We had a great night’s sleep at La Vallee des Saintes and after a final morning walk we said our goodbyes. Nick and Sal were heading for the coast, whilst we were making our way slowly back to Saint Malo for our return trip. 

We had thought we’d try a “France Passion” stop in Glomel, but after enjoying a couple of hours in the auberge’s lovely large garden, adjacent to the Nantes-Brest Canal, where we took advantage of the shade, it turned out that we would not be able to eat there that night. 

We’d set our hearts on a meal out so we hot-tailed it back to Gouarec, where we knew there were some restaurants. After a quick recce of the small town we took a chance on the nearest one to the aire, as all the others seemed to be mainly pizza-based. Whilst we love pizzas as much as the next person, we were in France and wanted French cuisine. We sat outside in the sunshine of the cooling evening and thoroughly enjoyed an excellent steak, chips, and salad. To be honest, we were very pleasantly surprised. 

We were also surprised to find what 2 days earlier had been a somewhat comatose aire had become extremely busy, but we managed to secure our exact same spot from 2 nights earlier. In true aire tradition, everyone was extremely well behaved and thoughtful and we had another excellent night’s stop. An interesting feature of this aire, is that if you fancied a few more facilities, directly across the canal was a sensible campsite, that cost only €12 for a motorhome with 2 people, and that included electricity. 

On our previous visit here a couple of days earlier, Nick and Sal had cycled along the canal path to Bon Repos, where we’d stayed a few days before. Having explained to Sophie that 5k was in fact a very short distance on a bike and that Nick and Sal had taken only 15 minutes to get there, she reluctantly agreed. 

Her next concerns were what if there were any hills on this canal route (unlikely as there was only one lock), and how would we survive if we had a puncture.  Excuses exhausted, and me too at having to listen to them in disbelief, we set off and a lovely time was enjoyed by all. 

For our final night we promised ourselves an overnight next to a very peaceful lake in a little village we knew very well. 

After another super night there, we headed off for a final lunch in Dinan, a walk round the lovely medieval town, then a quick last-minute Lidl shop, diesel and GPL top-up, and toilet & grey water emptying, before heading for our boat. 

I wrote this final blog in the blazing sun, with uncomfortable temperatures in excess of 30C, as we sat waiting for our ferry at Saint Malo, where we were for an extra hour and a half due to a delay. They even started handing out free bottles of water to help minimise the risk of fraying tempers as the heat refused to abate. 

Overall, during the last 10 weeks, beating our previous record of 7 weeks, we’ve visited 3 countries, France, Spain, and Portugal, spending over 6 weeks in Northern Spain, our first ever motorhome tour of Spain. We’ve covered a modest 4,400 miles, have not spent a single penny/cent for any of our 60+ different overnight stops, or for water, and have met some lovely people, and we sincerely hope we can stay in touch. 

Thank you for sharing our journey with us, through this blog and sometimes in person, and look out for news of our next trip, which has yet to be determined. 

Full journey as follows (Red = Jouney Out; Blue = Journey Back; Green = Brittany Tour: