I left St Malo heading east and a cold squall greeted me showering me with hail stones, ice cold. It was short lived and by the time I was at St Michaels Bay it was once again a fine day.
I follwed the edge of the coast for 7 miles to Le Vivier sur Mer at which point the road moved slightly off the shoreline to Saint Broladre. I wish the road had stayed on the coast but I ventured off the main road onto small coastal tracks to Beauvoir and on to the magnificent Mont St Michel. Continuing east I crossed the bridge at Pontaubault and headed up to Avranches where I had a MacDonalds stop for lunch before the long drag up to Bayeux which I've done twice before. The road follows the 1945 Route de la Liberation and every km is marked with a milestone making progress seem impossibly slow. At 75 miles at Saint Armand my route was barricaded off and after 5 minutes I established there was a local cycle race going on - suddenly 40 riders came chasing past up the hill I needed to ride up, the marshall opened the barricade for me but told me to hurry as they were on a loop circuit and would be back in 10 minutes. I shot up the hill pannier laden and stopped at the top barricade to watch the next loop, I had made if easily with 3 minutes to spare. It was onwards through Balleroy which looked a real old fashioned stone built estate but I was on a mission so I charged onwards to Bayeux and a well deserved rest at my favourite hotel the Reine Mathilde just a short walk from the Cathedral and the Tapestry Museum.