Home Sweet Home

Wednesday 20th May:
We are now safely home today, feeling a bit jet-lagged, not because of the hour difference, but because of the time we had to get up this morning to catch the 5 am ferry from Dieppe! Our 3.30 alarm was at your 2.30, but since getting home at 10.30, we've started on the unpacking, I've done 3 loads of washing and we've been for a haircut. And I'm out to dinner with the Wednesday Club ladies too!
But back to the trip and to recount the last few days for the record. (We had hoped to do a bit of blog on the ferry and set ourselves up at the appropriate spot in the aft lounge, but one is obviously expected to have enough battery power in their laptop not to need to use the ship's electricity - the socket was sealed so that our plug wouldn't go in.)

Saturday - at Les Plages de Beg Leguer. It ended up being a rest day for us because by the time we'd done the blog, got the washing dry in the (welcome that day) wind, John did all his jobs with filling water, emptying the waste etc., had lunch and a bit of time with our feet up enjoying the garden-like campsite, it was 4 pm before we got ourselves together for a walk along the cliffs. Another really lovely spot that maybe we shall return to one day. Others were taking advantage of the wind that afternoon too - we watched a loan wind surfer and a couple flying their kite on the beach very expertly.
On Sunday we travelled further east, missing lots, but as we have said, we plan to return some time to explore the north coast another time. We went to Trebeurden and onto Ile Grande - on the map it looked like a long bridge out, but it was just like crossing a little river. Saw another Allee Couverte while we were there - this one larger and more complete than the previous one. Moved on to Tregastel-Plage and enjoyed lunch by the sea at Greve Blanche - very heavy showers/brilliant sunshine while we were eating, so great watching the sea splashing around the unusually shaped rocks to be found around here - one called 'the whale' really does look like one. Later, when the sky had cleared, we parked near a tiny lighthouse near Nantouar for one of our walks - but it proved to be another DNF at the top of a wooded hill - I only got half-way up, but John said it looked like someone had been living rough up there, so probably the cache had been vandalised. We were now into fast-track to Dieppe mode, so drove on to St. Brieuc and down into the valley to Port Plerin to stay on the Aire overnight. Several others there, but plenty of space for us too. (We thought the people in the van next to us were very quiet and shy with all their blinds down all the time(!) but in the morning we saw the sign on the other side - a vendre - so there was nobody there at all, but they thought it might be a good place to find a buyer(?))
Thursday 21st May:
Everything else took up the time yesterday, but here, we promise, is the last bit.
From St. Brieuc to Dinan, driving through the old town and down to the River Rance for a stroll, but parking wasn't suitable for lunch, so went a short way north where we could stop by the river near La Vicomte. Our route then took us along some very scenic, but rather bumpy back roads, to arrive at Cuguen and 'Jacki and Philip's campsite' - they had been to Camping le Bois Coudrais a couple of years ago and recommended it to us. We agree it is really lovely, so we spent the afternoon enjoying the warm sunshine and meeting the site dog, cat, chickens and goat - but no owners as yet. They were in their tiny office-cum-bar in the morning and certainly did remember J & P and sent their regards and thanks for recommending them to us.
Tuesday was our main travelling day so didn't expect anything exciting to happen, but we did decide to stop for lunch in a village or town en route and I read the map and chose Villers-Bocage as it was quite close to an autoroute junction at about the right time. We walked up and down the main street, passing the very modern Church and Hotel de Ville and went in the what proved to be delightful, Restaurant Au Vrai Normand that we had first passed at the bottom of the hill. Probably our best meal out for just €13.50 each. Opposite the restaurant was a small carpark with part of it being an Aire de Camping Cars, surrounded by flower beds and picnic tables. We've noted that for future reference.
And so to Dieppe via the Pont de Tancarville (as we had done Honfleur on the way out). We had seen where the Aire was when we came, so went straight to the harbour and found a place there, alongside some others who were getting up before the crack of dawn for the ferry. So after a very short night, we were on the boat and heading for home! There was an incident when docking at Newhaven. The on-board sailor threw the line over to the dockside and it got tangled in a light staunchion (like traffic lights). A dockside crewman climbed it to try an release the rope, but as the ferry was still moving , the line got more and more taught. No one on board seemed to have noticed - except the passengers! The line snapped, quite dramatically, with him still up there trying to reach it. He hurt his arm but luckily it wasn't more serious. Plenty of witnesses!
Looking forward to seeing and hearing from family and friends now we are back - Emilie and Adam coming on Friday - can't wait!
Oh - the Wednesday Club meal out was really good too - can recommend the Royal Oak, Hand Cross - a bit nearer home than the Vrai Normand!
Finally, thank you so much, to all our readers, because although it is our own diary, we have enjoyed sharing it with you and reading your comments.
.... Wonder where we will get to next .........

