I am becoming quite nonchalant regarding French communal toilets, having shared facilities with 40 French lorry drivers, a man in just his underpants, and now, a fisherman washing his equipment!
The route is more interesting than anticipated, as the canal links sections of various rivers, and is full of flower-bedecked locks and occasional pleasure boats.
Maelstort, at midday, is a little town, busy with the weekly market, English tourists and French cycle tourists. The latter are all heavily laden with 4 panniers and other bags on top. The cobbled central streets are lined with medieval timber framed houses and shops. We are definitely in Brittany now, with the low tiled roofs replaced by steep slated ones.
We have chosen Josselin as our destination, as I remember it being very pretty from my last visit (35 years ago!). The beautiful
Castle, stone town walls and ancient cobbled streets are not spoiled by a small number of British tourists.
We book into a fabulous Chambres d'Hote, a gorgeous restored stone house with sumptuous fittings, in a walled garden. The team with us in the Pyrenees will remember the lovely place Marilyn arranged for us in Ore; this place is very similar. On the Internet we pick up news of the flooding and destruction in the Pyrenees. The weather may not have been perfect when we were there but we were so lucky to miss this destruction!
Location:Rieux to Josselin
