On the way to the village near Rennes I took a different route.
Brionne, like nearby Bernay, has lots of Normandy timber-framed houses with the timber painted. The colours are fairly dull: ochre, maroon, mid-blue, burnt umber; however, the effect of the juxtaposition of clashing colours is startlingly garish.
Le-Pin-au-Haras is a many-horse town. Not many people, but lots of horses. And carriages. And some splendid buildings.
On to Argentan, which is twinned with Abingdon near Oxford. Many of the towns are twinned, but few of them with English towns. It's curious to drive through a place twinned with somewhere I know, and notice the similarities and differences; like being in a parallel dimension.
Along a Roman road, bordered by trees like so many French roads. The road rose and fell until, cresting a hill, the view became a Grassiot painting: misty horizon smudging the line between cloud and sea.
I spent a little time near Mont St Michel, wondering what it would look like without the buildings. There's no point in trying to cross to it - tiny almost vertical stony streets would be more than even Broomstick could manage.
Rennes rocade was of course a horrible traffic jam.
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