Les Plages de Beg Leguer, near Lannion

After another few days of travelling and exploring, we are well east on the north coast now. We have had lots of sunshine but rather chilly and since Thursday night, very windy.
Good to read your update on your family's exploits, Carolyn! Glad the AGM went well too. Thanks for keeping tabs on us Chris and Anne!
On Wednesday we moved on and had our picnic lunch at Lilia, right on the point, looking out to L'ile Vierge - the tallest lighthouse in France (270') - nearly twice as high as the one we climbed. It was very eerie, flat calm and grey sky, but left quite an impression. Soon after lunch it poured down and we drove through it to our next geocache hunt - at Meneham. The sun came out and we were awestruck by the size of the boulders strewn all over the place around there - not just on the beach, but in fields, by houses, as garden features. An ancient house still stands between 2 of them and John clambered over the top of one to find a date that had the numbers to find the cache(!) The house was built as part of the defence of the coast in 17th centure by order of Louis XIV! While looking for the pile of rocks for the treasure, we came across a little village that had been recently restored for use by local craftspeople - the thatching and tiling is an art in itself. On to Chapelle Pol and its menir and calvaire and then to Camping Baie de Kernic near Plouescat. Another shower, but never mind - put the chicken in the oven and went for a swim in the heated, covered pool. Shame the jacuzzi wasn't bubbling and we couldn't find the switch, but it was lovely and warm!
Thursday was dry as we drove past some more beautiful beaches to Mogueriec. This was another DNF as it started to rain as we needed to clamber over rocks, so kept to the coast path just for the walk. A very profitable one too - maybe we shouldn't be admitting to this as we do usually adhere to 'thou shalt not steal' very seriously - but we were just walking past all these fields of growing veg - onions, artichokes (particularly prolific in this area) - and we came to one where the cauliflowers had just been harvested and there was one just under our feet that had been sliced in half ... and left there to rot. Some of it went into our stir-fry last night! Much better than the alternative, don't you agree? We made much better use of God's gift.
On then, to Dossen - still raining. But as seems to be happening quite often, at lunch-time the sky cleared and the sun came out. Our pizzas in Les Dunes were good (but salty) as we watched the weather changing. We came here to see the island of Sieck, but we were rewarded with more than just seeing it - we walked across the huge sandy bay, onto the island and all around its coast - stunningly beautiful views. The island is privately owned and has 1 house and 1 chateau, but the path is open to the public at low tide. Didn't go far from there for the night's halt, as there is an Aire at Laber, just before Roscoff. The lovely weather stayed with us, so we packed our picnic tea and cycled the 2 miles out to the Pointe de Perharidy, although we had to walk the last bit out to the rocks. This time we were looking out to Ile-de-Batz. We thought we were alone, till the pounding of feet signalled a jogger who not only ran to the rocks, he ran up them! He was a bit of a poser but was not so slick coming down! Then two fishermen and their dog arrived. So all quite entertaining really.
Friday, we explored the coast around Roscoff -very attractive port. Did some shopping - very pleased to find the Haynes' favourite Pepper Sauces with the help of a very pleasant shop assistant who didn't know where to find it either!
Any other requests for shopping please let us know asap as not many shopping days left before Dieppe.
The highlight of the day was a visit to Carantec and out to the point where a road goes out to sea to the Ile Callot. (On the map as Route submersible) The road is only above water for a very short time at low tide and although we waited quite a while, it didn't clear in time for us to walk across. It was quite funny watching while we ate our lunch, the french drivers drive down there and then have to reverse all the way back up again!
On to Morlaix - a fabulous place, much better than expected, built in the cleft of a valley, dominated by an enormous railway viaduct. The buildings are very old, tall and narrow. Several are 'skylight' houses, mostly converted now, but they have preserved Maison de la Reine Anne as an example. We went in this 16th century house and marvelled at its 36' high spiral staircase, the central pillar of which was one piece of oak from mast timber. The ground floor is one open space right up 3 storeys to skylight windows. There are bedrooms either side of the central staircase on each floor. The wooden carvings at every level, including one of an acrobat on a barrel with his tongue out (depicting jollity) were beautifully detailed.
And so we arrived here at Beg Leguer yesterday evening. Now off to explore it!
Love to all.

