Retirement trip - Day 31

 I left Les Sables-d'Olonne and headed a short distance out of town to Musée Auto de Vendée. I hadn't heard of this museum before, I just drove past it yesterday and decided to visit this morning. It has a very good collection of very early cars plus a good selection of 50s and 60s cars, the vast majority being French built so unfamiliar to me. The older cars are particularly well restored, something which must be a mammoth task as parts must be unavailable. In addition to the cars there are a few motorbikes, some carts and bicycles, toys and household items. Entry was 16 Euros and it is well worth visiting if you are in the area. Website.

The day was very hot and sunny and I saw 34C at one point, making this the joint hottest day of the trip so far. Most of today's ride wasn't very interesting, just through flat agricultural land with the occasional village. I stopped at one of my favourite French towns, the seaside resort of Dinard. I've visited it at least twice before and it's truly exquisite. It was very popular in the late 19th century with wealthy British visitors, but started to go out of fashion by the 1930s. I really like the town and would consider coming here for a holiday.

The town has a British Film Festival each September, and there's a statue of Alfred Hitchcock, being attacked by birds, on the promenade. Website.

I particularly like The Gallic Hotel. It's in a narrow street near the beach so hard to photograph. Sadly, it wasn't very successful as a hotel and the French Government took it over as a military hospital during WW2. Later it was occupied by the German Army, and after the war it was sold off as individual apartments. It was declared a 'historic monument' by the French government to protect it, but as the building has 75 co-owners it has been difficult to coordinate its preservation. However, it is possible to rent some of the apartments, although they are understandably not cheap!

I rode on to my destination for tonight, Saint Malo. I had a problem with my booking as Booking.com sent me a message yesterday saying the bank card I had booked with had been declined!  They asked me to rebook using a different card, but I only have one. I contacted the hotel in English and French saying I didn't know why it had been declined, but would sort it out when I arrived. I checked the card was working by buying food in a supermarket, petrol in a service station and took out cash from an ATM at a bank. When I arrived at the hotel my card worked in their card reader, so I've no idea what the problem was.