy in the next few weeks. Be prepared readers, be prepared.

The rest of the week in Benodet passed far too quickly. It included numerous cycling trips, a few too many Breton pancakes, some hilarious miscalculations (not at the time but in reflection), a tonne of wine and cheese buying and some quality family time. What are vacations for after all?

So much cheese, delicious cheese

16.07.12

On Monday, my first full day in Bretagne we decided to cycle to Concarneau (around 20km away...or so dad thought). Now, I had been doing a fair bit of velib-ing in Paris (the cycling system in the city) so I knew I wasn't too unfit, but my god, nothing could have prepared me for the cycling we did that day.

First of all when we set off the sun wasn't too hot, so I put sun cream on (as you do) but didn't pack any with me in my bag. Huge mistake. Dad wasn't too off par with the calculations, it was about 20km. Unfortunately it was 20 km if the entire world was flat, the entire world is not flat and we consequently landed right in the merde. There were more hills than we could have ever anticipated (literally not in my wildest nightmares). On top of that, we got lost, several times. Dad's a good map reader but I'm pretty much sure French road signs were made by a drunk person; no surprise really with all the wine made around the country. I'm starting to think people just get drunk and hammer the signs into place, spinning them round as they go just to add extra confusion. None of the signs make sense and when you follow the sign you SHOULD take you're pretty much guaranteed to end up in the wrong place. Highly annoying. So finally after nearly 3 hours of cycling up hill in 30 degree heat, several wrong turns and a 30km journey we finally arrived in the city of Concarneau. We were exhausted but weirdly happy at the sense of achieving such a distance on the first day...

Finally after 30km and one sore ass!!!

Unfortunately my back suffered too...peau Anglaise!

Fortunately the upside of all this was that Concarneau was just beautiful, it's an old walled city that was recommended to us by a good friend of mine (merci encore Cedric) and I'm so glad we visited, even if I couldn't sit down for at least a day. Sadly by the time we got there we only just about had time for lunch before the last bus back to Benodet. Yes we caught the bus, with our bikes, don't judge. Honestly I couldn't have managed it and I'm 23 years old...I didn't fancy having either of my parents keeling over on the way back up those wretched hills. Luckily now I speak French (oh la la) I was able to go into the tourist agency, find out where and when the buses were and if they accepted bikes or not. The guy explained to me that they normally took bikes but only if there weren't a lot of people with luggage), it was a maybe and maybe was good enough because my bottom couldn't even entertain getting back on the damn bike.

The city itself

So we went for a little wander around the city, tres picturesque before coming back to wait for the bus. The bus finally arrived and the lady explained that actually, we needed bikes that folded up. We had three bikes and three that did not fold up. VIE DE MERDE. I think when she told me this I must have looked like I was going to a) cry or b) have a nervous breakdown. I started rambling in French about how we had cycled 30 km, were so lost, so tired (me personally sun stroked) and so far from Benodet that this was our only HOPE of getting back in the next century. She must have been concerned for my mental state if she said no because she let us on the bus (HOORAY!) and even helped us with our bikes, what a star. I will be eternally grateful to this kind woman and thank god we weren't in  Paris because it never would have happened. 

The only negative was in all the commotion begging for the bus and trying to get the bikes on dad forgot his helmet on the bus shelter bench (ahaha). Oh well you can't win at everything! 

As soon as we got back we took a long dip in the gorgeous pool and I have never enjoyed a cold swim more in my life. It was like having an ice bath after a marathon (or what I imagine that would be like seeing as I've never done either one of those things). There is only one word I can use to describe this day and that's...unforgettable.