Tourist guide

• SAINT-MALO
  Facing the sea, the corsair town is an ideal starting point for maritime adventures. After a stroll along the fortifications, be sure to pay a visit to the Solidor Tower, which houses the Cape Horn Sailors Museum.
• DINAN (km 25)
  With 2,700 metres of ramparts and 14 defence towers, this small medieval town on the banks of the River Rance, is noted for its rich architectural heritage.
• SAINT-PÉRAN (km 79)
  In the heart of Brocéliande Forest, the spirit of the Knights of the Round Table lives on. A slight detour will allow visitors to stop at Merlin’s tomb, a monolithic monument which has suffered from the onslaught of time.
• BLAIN (km 154,5)
  The 12^th century castle has had a number of owners over the centuries. Today it houses a printing museum and also stagesperiod costumed performances.
• NANTES
  The Castle of the Dukes of Brittany should not be missed. It was here that Henry IV signed the Edict of Nantes, bringing a end to the religious wars.

Download the tourist guide of the stage(6 pages, .pdf)

Download the complete tourist guide(113 pages, .pdf, 55 Mo)

François Bégaudeau, spent his childhood in Nantes. He is a journalist and a writer. In 2006, he won the France Culture/Télérama Prize for his 3^rd novel, “Entre Les Murs”. It was adapted for the cinema and the film was awarded the Palme d’Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.

“If you typed the word “Nantes”, my mental Google search engine would bring up 4,000 entries. If you typed “Tour de France”, you would achieve the same result. However, if you typed “Nantes & Tour de France”, only two entries would be left.

The first entry: in 1981 or 1982, a Tour Hinault was competing. He rode past just in front of me. He was so close that if I had not had the reflex to remove my arm at the last minute, which was stretched over the grey barrier just in front of the nose of the future champion, Hinault would have crashed headlong into it. A mirage passed by, in both senses of the word: it was an optical illusion which travelled at the speed of the supersonic airplane of the same name, but I was happy. I was happy and proud to have helped Nanar.

The second entry: in ‘98 or ‘99. There was a team time trial: I watched it from a friend’s second floor bedsit, with a perfect view of the “Rue Louis Blan”, in very comfortable surroundings drinking beers and smoking Marlboro cigarettes. It was a great deal better than twenty years earlier. And even so, I quickly became tired of the time trial. A colourful group went by and then two and three of them and I was already moving back from the window to sit down on the sofa where I continued to watch the time trial on TV, barely glance from the window when Laurent Jalabert’s Once team went by. Maybe growing old means becoming less enthusiastic about the race, year after year. I don’t want to believe that.”