E5 Days 16-20

Wednesday, March 20th

Sculpture park

• Breakfast is of course great as always, especially as we enjoy it today with a view of Château Josselin.

• First of all, we have the New Hope Talking Hands Meeting before we set off quite late along the canal.

• Just as we leave the town, we discover a wash house that was once used for washing clothes.

• The stretch along the canal today is very beautiful again.
• We also enjoy our gourmet breaks with cake, popcorn and cabanossi.

• One section of the trail is a kind of artist’s path, where all kinds of wood carvings can be found along the way.

• There is even a tunnel through which the path leads, with a sign at the entrance saying “Attention passage glissant”.

• That could be the motto of the entire GR.
• The sign is there for good reason: it’s super slippery.

• Afterwards, the route takes us along a stretch of the Voie Verte and a few small roads.

• We soon reach the small town of Ploermel.

• We booked a flat there via Booking, which we found straight away, but then neither the key code was correct nor could anyone be reached by phone – great…
• So there we are, standing in front of a closed door, asking ourselves: What now?
• Out of sheer desperation and because we briefly wonder whether the whole thing is a scam, we call the booking hotline and tell them what’s going on.
• It works really well and the employee is very competent.
• Booking gives the hosts half an hour to react and we spend this half hour doing groceries.
• A little later, we are sitting in front of the flat again, feeling slightly stupid, when suddenly a guy comes along and says that he has seen us on his camera and that he is the host.
• He kindly opens the door for us and when I discover the TV with YouTube function right in front of the bed, I am at least somewhat reconciled with the flat.
•  We cook tomato and mozzarella pasta and enjoy it in bed while we watch climbing – nice!

Thursday, March 21st

The Church of the Holy Grail and the White Lady

• Breakfast at the accommodation while watching climbing. 🙂
• Visit to the bakery for a second breakfast – made my day with a super cheerful bakery assistant.
• A quick stopover at Intersport – this morning I realised: My hiking sock has a hole in it – the timing couldn’t have been better!

• Hiking socks purchased straight away – off we go on the Voie Verte along the lake.
• Glorious weather, the sun is shining.

• We pass Fabienne’s former school, the Lycee agriculture, where a mud run is taking place, looks and sounds like a lot of fun – with a mud slide and everything.
• There is a contrasting programme just opposite in the form of a very well-kept golf course, on which a handful of people shuffle along rather lazily, pushing golf carts in front of them.
• Although it’s Thursday, many people are out and about – probably thanks to the nice weather: cyclists, runners, walkers.

• Cycling seems to be the trend sport in Ploermel, by the way: We see a few racing bike packs and mountain bike gangs.
• After the lake, we walk (skipping one loop of the trail) on small roads and paths directly to Treherontec, a small, inconspicuous but very picturesque Breton village with beautiful stone houses. The Grail Church is said to be located here (“anyone can claim that”) – in any case, the village marks the start of the part of our hiking trail that leads us to the legendary Foret de Broceliande area, where the Arthurian legends are rumoured to have originated.

• The first thing I see when we reach the place is a café- nice!

• The café, run by a Belgian, is small and cosy and has great music (they are currently playing a jazz version of “Another brick in the wall”).
• The Church of the Holy Grail is nice, but inside we find neither the Grail nor the gloomy atmosphere that we would have expected from such a legendary church in Dan Brown style.

• We set off past the Golden Tree and the Fairy Mirror – a lake that lies very quietly and beautifully in a hollow.

• To get there, however, you have to do quite a bit of scrambling over rocks – crazy for the mainstream tourist trail.

• By the way: half of the route along the King Artus sights, especially the part into the “valley of no return”, is closed until the end of March due to the hunting season.
• “Wow,” says Matthäus, “they’re closing their main tourist attraction because of the hunt!”
• And thus also our hiking trail.
• We are at a loss for a moment, as there is no “Detour” sign, but once again we are happy to be able to simply look it up on the internet and actually find a route on Komoot that is even a shortcut.

• Beautiful forest paths lead us to Trécesson Castle, which is not enthroned above the landscape, but on the contrary is very hidden.
• You can only see it when you round the bend – before that, it’s hard to guess that there’s a castle here.

• It is beautifully surrounded by water – it is inhabited, we read, and privately owned.
• Thanks to its location alone, it is naturally shrouded in legend.

• Matthäus takes out his mobile phone and reads a few stories and legends about the castle.
•  “There must be a white lady,” I say and Matthäus confirms: “A white lady who appears on the roof when the moon is full.”
• We look it up, but unfortunately the moon is not full tonight.
• Our accommodation is very close by in a small town – we look so lost looking for it that a farmer with a tractor comes to stand next to us and says: “The castle is in the other direction.” The confusion is compounded when, in mid-sentence, as I’m about to reply, I see the sign for our gite and interrupt my sentence to exclaim: “Ah, c’est là!” And when the farmer looks at me in confusion, I add the name of our gite: “Le Chat Noir!” Shaking his head, the farmer drives off while we move into our gite.

Friday, March 22nd

“Ice stadium has started”

• Dad (or rather his car correct) wrote in the WhatsApp group today and indeed – everything smells and looks like the start of spring here too.
• At first, however, a thick fog hangs over the forest, which makes it appear even more mystical.

• As we pass the Chateau de Trécesson for the second time today, we can better understand where all the horror stories come from.

• The paths that lead us back into the Foret de Broceliande are GR-style muddy and today our route leads along a restricted military area, which you wouldn’t even notice if there weren’t signs here and there saying “Zone militaire defence d’entrer”.

• Phew, just don’t take a wrong turn, we think to ourselves, especially when we hear firing in the restricted area a little later.