Dunes de Ste Marguerite

Oceanopolis in Brest is an excellent sealife centre divided into three zones - tropical, polar and temperate - and as well as being able to see the various fish and sea creatures, there is information galore about the different environments and how steps are being taken to preserve them. The penguins were very happy in their chilled water and standing on slabs of ice, while the brightly coloured tropical fish swam around the specially grown coral reef. The harbour seals were our favourite in the temperate zone, which you could see from both outside above the water and inside, below playing and tumbling together. The parking had an area for motorcaravans, so we were able to leave the van there while we went into the town by bus, where as well as doing the last blog, we discovered the interesting bits courtesy of geocaching info. It isn't a very attractive town because it was virtually flattened during WWII because of the allied bombing of he Uboat pens in the harbour and the re-building is on a boring grid system. However, the medieval castle and small tower over the river have survived. We watched some ladies doing Breton dancing in the Place de la Liberation - a bit strange - rather like joined up line dancing and very repetitive.
Spent a very comfy night in that parking area next to the marina and set off in the morning towards the Pointe de St. Mathieu. We had read that the lighthouse is open to the public on weekend afternoons, so after a walk around the ruined abbey and on the coast path, we climbed the 163 steps to the top. From there, on this very clear day, we had everything pointed out to us by a very enthusuastic lady guide. Below us was the semaphore, a shorter tower for the coastguards, the abbey and its ancient monks garden, a chapel and a monument 'Morts pour la France' which has a woman's head at the top, looking down and very anguished. We were told about the 3 lights that shine from here - 2 from this lighthouse and 1 from a small one beside the abbey which replaced the firey beacon on top of the abbey roof in ancient times. And, of course, the views all around of the sea, rocks, small islands, several buoys and lighthouses made it a very worthwhile visit. When we walked over to the monument, we also discovered the Cenotaph (a memorial empty tomb) where those who have died for France on the sea, both as fishermen etc. and in conflicts are remembered very movingly. The building is like a small castle almost below ground level, the tiled floor slightly undulates and in the first room, there are 3 rectangular pieces of glass with small candles and a single flower on each and spotlights shining down on them, blue, white and red. All very symbolic and the poems on the wall tell you that you can use your own imagination as to what the slabs of glass represent - boats, people, coffins ... In the second room, each wall is displayed with individual photos of people (les Morts pour la France) that families have given in remembrance. A recording is being played, not of music, but of voices listing names and occupations (we think - it was not easy to understand).
Stayed the night just north of there just before the Pointe de Kermorvan - very attractive site with large irregular pitches of mown grass between 'hedges' of tall grass and wild flowers, but with rubbish facilities - fortunately not a problem as we have all we need on board so long there is a tap. But not so good for the loo-emptier, when of all the 7(!) loo blocks were either closed off or the water disconnected! To get into the site, we'd had to phone a number displayed on the reception door to be given a code number to open the barrier.
Quite a different story at our next stop - here at Ste. Marguerite. Mme le Camping (Vera) gave us a very warm welcome, gave us loads of information and offered to do our washing for us! She also told us we had free use of the wifi here. We could go off and find a pitch to suit us and let her know the number, but as a really strong wind had blown up, she suggested that the lower part of the site behind the dunes, would be the most sheltered. So we set ourselves up, put the kettle on and got out the laptop - no joy - so after many tries to get it connected, we decided to move to higher ground. The wind died down and we spent the rest of the evening enjoying the beautiful view of Aber Benoit (river estuary) and out to sea with lots of little islands and rocky outcrops + good internet access. If the weather were warmer, this would be a perfect place to stay ......
So today has been fairly lazy, with Madame doing our washing - although we declined the extra charge to put it in the drier and we hung it out in the chilly breeze while we went for a walk. Through a gate at the edge of the site, over the dunes and onto a huge white sandy beach, and as the tide was out, walked out and onto one of the little grassy and rocky islands. A funny thing happened - this wasn't one of the places we had researched any geocaches - but as we climbed up towards some large rocks, I spotted a give-away sign that fellow cachers will recognise - a pile of small rocks placed against the bottom of a big one. John had walked on and sat on another rock to contemplate the view, when I followed him with a plastic box in my hand and a shout of "found it"! And it had a travel bug in it!
At last we will be heading along the north coast from tomorrow. Quite a long way back we realised that at the pace we were going, we weren't going to manage all of the Brittany coastline in 5 weeks and had thought we would possibly reach Morlaix and then fast-track to Dieppe. That would mean, of course, that we would have to come again to see the rest! But the pace has been perfect for us - seeing, doing and relaxing in pretty equal measure.
Will report soon on where we get to ....

