Walk 3. A brisk walk with friends...or the Pied Piper of Guémené...


This morning it is cold! It's still August....it should be breathles with dry heat and dusty lanes, cats dripping off windowsills and dogs too parched to bark...but no, it is brisk, Back-to-School weather, a 'button up your duffle' morning. So in the interests of rude health and sanity I venture forth to bring the Trio on an energetic ramble.
Only - we are waylaid and joined, by one of their friends - whose mother persuades me to bring him along. And he has a friend, whose parents think this is a splendid idea...and they want to join in too. If this continues exponentially, with each walk, I should be bringing the equivalent of the population of France on the woodland lane to Langoelan by next year....
Where to go? A nice family ramble - straight well kept paths, cycleable as Grainne and Phillip are keen biking people, not too much road walking.
We head out on Rue General Brenot - a venerable street in Guémené, known for the dentist, doctor and veterinary surgeon as well as other medical practioners- sprained ankle, abcessed tooth or annual vaccinations, it's all here. Then cross rue des Fortunes and continue up the road marked for Melrand, taking the second road on the left - rue du Docteur. This is pleasantly uphill and gives a fine view over the top of the town. Past the lycee 'Emile Maze', and take the small gravelled lane marked Beg er Lann at the top as it dips into some trees .



The turn to Beg er Lann.

This is shady and the team is warming up. The two lads are looking even vaguely interested in the changing surroundings. Here the road is agricultural and slips into many yards, fields and copses. The wind is fresh, the conversation lively and the road slips by. Swinging round by some houses with a couple of gorgeous brittany spaniels on show, cross over the hard top and continue down past a small stone barn with a beautifully crafted archway - carraige house or store....it looks like it might be being restored.
Here there are cries of warning to 'Attention des crottes!' ('Beware of the poo!') from the twins who are delighted to find bovine and not canine offerings - far more fun to throw sweet chestnuts into ( Splat!!). At the T junction take the rougher left-hand turn and follow this through a dip between fields - look at the bottle brush oaks that have been pollarded for years 'til they are bald below and afro'ed on top - up to where a long corrugated metal shed marks the next turn. Left again ( See? I have you walking in circles, I tell Grainne - I don't really know where I am going at all). Attention, toutes le monde. This is a road, and a junction across tho the sign that says 'Locmalo 0.5'. Not the most pleasant part......
The next thing to capture the hearts and minds are the apple trees that have been planted here in the hedges. Dozens - all different. We try some - there is one that looks like a peach and tastes as sweet as one as well. There are others that are tart and cooking sharp, and tiny multitudinous cidre apples grown for bulk and not beauty. Grown to fill a hedge, to edge a field, hold back soil, provide a screen....and free food to ramblers.

Apples for the taking....

On the corner there is an opening onto a parkland to the left branching left and right. Take the left hand track along the bank. This is basically wild marsh land, full of cow parsley, alders, vetches and reeds and was a muddy track a few months ago - now the commune have gravelled it up - unknown to me. (Obviously been reading the blog and were prepared for this part to be published). This is easier for the group and receives high praise from the bikers...but I miss my secret muddy track, ducking under branches to reach the path and the way the leaves swished back to hide your tracks.....c'est la progress.
Overhead, buzzards scream and wheel, dragonflies skim and the air is now hot and muggy in the waist-high grass. The lads are in the middle of re-enacting '28 Days Later' with the aid of blackberries and we come out into the parking/recycling tarmac of lower Locmalo. Turn left and head past the cemetery, following the small pedestrian track and over the road to the Guémené cemetery.
Now we are back in the town, separations are made, promises to be back for lunch, decisions about what is for lunch and advice on removing blackberry stains are dispensed, dispersed and disbanded.

One and a half hours - watch those road junctions.