Once
a sailor, always a sailor, and even though one might reason that boating is
boating, it isn't so and we are pulled in the direction of the ocean by taking
our little canal boat as far as we can down the river Vilaine until the Arzal
Dam (sadly no power installation, it was built to prevent tidal flooding) where
sailboats can jam into a huge lock and continue on to the ocean. For our
boat though, this is the limit of where she can safely go and we tie up on the
dock among all the sailboats, listening to the halyards banging in the wind,
walking the docks checking out the sailboats and pretending we belong.
The marinas in this area are huge, there is easily a thousand boats here,
if not more. We have never seen anything like it. Our canal boat looks
a bit out of place on the dock and the harbour master was a bit perplexed of
what to do with us at first. Not many canal boats make it down here,
mostly staying in the proper canals but this reach of the river is wide and
very scenic, definitely one of the highlights of our voyage. As it
doesn't have low bridges, sailboats can make it quite far inland on the river
and people store their sailboats here during the off season. 
We
bike around the coast, but the water and weather remind me of our coast; even
though its sunny, it feels on the cool side. Kuno dips his feet in, but I am
content just watching. We also take two train trips, one to the historical port
of Vannes and one to the seat of the dukes of Brittany, Nantes. After the
solitude of canal boating, the bustle of these cities, with lively historic
cores and artsy atmosphere is a welcome change (notice the cheeky picture of
the Non Thinker that was installed in the courtyard of the castle in Nantes).
Kuno insists on taking the routes less travelled (at least by bikes) and,
in a typical Kurschner fashion, instead of following a nicely marked velo
route, we end up biking on the hard packed beaches and pushing our bikes
through sand dunes, supposedly for enjoyment. At least the bikes are rentals.
The horizon is dotted by wind turbines wherever one looks, but I can't
help but notice that even though its windy they are not running often.
Clearly the folly of improper green energy integration is not just
limited to North America, sigh. 
We return to the boat base drenched by full day of rain. Even the weather
is telling us that it is time to move on. And so here we are on a
Saturday early morning, waiting for a train that will take us to Rennes for the
fourth part of our vacation, free traveling wherever out interests take us.
The north parts of Brittany with St. Malo (and a tidal power plant) and
Mont St. Michel and beaches of Normandy to pay homage to WWII events and
Canadian part in the liberation of Europe are beckoning. Then again, who
knows what will distract us :) along the way.