• Our path leads through an enchanted-looking valley along a stream, from where Komoot claims you can turn left and reach Paimpont by a short route.

• Just don’t put too much trust in Komoot, we learn, because there is neither a bridge over the stream nor a path leading up the hill – great…
• So we take the much longer path over the motorway bridge and road and are forced to make a real sprint at the end to reach Paimpont before the museum closes.

• Slightly out of breath, we arrive in the beautiful little town, where, in addition to the museum, there is also a beautiful castle.

• The King Arthur Museum, which Larry recommended to us, is really well designed: You are guided through an interactive exhibition and learn about the forest, its significance for the inhabitants and the King Arthur myth.
• We learn that Broceliande means “marshy hill”, which we find very fitting.
• Finally, there is a very dark room in which lights slowly come on, shining like a starry sky all around us and a voice says: “Now go out into the forest and find your very own personal tree!”
• We think that’s a very nice gesture, if the forest wasn’t littered with “Private, no trespassing”, “Closed due to hunting”, “No trespassing, video-monitored” and “Attention restricted military area” signs.
• “But what if my tree is in the video-monitored forest?” asks Matthäus in a desperate tone of voice.
• Nevertheless, we set off into the forest along muddy paths.

• We despair briefly at a river, over which of course we don’t find a bridge at first. Finally we do discover one and are really pleased, only to realise that we don’t have to cross it: our path actually continues behind the fence on this side of the river..

• So we scramble over the fence and reach the road towards Plelan-le-Grand.
• The name doesn’t really fit: the place is so small and inconspicuous that we are quite surprised when our hotel appears practically out of nowhere.

• We are even more surprised by the small restaurant, which is really exquisite and totally fancy, so that we feel slightly underdressed in our jogging bottoms and flip-flops.

• Matthäus savours a really delicious venison, we treat ourselves to a glass of wine and simply enjoy this unexpectedly great evening that Plelan-le-Grand has given us – maybe there is something to the “Grand” after all.

Saturday, March 23rd

King Arthur’s Sword

• Breakfast at the hotel and off we go.

• It is cloudy and rainy and our path leads us alternately over muddy sections and beautiful meadows.

• Suddenly we reach “La Chambre au Loup”, a beautiful national park that appears out of nowhere.

• Willow bushes and grasses grow on the rugged rocks through which our path leads.
• In the middle of the park, it starts to rain so heavily that we only just manage to put on our ponchos.

• The route continues along small roads and paths to Lac de Trèmelin.
• This is where the King Arthur sword is located. According to legend, whoever can pull it out will become king.

• I try my luck, of course, but it’s not to be: The sword doesn’t move a bit – I’m not so sad about it – I wouldn’t have wanted to carry a piece of iron around with me (not to mention the weight of the crown..).

• We also treat ourselves to a lunch break here before moving on to the small town of Iffendic.
• It starts to pour, which isn’t so bad as we wanted to do groceries anyway.

• So we escape into the supermarket and take our time, which isn’t difficult as we’re both a bit tired after 25 kilometres of hiking.
• As we leave the supermarket again, a beautiful rainbow stretches out in front of us.

• Our accommodation today is a room, Nathalie rents out, who anxiously texts us several times to ask us when we will be arriving and when we would like to have breakfast.
• We answer “7.30 for both” and she replies with “Mmh, but how about breakfast at half past nine?”
• Well so half 10 it is.
• After making our way across fields and along the railway through some overgrown sections, Montauban finally appears in the distance

• Yesterday we had to laugh because there is a “Foto vom Inhaber” on Google that shows a cat.

• We are greeted by the “Inhaber” enthusiastically meowing loudly when we arrive a little later than planned. Nathalie herself is out and about on this Saturday evening. That is not too bad as we are a bit exhausted from the stage anyway.

• It’s off to the shower and then to bed, and it doesn’t take five minutes before the “Inhaber” is in bed with us. 🙂

Sunday, March 24th

The famous Etang de Neal

• At half past nine for breakfast we meet Nathalie, our lovely but somewhat sleepy hostess.
• She didn’t get much sleep, she says, because she was at a carnival party in Vitré yesterday and travelled here from there this morning – wow!
• Oh dear, and we made her get up so early!
• She asks where we’re going today and we say: “To the Etang de Neal” – “Where to?!” Nathalie asks, “I have never heard of such a place.”
• “Good sign,” says Matthäus to me later: “Our destination is unknown to people living merely 20 kilometres away.”
• With a heavy heart, we say goodbye to Nathalie and her cat, Mimi, before setting off in the direction of Etang de Neal.

• We soon reach the aforementioned Neal, a small baby river, more of a stream, along which the path leads beautifully through a sparse forest.

• We pass a disused railway line, which is already quite overgrown, but was certainly once very scenic.

• We scramble up the hill over hill and along a very narrow path.

• Continuing along small roads, we reach the Etang, which is so unspectacular, that we easily understand why Nathalie doesn’t know it.

• We pass the perhaps somewhat more famous “Megalythes de Lampoy”.

• The Stonehenge-like formation is beautiful to look at, but not incredibly spectacular.

• From here it’s not far to our accommodation, which we booked via Google Chat, a funny story: apparently we wrote to the son, who replied: “Please call my dad, he wants to confirm this by phone”, whereupon we tried to call said dad several times without success. Finally, we wrote to the son again and got a call back from his father quite immediately.
• It turns out that he is very friendly, but a little suspicious of foreign telephone numbers whose dialling code he doesn’t know.
• “Ah, vous êtes Autrichiens!”, he then says with a laugh.
• There is a party ongoing when we arrive and the parents are out of the house, but the son, who is about our age, kindly shows us where the accommodation is.
• Although it’s the cheapest accommodation so far, everything is really nice and we feel super comfortable and right at home.