Brest

Thanks for the comments - good to hear from you.
We are now in Brest in an Internet Cafe - but one without drinks! That will have to be our next stop!
Back to Wednesday when we had a fairly easy day moving on to Camaret-sur-Mer, stopping off to do a geocache on a beach - we were fortunate that it was low tide so we could find the cave behind a huge rock (more of an island really) by walking round it rather than over the top! Also walked around the port at Morgat. The campsite at Trezrouz near Camaret was a bit scruffy, but it was overlooking the sea and it had a washing machine. So was an ideal stop over as the washing dried in the cool breeze during the evening.
Thursday was very dull, but dry so we explored Camaret by doing two caches on the stone jetty. The first was outside the chapel of Notre Dame de Rocamadour (very peaceful inside with Breton music and lots of symbols of the sea - model boats hanging from the ceiling) and the other was getting information from info panels, old boats etc. leading us to walk over the cliff path to a rocky outcrop to see the view of the harbour and find the treasure! Will attach a photo of this when we can use wifi next.
Towards the end of the day we drove almost to Brest, to another lovely campsite at St Jean beside the tidal Elorn. This was so nice we decided to spend Friday on the Presqu'il Pougastel Daoulas peninsular and return to St Jean for the night.
Yesterday began with rain dripping from the tree above us onto the van rooftop, but later in the morning the sun came out and it was the hottest day for several. Plougastel was celebrating 8th May 1945 VE day and we watched a little ceremony outside the church. Also saw the Calvaire - a monument built in 1604 to commemorate the end of the plague of 1589. Made of stone; it has 180 figures on four sides depicting scenes of the life of Christ. Another photo to add here. Popped into the local boulangerie for our baguette and were served with the freshest one ever - straight out of the oven and too hot to hold! Then we explored the pretty inlets of the peninsular with views of the Rade de Brest including Port Lamberlach and basking on the tiny beach at the Pointe d'Armorique.
Then to Brest this morning where we parked at Oceanopolis to visit the wonderful sea life centre - an Eden Project of the sea. More details next blog. Off to see Centre Ville.

