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June 13 Day 4 – Granville to Canisy – 49 miles, 1000’ elevation gain

Here are a few things I forgot to mention yesterday. Granville calls itself “the Monaco of the North.” From my impression of the city, that sounds rather grandiose, but I only saw a small portion of it.

Secondly, Granville is the birthplace of fashion designer, Christian Dior. Yes, it okay to yawn now. His museum is near our hotel. I did not go.

More interestingly, after WWII ended, some really zealous Nazis who were stationed in the nearby Channel Islands. Even after all other areas were captured, the Nazis in the Channel Islands refused to surrender. Some escaped to Granville and briefly retook the town.

Today we traveled to the town of Canisy. Along the way we rode on many narrow, low-traffic roads, with unending undulating hills. Some of them were so narrow that they reminded me of woodlot roads in the Adirondacks. None of them were particularly difficult with grades varying from 5 to 10%.

There were three noteworthy highlights today. First, was visiting the remains of Abbaye d’Hambye a lovely 12th century Benedictine medieval monument. The skeleton of it remains and it is quite impressive. How such a marvelous building was built in the 1100’s is an engineering marvel. See some pictures of it below.

Secondly, was a visit to another German military cemetery at Marigny. It was first used by American authority to bury its dead and German dead that had been killed in the ‘Bocage’ gridlock. Some American units were within 8km / 5mi of Saint-Lo by June 13^th (following the June 6 Allied invasion at Normandy Beach). It would take another month to move that last stretch, in the labyrinth of hedgerows. The German war graves commission started relocating its dead to Marigny in 1957. The grave markers here are flat, with generally two names on each, or unknown. Groups of crosses are dispersed across the burial site in an ornamental manner. The total burial is 11,169 people.

Our description of today’s ride states, “Many of the 11,172 soldiers buried there belonged to the Panzer-Lehr Division. Allied bombing almost wiped out the Division during the Battle of St-Lô on July 25, 1944.

Over 2,000 allied bombers launched a massive air raid between St-Lô and Périers in order to break the German lines. The American Infantry managed to dismantle the first German lines despite the counter-attack of the Panzer Division. They then progressed towards La Chapelle-en-Juger, where they linked up with other regiments.

The German survivors withdrew to Marigny, where they put up a fierce resistance. However, the 3rd Armored tanks and Infantry defeated them the next day. La Chapelle-en-Juger was reduced to a pile of rubble but was free!

This attack was part of the Operation Cobra-La Percee, the great break through the Cotentin Peninsula conducted by the U.S. troops from July 25 to 31, 1944.”

I looked at many of the gravestones which each contained two German men. According to the birthdates on them, many of these men were only 19 years old. What a tragedy that so many men lost their lives. See some pictures of the cemetery below.

Lastly, our lodging for tonight is an authentic castle, also from the 1100’s. Château de Canisy is not as impressive as castles in the Loire Valley but is impressive by any standard. See pictures of it below. The owner of the castle gave us a history of it, including occupation of it by German officers during WWII. Except for those few years, the castle has been owned by members of her family for the last 1000 years!

June 13, Day 3 Mont Saint Michel to Granville – 53 miles, 2000’ elevation gain

This morning at around 7:30 a.m. I walked around spectacular Mont St. Michel before the crush of tourists arrived. It is truly an awesome place. I tried to get into the abbey at the top of the staircase, but it was closed. Nonetheless it is a marvel of engineering, imagination, and beauty.

As we biked away from Mont-Saint Michel toward the city of Granville, Mont-Saint Michel was often visible, even miles from it because it is set on an island in the midst of mostly flat land.

The ride today was pleasant—mostly on secondary, quiet roads. The tour leaders, or whoever planned this ride, did a really good job of finding quiet roads.

Throughout Europe there are magnificent churches. Today we saw such a church in Avranches at our morning snack site. It must have taken years, thousands of dollars, and significant work from poorly paid laborers to build it. As I marveled at it, I wondered if construction of such magnificent churches contributed to the French Revolution. Wikipedia confirms my hunch. See the causes of it here.

