Lock, lock, lock, lock, castle!

Monday 30^th May

Today it was time to say goodbye to our very comfortable accommodation for the past week. We were on the road by 9.30 with the destination for today being Fougeres – about half way to Cherbourg where we will be for 2 nights for the ferry trip to Guernsey.

We took to the back roads again driving through crop and dairy lands. Traffic on these back roads is so quiet that you can slow down to take pictures or look at the interesting villages along the way. We stopped near the village of Hede-Bazouges where there is a series of 11 locks on the Rance canal over a distance of around 2 kilometres. No boats to be seen through the locks when we were there but it would be interesting to see one traverse all the locks.

Looking downriver at the lock system. There were a few boats tied up here and they looked to be permanent accommodations.

It was hard to get photos that clearly showed all the locks.

From here we decided it was lunchtime so we headed further on in search of a relais. Dora was no help and led us up the garden path once, and 2 little villages that we passed through had nothing – not even a bakery. We had given up in disgust and decided just to head for Fougeres on the main road, and there it was; lunch stop for the day. Service was pretty lousy, probably because we arrived late (around 1.30) but we had our 4 courses and coffee for the grand sum of 24euro.

Driving in to Fougeres and we could see a pretty impressive fortress, so after checking in to our (familiar) accommodation we headed off in search of the tourism office to see what there was to see in Fougeres. We only picked this town because it was about the right distance for a day’s travel, but there is a fabulous chateau here to see. We didn’t do the tour because we arrived too late in the day to get the most out of our tour, so we plan to come back here after we have been to Guernsey.

The belltower in the town of Fougeres.

Looking down on the chateau from the church in the centre of town.

Looking back up at the belltower from the chateau.

The medieval part of Fougeres from the XIV and XV century. 

And a nice 2CV.

Inside the church of St Sulpice which dates to the XIV century. There was a granite carving like this on either side of the church and lots of timber throughout the church. Another beautiful church.

The chateau at Fourgeres. XIth century and was the military stronghold of the area. There are 11 towers and the fortress encloses 2 hectares. 

And it had a real moat.

Not sure if they were catching any fish in the moat.

We are back in familiar type hotels from our last visit to France – this one is called Beausejour and has very much the look and feel of a FastHotel or Premiere Classe that we stayed in 2 years ago. It’s only a bed and we are off in the morning so glamour would be wasted. We are both feeling pretty tired tonight so we just shared a baguette for dinner and a cup of tea and will be headed for bed early.