When I told friends and colleagues that I was traveling to Brittany to walk the Nantes-Brest Canal, this declaration was met with stares. Not even the savviest among them heard of this 216-mile-long canal in Brittany's interior. Why wasn't I going to the coast? And when I told acquaintances in France, they wondered if I would get bored. After all, they said, the scenery is pretty much the same, mile after mile. Right? Wrong.
Over the course of six days, I walked a 60+ mile portion of this waterway, stopping in villages for lunch and dinner where my friend and I overnighted. Every step in this bucolic landscape was full of discoveries, as the colors, sky, foliage, reflections in the water, continually changed. The bed and breakfasts varied from chateaus reminiscent of Downton Abbey to country houses in centuries-old slate hamlets.
This
YouTube video will provide a window into my peaceful journey where I found previous treasures around every corner and where the placid waters acted as a canvas for the verdant scenes.
