Bonsoir Mesdames et Messieurs

So here we are in French France, ensconced in the Ibis hotel in Roscoff.  Early start to get to the ferry terminal (a whole mile away) and instead of being told to 'hang out by the dumpsters' as we were on more than one occasion in the USA, we were told to 'wait by the flagpoles' so we knew this must be a high class operation!  Anyway there were quite few cyclists on the crossing, tandem bikes, bikes with luggage trailers and bikes with kids in pull along buggy type things. 6 hours passed remarkably quickly, but we were a bit chicken at this end and waited until all the cars had driven out before venturing out on French roads. Reminding ourselves to ride on the right.

I had no idea Roscoff was anything much other than a ferry port, but it is heaving with tourists and the town roads are cobbled so it was a bit of an obstacle course to ride the mile or so to our hotel. This is a very posh Ibis (not like the decaying grandeur of the place last night - with the emphasis on the decaying). We have a four bed room and a huge walk-in shower as well as a good view over an old square and ancient church. Sadly the church bells ring every 15 minutes, but every cloud.......

We are missing the International fireworks competition in Plymouth tonight, but also sadly missed the start of the Trans France race this morning from Roscoff - 800 miles in 18 days, so over 40 miles every day! The Mechanic was devastated as you can imagine. We are also missing the Onion festival - which I initially mis-translated as the onion walk (conjuring up some interesting images) and the Flamenco extravaganza.  We did find another launderette (or laverie) but the instructions defeated us when you got to the payment part as it was some sort of central payment system, so in the end we came back and are hand washing shorts again.

I have included some pictures from yesterday, which proved too much for the hotel wi-fi system, plus the interesting light reflections on the car deck of the ferry. C has just discovered that he has forgotten to bring the lead for downloading photos, so you won't be seeing any of his