Saint Malo de Phily < > Langon

STAGE PROFILE: 26 km 6h30

This stage allows you to walk alongside and appreciate the river Vilaine one last time if you decide not to go via Redon, a meeting place of most of the Breton Chemins de St Jacques.

The river’s course again passes some remarkable places which you can enjoy, like the locks, the port of Guipry-Messac, the Corbinières, Port-de-Roche and its bridge and then Langon with its noteworthy Gallo-Roman chapel of Sainte Agathe.

This journey along the Vilaine also allows you to continue to enjoy all pleasures that a riverside walk has to offer.

DIRECTIONS:

00.0 – Leave Saint-Malo-de-Phily by the GR®, taking Rue d'Aleth for a little less than 100m before forking left to follow the Chemin des Vignes which ascends steeply for 500m as far as the area of La Bruère. Turn left with the GR®, which you leave shortly, keeping right to rejoin directly the tarmacked towpath of the Vilaine after 250m crossing, towards the right and on the diagonal, a gravelled carpark to get back to it. Keep left to leave the tarmac and go under the bridge of the D42.

0h30 02.0 – Passage near the lock of de Macaire.

1h05 04.2 – Admire the beautiful manor house of La Gaudinelais. The two banks of the river are cultivated here ; you can even find, depending on the year, some fields of black wheat (sarrasin) ... 800m before Guipry, notice on the left bank the new pleasure port of Messac.

2h35 09.2 – Port de Guipry with its impressive old mill located between the Vilaine and the feed canal of the lock. You can take a refreshment break here to help restore your strength. A gîte municipal is available on the other bank of the Vilaine at Messac. Think about making a visit to the nearby chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Bon-Port.

Continue after the quay along the towpath. [View of Guipry, the port, Messac and the Vilaine.]

2h45 11.0 – Chapel known as « de Gratitude » built in thanksgiving to the Blessed Virgin by survivors of river shipwrecks, as evidenced by a series of votives. Pass the lock of Mâlon (13.3km) and under the roadbridge of Saint-Marc which spans the Vilaine (16.2km).

Follow alongside the Vilaine passing by the very beautiful...

4h25 17.9 – ... site of Corbinières with especially one of the most beautiful viaducts in France, constructed in1861. The course of the Vilaine curves a second time before reaching...

6h10 23.4 –... the small marina of Port-de-Roche. Your path passes immediately under a bridge, somewhat more historic than the others (D56) and follows the Vilaine. Leave, after approx 800m, to your right the area of Dongelou and ignore the first path on the right to take the following one, leading to Hainlée and coming out onto the D56 and the railway station of Langon [To allay public concerns during the early years of railway construction, this station was built about 700m from the town.] Take a left along the D-road (cemetery half way along) which leads to...

6h30 26.00 – ... Langon.