We left our rural farmhouse after a traditional French breakfast of sweet and savoury, some of which we retained as sandwich for later. At 8:30am it was already very hot but at least there was some shade from the trees, passing Chateau de la Bruyere. As well as more fields of wheat and sweetcorn, there were noticeably more swallows / swifts / house martins.

The plan for the day was to meet fellow tandemists, franchophiles and good friends Ross and Marie in St Meen le Grand to see the start of Stage 8. As it was only 17 miles for us (compared with their 35 miles) we were there early, parked up and while milling around met a very proud grandfather, whose grandson, Ewen Costiou from the Arkea-B&B Hotels team, had won the combatif award for the most attacking rider in his break with Geraint Thomas on the previous day. Arkea-B&B Hotels are a local Bretagne team who will be disbanded at the end of the season and hence he was probably ‘putting himself out there’ for future employment opportunities.

It was over 30 degrees when the peloton rolled out from the start at 1:10pm, and hard to imagine how the riders could endure this heat for a 107 miles. Given increasingly hotter summers, how long is it before the race is rescheduled for early starts on grounds of health and safety ?

As always the crowds soon dissipate after the tour has left so we pedalled through the pedestrians and queued cars towards the D166, on the 35 miles south-west towards our accommodation for the night. After 8 miles we turned off into Mauron and stopped for a drink where there was a small wedding party with the best man driving an appropriately decorated lorry. We then turned off onto the cooler Voie Verte (VV). The VV was shady, well surfaced, but interspersed with numerous staggered barriers to slow cyclists down at junctions with very quiet country lanes. With about 7 miles to go we turned off onto the scenic Canal de Nantes a Brest to Malestroit.

As glorious and beautiful as it was in Malestroit, the River Oust adjacent to the canal flooded last winter up to the wall on the house; a further reminder of the effects of climate change.

After 54 miles, our accommodation for the night was a very comfortable, renovated cottage in the idyllic St Laurent sur Oust, unavailable on any travel websites. Thanks R&M.