One of my more memorable takeaways from today was not the nice roads or scenery. It was the smell of jasmine plants. They were everywhere and I often could smell them before I came across big bushes of them. The ample rhododendron bushes and wild poppies were also prevalent.

Check out some pictures from today’s ride.

June 11, 2026 Day 2: Dinard to Mont St Michel – Distance: 47 miles, 1450 elevation gain.

Today started with a 15 minute ferry ride from Dinard across a bay to St. Malo. It took us about 20 minutes of riding to get through that city. Sometimes we were in the road, sometimes we were on bike paths.

At one point, I attempted to leave the road and get on a bike path. It didn’t work out so well. There was about a 2” lip separating the road from the bike path and I didn’t cross that lip perpendicular enough to overcome it. The result was that my momentum was going to the right but my front wheel never got over the 2” lip and continued straight, sending me tumbling onto the bike path.

I scraped my knee and ankle and wounded my pride. But to quote Monty Python, “it was a mere flesh wound.” Fortunately, I was wearing a helmet, which scraped along the pavement. Had I not been wearing a helmet, it might have been a head injury instead of a mere flesh wound.

Once we got out of the city, the riding was wonderful. There was very little traffic and oftentimes, the roads were not even equal to the width of one lane in the U.S.

Highlight # 1 of the day consisted of going to the German cemetery. This cemetery was started by a French teacher who lived nearby. Even though the Germans conquered France, terrorized its civilians, and fought against the Allies, around 150,000 of them died at Normandy and the subsequent battles across France as the Allies drove the Germans out of France. This kind-hearted teacher reasoned that German mothers and wives were like other mothers and wives and grieved for the men they lost.

She led efforts to identify the German men who had been buried in the area and wrote letters to their loved ones to tell them that their men had been found a were being relocated into a common cemetery. Today, this cemetery contains nearly 12,000 burials of German military personnel of WWII, plus some women and children. The names of the soldiers were clearly displayed in a dignified manner throughout the cemetery.

The second highlight of the day was arriving at Mont Saint-Michel. Along the way we passed a windmill. But what was truly impressive was Mont Saint-Michel itself. It is incredibly impressive in its unique rising from the seabed and its history.

Construction of it is said to have begun as a devotional chapel on the summit of the island in 708, following a command from the Archangel Michael.  St. Michael’s gilded figure, perched on the vanquished dragon, crowns the tip of the abbey’s spire.

Our route description for today states, “in 966, Richard I, Duke of Normandy, gave Mont St-Michel to the Benedictines, who turned it into a center of learning and, in the 11th century, into something of an ecclesiastical fortress, with a military garrison at the disposal of both abbot and king.

In the 15th century, during the Hundred Years War, the English blockaded and besieged Mont St-Michel three times. The fortified abbey withstood these assaults and was the only place in western and northern France not to fall into English hands. After the Revolution, Mont St-Michel was turned into a prison. In 1966 the abbey was symbolically returned to the Benedictines as part of the celebrations marking its millennium. Mont St-Michel and the bay became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.”

The Germans also occupied it during WWII but apparently thought enough of it not to damage it.

Tonight, I am staying in a hotel about halfway up this impressive island. It is quite a unique pleasure to do so. We also had a guided tour which was okay. I could hear about a third of what the guide said because it was often noisy due to passerbys. She could have used a microphone.

A low point of the day was dinner. Last night, we had warm sea bass over rice. That was good. Tonight, we had some kind of cold fish served over cold corn. I ate the cold fish since I was famished and dinner did not start until 7:30 p.m. after the guided tour. The next course was cod in some type of brown butter sauce. I only took one bite of it. It wasn’t good enough to take in any more of what would have been distasteful calories. Unimpressed, I even left before dessert to work on this blog.

Despite the minor fall and disappointing dinner, today was a fine day and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

June 10, 2026:

Hi everyone,

Just in case you are interested, or don’t have much to read, you may be interested in following my blog about a bicycle trip that I began today. It will be a 27-day bicycle trip from France to Germany, roughly following the path of the Allies as they landed at Normandy, France and fought their way through France and Belgium, eventually crossing the Rhine River into Germany.