Pors-Peron Continued

Back to Sunday at Plozevet - the mist had completely disappeared and the sun was shining. John went off to chat to M le Guardien and ask where it would be good for us to eat out at lunch-time. He said that 'Le Menir' just 2k away, by the sea, was perfect. It was one of those bike rides that is fantastic - downhill all the way, but all the time you are thinking 'we've got to come back up here'! But that was later, for now we needed to find the restaurant. That wasn't a problem. The problem was that although it was only 11.40 when we went in to book a table for a bit later, they were 'complet' for lunch. Our GPS came to the rescue with its 'Points of Interest' database - there were 2 more restaurants just 2 miles further south on the coast - let's hope they don't have a party on, too. We were rewarded with Restaurant Breiz Armor at Penhors, where our waitress entertaind us (and the neighbouring couple from Aberdeen) with her snippets of English and happy attitude - the food was excellent too. Afterwards we watched the surfers expertly riding the waves before cycling back - partly on the coast path (we noticed the no cycling sign too late! but we didn't meet any pedestrians) and then the uphill bit with lots of stops on the way to admire the view - OK, and to get our breath back!
Monday was a stunningly beautiful blue-sky day which was perfect for the drive through the attractive town of Audierne, little villages of Primelin and Plogoff (I was looking forward to going there - I like the name!) to the Pointe du Raz. We think this is the first time we have had to pay for parking, but the charge of €6 was well justified with the lovely position on the cliff top and the fact that it keeps vehicles well away from the point and so conserves the natural environment. However, as well as the excellent Visitor Centre there were also the usual gift shops (they all seem to sell the same stuff) and creperies. We set off for the point with our picnic - great views over the rugged headland and at the point, walking out as far as we dared on the rocks looking out to the two old lighthouses and the Ile-de-Sein. There is now a huge lighthouse on the headland, which is also the coastguard and weather station. There is also the statue of Notre-Dame des Naufrages (Our Lady of the Shipwrecked) reminding us all of the perils of the sea.
Along the north coast of this peninsular is a headland called Kastel Koz - as usual geocaching led us there. But we just missed the turning to it, so had pulled off the road to turn round, when a young chap approached waving a leaflet at us. He was Graham, the English owner of a campsite a few miles further on, who spotted us as likely patrons! Funnily enough, we were actually heading for it, at Pers-Peron, because we had seen their small ad. in the Camping & Caravanning Club magazine. Kastel Koz was another good walk with views well worth the effort. But it was another DNF as the last part of the path to the rocky headland was through 6ft high hedges and although that had been kept clear by many walkers, the stone wall where the cache was to be found was now enveloped with very spikey bushes! I (being the shorter!) belied my years and crawled under them, but after one very sharp jab on the head, decided that it was just fine that we had been there! The campsite is delightful - very green and well kept by Graham and Nicola, who with their little baby Amy, plan to move from living in a mobile home on the site into their lovely new house at the end of this month. (It doesn't actually look ready for that yet, but needs must as the mobile home has bookings from then!) We enjoyed a bit of baby-talk and twiddling toes with Amy especially as we are missing our two little ones a lot. We had had a text from Peter in the morning asking us to ring later as Emilie wanted to talk to us, but although texts are working fine here, we couldn't get through on the phone in the evening, so we took a photo of us by the van and sent it with a message to Emilie and Adam by email! They replied (with a little bit of help from Hannah) before they went to bed. Aahh - we shed a few tears! The road ends 200m from here - at a lovely sandy bay. We walked down last night and saw a row of fishermen on the beach, catching bass we are told. Then, a beautiful sunset ..... Quite a memorable day.
Back to a grey sky today, but we'd decided we would like to stay here another night. Apart from it being a lovely place to be, this ease of being able to write without the constraints of time limits, euro-eating and 'dropping off' (the computer, not us!) is great. We drove to Douarnenez and had a good walk around, but found it a bit dull, so went on to another place on our list, Locronan. This is said to be one of the prettiest in Brittany as the architecture has remained unaltered since the 17th century. It has been a place of Christian pilgrimage since the death of the Irish missionary St. Ronan in the 5th century. The cobbled old town square is particularly attractive with many of the buildings now restaurants, creperies or craft shops. We went into the glass-blower's shop and watched him expertly form an orange knot and then immerse it in clear molten glass and shape it into a perfect sphere as a paperweight. His shop was a fantastic sight of countless items of glasswear in a multitude of colours. I chose a set of dinner plates and offered to forego the set of slightly smaller ones, but we would have needed another mortgage! The very tiniest item in the shop, apart from the jewellery which was also an arm and a leg, was a small oblong with a coloured fish on it that you put on the table to rest your knife on(?) - and that was €12! But it is very beautiful stuff. We left with nothing and returned to our grassy pitch - but not warm enough for a barbecue tonight.
So - we have brought our diary up to date.
Tomorrow is the start of our next adventure ....

We look forward to reading your comments with news of home, so please do get in touch if you have a moment. Thanks ... Bon nuit.

