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.