Up and down, around
And through, dirt and trees and wild
Are surrounding you!
We began our day at our FOUR STAR CAMPSITE, heading out for something a little less... well... nice. We stumbled around southward, largely because we still don't have a map with good enough resolution to show us roads that we'd like to take and we've no desire to hop on that highway again. So... south it was. We attempted to use the maps that we acquired from the lovely desk people at our campsite to orient ourselves, but we wound up heading further and further west, despite our best efforts.
Eventually, we made our way to Dieppe. On a map, it looks like nothing. It's rather small, and there's a river that runs through it, but a map doesn't convey how durn impressive the canyon it's situated in and on and around is. The river that runs through the middle slices the city in two, but there are structures all up and down the walls of the gorge. A fortress perches on top. The old town winds down along impossibly steep streets from the fortress to the river. We didn't have much time to explore, but it was one of the first nice things that France has managed to pull out for us.
It got better! We consulted one of our shiny, new maps, and it showed a bicycling route that headed out of Dieppe along the canal. We wound our way down the slope and found a not particularly promising dirt track that was signed as a bike route. We frowned a little... but decided to follow it. And what a good choice.
Shortly after we joined the track, it opened up into a gorgeous forest with a slightly gravelly but rather firmly packed path winding along the side of the water. Definitely the best thing France has given us. We followed the canal track all the way to Rennes, enjoying the small towns and locks scattered along it. Locks in France apparently keep hours (like everything else), but at least they look nice and provide good backdrops for vlogs. :)
I can't remark on anything else for the day (except that when we got to Rennes it was during the unfortunate two hour block from 17h to 19h where seemingly every food-purveying place is closed) but the loveliness of the canal path and the wonderful weather. Tonight we're actually camping alongside the canal just outside Rennes... we'll wake up to solitude instead of RVs for the first time. :D