Pors-Peron

It was raining on Thursday morning, so after we left Le Pouldu to continue westwards, what better way to spend an hour than to go geocaching! So it was that we spent 20mins feeling around an ivy-covered dry-stone wall which surrounded the little chapel of St. Maudez, with our other hand on our brollies! Our information said that we needed to look in a low wall near the larger door to find barbed wire and fishing line. Then to follow the fishing line ..... and voila, a small metal plate that revealed the co-ordinates of the final cache - with each number indicated by a line of indented dots! Very clever. So then, off we went through the long (wet) grass along a path to search inside a log for the treasure - the things we do!
Then on to Pont-Aven, stopping for our lunch in the van by the river Belon - although Ann did make a request to pop over the road for lunch - to the rather grand looking Hotel Manoir something. Request denied! The rain stopped, the sun came out and Pont-Aven was beautiful. We walked by the harbour in the tidal estuary of the river Aven with boats bobbing on the water and lovely houses and gardens up high from the banks, then up towards the town to where the river
came tumbling over rocks and around the old mills.
Gauguin lived here with his painting friends in the 1880/90s as they found the river, the mills and the sea ideal subjects for their vivid landscapes. There are now lots of galleries selling pictures of a similar style. The town is also famous for its Galettes (butter cookies) - we went in the shop that had several different varieties broken up for us to sample! One more thing to say about Pont-Aven - by the town bridge stands an ancient building on stilts in the river. You possibly can't see what the sign says, but it is "toilettes"



After a night at La Foret-Fousenant and waking to a beautiful sunny morning (May Day, a bank holiday in France), we found another great walk courtesy of geocaching. A wooded path along another river estuary (a fairly easy geo-find among some large rocks on the way) leading to the sea and a pretty little sandy bay where we sat and people-watched for a while - especially a little boy who ran up and down the beach filling his little watering can and playing happily with his little plastic toys, singing to himself all the time.
I wanted to see Benodet but as we drove along beside its promenade, we realised that a bank holiday afternoon was probably not the best time to try and park there - it was like a Sunday afternoon with tous le monde out for a stroll. So we parked a bit out of the town and took our stroll around the marina and ogled the boats and their owners. That night we found an excellent Aire de Service de Camping Cars in the little village of Combrit, behind the Mairie and its rocket-propelled Church(!) When we arrived at about 5 there were 2 others already parked up - by time we went to bed there were 7 of us all in a line! Also on the area when we got there, several jovial chaps were enjoying a game of ... well, we don't know! They had a short metal post that stood on the ground with a small stone on top, then they attempted to knock it over by the skilled use of a metal disc about 5 ins in diameter. After a lot of whooping and cheering, they all trundled off, only to return about 20 mins later for another round. This happened about 3 times and we expect they arrived home for their dinners full of good spirits!!!
Saturday was dull, but dry so we just pootled to Pont l'Abbe, Loctudy, Penmarch and to the most south-westerly 'Pointe' of Brittany. By this time we had driven into a sea fret, so the lighthouses looming up in the mist were a bit of a dismal sight - but just around the corner we were rewarded with the most amazing spectacle. At St Guenole on the map it is marked 'rochers' - a wall by the road separates you from a 'beach' of huge flat rocks leading down to enormous boulders with the waves surging and foaming over them. It was a pity about the mist, but we could still feel the impact of this dramatic scene below us. Followed the road north from here hoping to find a campsite that wasn't enveloped in mist, but we didn't, and stayed at the very pleasant Camping La Corniche at Plozevet.
This was where we tried to catch up on our blogging - with very little result. When we tried to do some more last night (our second night there) we just couldn't get connected, no matter how hard John tried. Tonight here at Port Peron it is very different - free open wifi service with the repeater adjacent to the next pitch! But it is now quite late, so will sign off and continue tomorrow with Sunday and Monday's events.

Plozevet

Well, a great deal has happened since our last blog and tonight, although we have purchased with our life-savings of €1, 1 hour of internet use, it has taken most of that time to connect! So we will continue tomorrow, with another euro what we can't do now.
Back to Wednesday still at Le Pouldu - a lovely site called Les Embrans which means Seaspray. They had certainly made a huge effort to enhance the site to suit its name - there were water features, a lighthouse, several garden displays with boats, nets and buoys and if you went to the loo block without being sure what you were going for, you certainly remembered when you got there, with a water feature with not one but 3 different fountains by the door! Then when you got inside, there were decorations on the tiling, a helm on the wall, fishing nets above the showers ....!
The weather started much brighter that day, so we set off on the coast path towards Doelan, the next coastal village. Spectacular scenery with rocky stretches and sandy coves. We ate our picnic sitting on a seat on a high cliff and were soon joined by a lone dog - he sat behind us not even licking his lips. We wonder if we were on his seat! As we packed up to move on, he got up and strolled back along the path - that was when we realised that there was a house behind the trees and hedges. Will stop here, to add photos. Will continue story tomorrow.