Photography by Mark Carnaby

After a two hour train ride from London I arrive at Portsmouth, cycled to Brittany Ferries port, through border control and just about to board! exciting bit!
The hold which stores the bikes - in the depths of the Bretagne ferry!
The Mont St Michel, sister ship of the Bretagne
The deck layout of the Bretagne - gonna have to explore that later!
You got two options to get from deck floors on the Bretagne - lift or these steps which are quite steep!
Looking down my cabin hall - like the 'sea' carpet design
Entrance to my cosy cabin for the night :)
The cabin fits two people if desired with a fold down bunk bed and plenty of storage space
Shower too! perfect for when you wake up in the morning before departing
Walking the outside deck's of the Bretagne - it's quite wet on the floor but not from any rain but the sea
The sun deck - also a helipad
Departing Portsmouth at dusk
Gas shipping container vessel out at sea
Sunset over the Isle of Wight as seen from the ship outside deck
Bembridge on the Isle of Wight
Arrived and rolling (literary!) off the ferry in St Malo, North West France at 8.30am after a 12 hour journey overnight from Portsmouth
Saying goodbye to my ferry, the Bretange, and hello to my French adventure!

Brittany, France 2019 Fully Loaded Cycle Tour

Day One: Portsmouth to Saint Malo (inc. video) | France Fully Loaded Cycle Tour

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Hot off the heels of my last Fully Loaded Cycle Tour in South Wales, and with barely a month just gone by, I was on to my next Cycle Tour in Brittany, North West France. As I didn’t have much time to plan & organise this trip I thought I would take a ‘go where the wind takes me‘ attitude as far as the camping bit goes and find sites along the way (I only had my last night’s campsite stay booked in so I didn’t miss my boat going back!) and after some research I found a great book which details the great ‘Green Ways‘ cycle routes around Brittany titled ‘Brittany’s Green Ways‘ published by Red Dog Books (see photo below) – I took the V2 cycle route from St-Malo to Rennes with a impromptu side trip going along the v4 route on the first day to see the abbey at Mont-Saint-Michel. Now I could chat away for ages about this trip, the weather was amazing, the overnight ferry, miles of off road cycle paths, the food… ahh.. it was like a holiday mixed in with cycle touring – just plain brilliant, but without further ado, here are the photos! 🙂

 

 

Map of the Green Ways routes in Brittany, France. I took the velo 2 to Rennes & part of velo 4 to Le mont-Saint-Michel – click map to see a bigger view.

Brittany’s Green Ways Book by Red Dog Books