Nantes to Saint Pierre des Corps to Paris CDG Airport

After our final breakfast for the trip, we departed Nantes to drive to Saint Pierre des Corps, approximately two and a half hours away. We took the usual wrong turns, upsetting the GPS so that she had to constantly announce "route recalculation" until we were on the right track.
We pulled in to a service station close to our destination to refuel the hire car before returning it. However, we discovered that service stations are not 'manned' and you can only refuel by paying by card at the pump. This sounds fine in theory, but the machine would not acknowledge or accept our cards. Between us we tried 5 different cards, without success. A lovely lady fuelling her car at the next pump came to assist and was also surprised to find not one of our cards was accepted. She offered to pay for our petrol with her card, but we declined, choosing to return the car with just half a tank of petrol.
The Europcar office is at the Saint Pierre des Corps train station, so we were exactly where we needed to be to catch the train to CDG Airport in Paris.
In hindsight, a better option would have been to return the hire car in Nantes and save ourselves the drive. The train we're on came from Nantes, so a longer train ride would have been preferable to the morning's drive.
The train is very comfortable, with beautifully upholstered seats. The challenge is always to board quickly and stow the suitcases before the train moves off. Just made it!
It was a 2 hour train ride to the airport through the French countryside.
Arrival at the airport was busy, but our "read the signs" mantra lead us to the check in desk where the lovely young man assigned us exit row seats for the first flight.
We board here at 9.30pm, which is 6.30am Sunday. We're in Dubai for a couple of hours before the long second flight that will have us in Brisbane at about 6am on Monday morning.
It will be interesting to see how we shape up for work the next day! 😂

Train travellers! 

Le Croisic to Nantes

With the help of a map, we planned our route to Nantes via smaller Coastal villages, rather than directly to Nantes using the highway.
First stop was Saint Nazaire after negotiating endless narrow cobbled streets.  We parked near the beach and walked for a short while before continuing on to Pornic.
Pornic was another coastal village with a small marina full of assorted sized boats. More walking about with as brief stop for quiche at a bakery, then back on the road for Nantes .
Nantes is a larger town/city, so it was tense driving in the traffic, but the GPS directed us to the hotel without any problems.
Once checked in, we asked for directions to town and walked across the railway bridge to see The Château des ducs de Bretagne which is a large castle located in the city.
We wandered all over the Castle and then continued on to  Nantes Cathedral, or the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul which is a Roman Catholic Cathédral. Magnificent.
From the cathedral we wandered through the narrow cobbled streets, lined by shops, cafes, restaurants and the like.  Eventually ,we found our way back to the Castle, from where we could relocate the hotel.
Tonight it was a rose or three and dinner in the bistro at the hotel. Choosing blindly from a menu written in French, explained by a waitress with no knowledge of English, we were very happy with our dinner!
This is our last hotel, as tomorrow we drive on to Saint Pierre des Corps to return the hire car and catch the train to Paris CDG airport to fly home .  Our adventure is almost over .

Pornic

Nantes . View from our window !

Nantes - Castle

Cathedral 

Brest to Le Croisic

Back on the road, we headed towards Le Croisic with the help of the GPS.
Without knowing the names of any town or villages on the way we were just following the highway, until we passed through a quaint little village and decided to park the car and have a look around.
It was a delightful place. We thought we were in Bretagne, but have since discovered that is the name of this region, so we're not sure exactly where we were.
It was around midday and the street market vendors were just packing up their stalls. We wandered around and discovered a lovely cafe in an open area of cafes, a hotel and a couple of shops. The staff were lovely and assisted us in understanding the menu so we could order a salad for lunch - with cheese ice cream!
On we drove to Le Croisic, another seaside village of cobbled streets, old stone buildings and hundreds of boats. It was low tide again, so the boats were high and dry, but were refloated as the tide came in.
After checking in we went back into the village and walked around until we decided on a restaurant for dinner.  It's challenging trying to decipher the menu, drawing on our high school French to work out what's available.  Seafood is plentiful, with mussels a local specialty.

Saint Malo to Brest

Breakfast was in the hotel's elaborately decorated dining room before we caught a taxi to the hire car depot. Our vehicle is a Toyota CH-R hybrid. In France it's left hand drive on the right side of the road, so driving requires full concentration.
We left Saint Malo en route to Brest with the help of the in car GPS. Unfortunately for us the exit we needed to take to head to Brest was closed due to roadworks, so we couldn't exit. The GPS had to re-route us, but insisted on having us turn around and try to exit from the opposite direction, which was also closed by roadworks! Without knowing exactly where we were, or where we were heading, we drove on, ignoring her pleas to exit and turn around. We eventually exited on a narrow road to reset the GPS and this time selected the "route de ecologie" rather that fast or short routes, so found ourselves driving along country lanes through cornfields and tiny villages until we merged with the main road again.

We eventually arrived in Brest and are in a hotel across from a harbour and the yacht club. We went walking along the waterfront, watching kids on stand up paddle boards and kayaks and others on wind surfers and sailboats. They were all happily swimming in the water while the rest of the population was rugged up in jackets and scarves.

The hotel receptionist provided directions on how to catch the bus into town to Liberty Square. From there we walked along the street towards the waterfront and rode the cable car to the other side and back to take in the view.

By then restaurants were opening for dinner so we settled at a window seat for a rose and a light dinner before retracing our path to catch the bus back to the hotel in time for bed! zzzzzzz

Breakfast at Saint Malo

Brest

Coutte Hotel, Brest

Slip yards, Brest

View from the cable car

Naval ships in slip yards

From cable car

Evening in downtown Brest

Watersports

En route to Brest

Hire car

Jersey, UK to Saint Malo, France

A taxi took us to the ferry port, which was quite close to the hotel.

Although a little windy, the ferry ride was uneventful and passed quickly.

We opted to walk from the ferry terminal in Saint Malo to our hotel, which is located within the walls of the old city. We'd taken screen shots of the directions to aid our navigation and were able to drag our cases along the cobbled streets into the old city.

The receptionist at the hotel informed us we had been upgraded to their other hotel along the street. We were too early to check in, so left our bags and went off to explore.

The first task was to locate the building of the novel "All the Light We Cannot See", so Kathy could take photos for the Book Club. 

From there we walked up onto the city wall to enjoy the views across the sea and the city. Wow! This place is just gorgeous! Wow!

We stopped off at a sidewalk cafe to sample a crepe and poisson soup, then found our new hotel to check in.

The room is fabulous , with glorious views across the water and beyond. Absolutely magnificent! We are only here for one night, but if you're travelling this way be sure to stay at least two or three nights!

Jersey Harbour

In search of our hotel

                               Saint Malo Harbour

Saint Malo - inside the walled city

Almost there ...

Our hotel

The hotel we'd booked

Front of our hotel

View from our window