Day six: A tapestry and a train ride

The plan was to rise early, suss out Bayeux and its needlework and then head to St Malo for a leisurely ride to Dinan.

It started in line with the plan. I got my daily breakfast of a pain au chocolat, a croissant and an orange juice.

I then had a quick reccy of the cathedral and paid 7 euro to have a look at the world famous Bayeux Tapestry.

The tapestry is cool, but to be honest the needlework didn’t overly impress me - I would pick a J.Scotcher tea cosy over it any day. But what is interesting is the story of William the Conqueror, a story I seem to have forgotten since year nine.

It basically goes like this: William was the Duke of Normandy and relative of the Royal family. A chap called Harold is sent to see William, but lands in the wrong part of Normandy and is taken prisoner by some unsavoury folk. William negotiates his release and later the two men go into battle against the Duke of Brittany which they win.

In the excitement of victory William convinces Harold to swear his allegiance to him as the successor to the throne.

Some time passes, and the king dies. William, expecting to take the throne is a little surprised when Harold is knighted as king. Unimpressed that Harold’s oath of allegiance has seemingly been forgotten, William and his army sail to England to claim the throne. The Battle of Hastings ensures and Harold is killed. William becomes King.

Leaving Bayeux

With the tapestry ticked off I set off to the train station for what I assumed would be a straight forward trip to St Malo. I was wrong.

Turns out it’s trickier than one might think to get a train between two relatively large French towns. The quickest route required a two hour wait in Bayeux followed by an hour’s train ride, followed by another two hours in a small village called Folligny, before completing the final leg of an hour ride to St Malo. That meant hitting St Malo at 7pm and not much time for cycling.

With no other choice, I bought the ticket.

30 minutes outside of Bayeux and the weather changed remarkably. Everyday so far the sun has shined with all its might. However as soon as the border was crossed into Brittany, it was lashing down.

Making friends

The same was true when I got off in Folligny. I found myself in an empty train station, without even a ticket office, in the pouring rain. The actual village of Folligny was 2km down the road. Starving hungry I braved the rain to find a small bakery where I procured myself a cold pizza slice with far too many onions. I then headed back to the empty station to dry off.

About 30 minutes passed of reading and writing when a large inebriated fellah entered the waiting room.

He wasn’t menacing as such, but seemed to want to follow me around and took an unhealthy interest in touching my bike.

As he seemed to become more irritated I took to hiding round the corner and when he found me, I decided a quick 5km explore of the area in the rain was the most appealing option.

When I returned, another period of hiding/following ensued which kept me busy until the train came. I think he was more of a clown than a criminal.

Just as I was getting on the train, a lady appeared looking for ‘a gentleman wearing a hat’. I couldn’t make out if she was a relative coming to retrieve him or just someone he had upset earlier in the day. Either way, I boarded the train glad the games were over (I actually saw him get checked off a different carriage of the train at the first stop – I wonder where he is now?).

Rediscovering St Malo

Things started to improve once in St Malo. I had been through the ferry port before, but had no recollection of how beautiful a place it is. The city is built along a coastline stretch of jagged peninsulas.

On the edge of one such peninsula was my campsite, with beautiful views over the sea littered with boats and across to the old city of St Malo.

I had initially planned to cycle straight off from St Malo, but it was a blessing in disguise that I haven’t been able to.

I got some dinner from a local takeaway and ate it sitting on top of the war memorial at the edge of the campsite watching the sun go down over St Malo. Quite wonderful. And the rain seems to be subsiding, so fingers crossed for tomorrow.