Gallery Rally — Jersey to Biarritz 2013
Day 1 - St Malo to Saint-Herblain
Hello everybody, and welcome to the Gallery Rally 2013 - this year, as the title might suggest, our destination is Biarritz!
After the last 48 hours of running around getting the car ready, I am more than delighted to say the start of the tour went very smoothly.
It was an early start for everyone, as we gathered at the Grand Hotel at 0700 (or for those of us who don't trust Chip that there would be a late arrival clause, more like 0645)
We of course came prepared with our 'bonus' points (the secret clue having been cleverly hidden in the Jersey Hospice Diaries that came with the starting packs (on todays date it said 'Arrive at start with pink bucket', although I don't think there were any bonus points for wearing it - worth a shot though...)
If nothing else, we know we'll be getting 20 points this year!
After a brief and pleasant coffee and bacon roll laid on by the Grand Hotel, we returned to Peoples Park where we had abandoned our vehicles...
...and headed through the tradional arch (kindly errected by Ben and co...
....and collected our 'boat leg' quiz from Heidi..
We then headed around the corner (through the rush hour traffic) to the harbour to board the ferry for our 1 hour 20 minute crossing to Le Francais..
and began our Quiz. Its funny how under any other circumstances, a 1hour 20min crossing feels like a life time - not the case when you have lots of questions to answer though...
Once in France, we assembled in the usual carpark in St Malo to await our briefing from the Clue Master..
After being presented with our Clue Sheet for the day, we set about working out where on earth we were supposed to go first....
The first location clue of the day was Princess and grandmother join together here. - so we joined Princess Di and Nan together to make Dinan, plotted it into the navigation system, and began the short drive on the first of many deserted and beautifully decorated French highways...
We duly arrived in the beautifully picturesque old Port of Dinan...
First priority on arrival; find something for lunch... cue the obligitory food pic!
Ahh the first Steak Frites of the trip - always a happy time! Once our stomachs were happy, it was time to search for the answer to the first clue. The question was At the old port what are you between 12 and 2?
After a brief wonder around looking for a suitable fit, we came across this poster in the window of a River Tour hut..
Happy that if you are between 12 and 2 you are a Child, we returned to the car, and set course for our second clue site; Peer moll gets confused - a nice simple anagram of the town Ploermel soon grabbed our attention on the map! On arrival, our clue was At the astronomical clock what two planets are missing.... As we had parked next to a Town Plan, we looked for something appropriate, and discovered there was an Horologie Astromonique just up the road.
We initially found this...
As the question itself referred to planets and there didn't seem to be any particular planets on this clock, we walked a little further and found that just around the corner was a sign for Horologie Astromonique... and inside the courtyard this pointed to was a bigger and better clock with planets hanging off arms!
Studying the planets on the clock, we discovered that Neptune and Pluto were missing - there was an information sheet stuck to the window that said 'Two planets do not figure in this system. Neptune was discovered later in 1846 and Pluto in 1930'
Curiously, the information sheet also tells us that Brother Bernardin designed and assembled this clock in his spare time between 1850 and 1855 for teaching purposes. Presumably he was so far through his design, that he couldn't be bothered to amend it to include Neptune. We'll let him off for Pluto though, as the poor fella died in 1876, so he has a fairly robust excuse for that one.
A fascinating machine none the less; for more information, click the link! http://www.lamennais.org/en/freres/maison_mere.html
Happy with our answer, we returned to the car and set course for clue site number 3 - Rochefort-en-Terre (This strong rock is in the Ground)
It was getting quite warm outside, so we were glad to be in the air-conditioned luxury of the car for a little longer...
Before long however, we found ourselves in the very picturesque old town of Rochefort-en-Terre...
It was very hot walking around here in the blazing sun, and as the clue was Refreshed, find out which two lovers came between Obama and Ali we decided to stop for a drink and eventually found ourselves in a lovely little cafe with lots of pictures of famous people hanging above the bar!
Here we found our answer as well as our refreshments....
Happy to see Marilyn Monroe and JF Kennedy sandwiched between Mohammed and Barak, we headed back to the car and did some more miles... (abiding by the speed limit at all times)
...saw some straw-men..
...and made our way to the last clue of today.
This Holy person almost gets lucky after the mountain was the location clue - which saw us heading for St-Etienne-de-Montluc...
As the clue was All aboard!! But what alarming distance is it we thought it appropriate to head straight for the Railway station...
After a very quick meander around the station, we soon stumbled across this..
And after a closer examincation, and we found the answer we were looking for..
Happy with the answer, we set course for our Hotel for the night - a place called Hotel Le Colisee, in Saint-Herblain (just outside Nantes).
A real diamond in the rough, as it in the middle of a mediocre looking industrial estate, but the hotel is absolutely fantastic..
It even had a lovely walk-in shower..
After inspecting our room, we made use of the facilities and then headed downstairs to the restaurant where we had our evening meal.
It was soon the time of the day that Chip loves most, revealing the answers for the days work....
First the boat leg...
..and then the days leaderboard...
We don't yet have the running total, as Chip is being mysterious and with-holding this information, however we are assured the placings are based on the actual totals so far.... so whilst we are currently lying second, we dont know how much of a gap there is to first place yet. And given its only Day 1, we could easily be in last place by tomorrow anyway if we have a bad day!!
So thats Day 1 - all that remains to be done is to show you our route thus far....
..and bid you a farewell until tomorrow....
Goodbye from Garry and Mike!