An overview of the tour can be seen at this link: Cycling Tours Europe | Normandy Cycling Tours | Allies – Bike Odyssey. It should be an epic trip, filled with history, culture, and scenery.

My journey began on Monday, June 8th when I took a flight from Montreal to Paris. My friend, Kevin McCollum was kind enough to drive me to the Montreal airport, sparing my wife, Joanne, from doing so, since she does not like to drive in Montreal. The flight went smoothly and I arrived in Paris at 7:00 a.m. on June 9^th.

Three mishaps soon followed. After navigating my way through Charles DeGaulle airport to the train station, I attempted to board the train to Rennes, France. However, the first-class train ticket I had purchased months ago was not valid. That is because I booked it for July 9^th, not July 9^th.  July 9^th is the day I intend to return home. With that date in mind, I mistakenly reserved the train trip for that date.

Therefore, I had to go to the ticket booth and purchase a ticket for June 9^th. The new ticket cost me an extra 25 Euros and was a second-class ticket. Getting on the train was very confusing due to a lack of signage and my lack of familiarity with how trains operate. Not knowing where to get on the train, I just got on when it stopped. It turns out that I did, indeed, board the first-class section. But all those first-class seats were occupied by people who actually knew what they were doing. So, I sat on a bench seat between railroad cars until someone in the first-class section got off and I took his seat.

At Rennes, France, I had to switch trains to take a train to St. Malo, our starting point. Again, I had booked a ticket for July 9 instead of July 9. This time, it was no problem because no one checked my ticket before or after I got on the train. That was a very minor mishap.

Mishap number 3 occurred when I attempted to check into my hotel. The sign at the registration desk proudly stated, “we speak English, French, and Spanish.” That was false advertising. The clerk, who about 15, could not speak English and could not find my reservation. In my broken French, I insisted that I had a reservation for today. He insisted that I did not.

So, I went to a nearby hotel with a similar name, thinking that I must have booked a room there. They did not have my reservation either. After opening my laptop and looking at the reservation, I learned that I had indeed booked a reservation at the first hotel. You guessed it; I booked a reservation for July 9^th, not June 9^th. Fortunately, they were able to accommodate me.

That brings me today, the first day of the ride. There are 20-some people on this tour from Australia, Canada, Tasmania, England, and the U.S. There are four tour leaders and two vans that carry our luggage and day bags as well tools and lunch and snack stuff. Today was a warm-up ride, only 12 miles. We rode along the coast starting and ending in Dinard, France.

We bicycled on a short scenic loop along the coast of Brittany, starting from the seaside town of Dinard, a town with a rich 19th-century resort history. I found it interesting that Winston Churchhill spent a lot of time here, painting seascapes after World War I.

We pedaled by several villages that all had names ending in sur-Mer My rudimentary knowledge of French recognized that as “on the sea.” There were many sweeping views of the English Channel, secluded coves and sandy beaches. At Pointe du Décollé, a rocky promontory offered panoramic views of the jagged Breton coastline and the fortified city of Saint-Malo in the distance.

I will attempt to post a few pictures from today’s ride and each day’s ride–but I am still attempting to master this blog/posting process. I expect to update this blog daily, so stay tuned. You can send me feedback at [email protected].

John

Hi everyone,

Starting on Wednesday, July 10th, I plan to join a group of bicyclists on a 27-day ride from Normandy, France to Remagen, Germany. The route will cover about 900 miles and roughly follows the path of the Allies after they landed on the beaches of Normandy and fought their way across France and Belgium.

To see an overview of the tour, see: Cycling Tours Europe | Normandy Cycling Tours | Allies – Bike Odyssey.

On Monday, July 8, I fly from Montreal to Paris, then take a 4-hour train trip to St. Malo (near Normandy) where the ride begins. If you are interested in following my blog, which I hope to update daily, see https://bikeodyssey.cc/john-grattos-normandy-bicycle-trip.

I welcome your feedback at [email protected].  Stay tuned.

John

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