Eventually it had to come to an end. We packed up the tent in the morning just before the heavens opened up and set of north for Saint-Malo. We went slowly through the pretty countryside and checked into our "motel" for our last night in Brittany of this year. We had enough time to pick up a last few essentials in town before settling in for the night.
On the last day we drove through a sleep town to the port to board out ferry home. It was the "worst" day crossing we have had to date, that only means it was cloudy once we were in English waters and we were still able to walk about as long as you were a bit more careful. Overall a decent crossing really.
posted 22:20 ::
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The past few days have been a blur of driving to places, looking at something, very short walks, shopping and eating out. Highlights included:
posted 17:58 ::
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We started this day by packing up and moving to Concarneau. We drove through some pretty places including the very touristy but none-the-less still pretty Pont-Aven. The campsite in Concarneau wasn't as nice as Croas-an-Ter. It was in the town, more cramped and though not full it was quite busy and noisy. After settling in we walked down to the near by beach before meeting up with family for dinner.
We went for a day trip to L'Archipel des Glénanon the following day. It's a set of small pretty islands in shallow clear sea water and in glorious sunshine it feels like a tropical paradise. Well worth the visit, it's just a shame it was for only a few hours and that a lot of other people where there at the same time...
posted 23:15 ::
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The problem with Brittany and any other peninsulas or small islands is that the weather is very volatile and greatly influenced by the sea. That often means that it often starts wet in the morning and then turns out very nice in the afternoon. So we had a few damp starts but nothing to worry about.
First up was went for a nice walk along the river La Laïta and then along the coast to Doëlan via Le Pouldu. It's a very nice river valley leading on to a pretty coast line and even on an overcast day it's enough for me to get a sun tan.
The next day had a very rainy morning we decided to go for a shopping trip to the near by town of Lorient. By the time we arrived it was a swelteringly hot day and it would probably have been best going to the beach!
On the following day we went for a bike ride through Clohars-Carnoët (Kloar-Karnoed) to Doëlan and finally to Kerfany-les-Pins. Another flat sort of day but again enough for me to catch the sun.
On our final day here we biked up to Quimperlé (Kemperle) to hire a canoe for a few hours paddling about on the La Laïta. Great fun and a fantastic way to see this fabulous river valley.
We then packed up the tent from our very nice camp site* and drove on to Concarneau (Konk-Kerne) for the next leg of the holiday.
* Our camp site "Croas-an-Ter" was brilliant. It was mostly empty so the facilities were spotlessly clean. It had lots of cute animals: red squirrels; bats; hedgehogs and rabbits. The plot was lush green grass and it was enormous and we had no noisy neighbours!
posted 22:15 ::
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We arrived in Saint-Malo on time and drove to the campsite just north of Le Pouldu. We got the tent up in nice weather and settled in.
On the second day after a damp start we drove to the morning market in Quimperlé. Nice little place, quite busy even on a Sunday.
posted 13:15 ::
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Today we cycled to Penmarc'h. On the tip of the coast there is a most impressive and beautiful lighthouse - Phare d'Eckmühl. The location isn't as impressive as many of the British lighthouses, it's just at the edge of town, but architecturally it's very impressive. You can see it clearly from Google Maps.
Today we cycled to the Ile-Tudy, which isn't an island any more. Didn't do much else, spent a a few hours on a very big, pretty and mostly empty beach watching the world go by. In the evening, family came to visit and we went out for dinner in Pont-l'Abbé.
No bike today! We drove to the fishing port of Guilvinec. It's a very busy and active place, with a fancy fish market that has a very good visitors centre and if you time it right, guided visits.
posted 20:34 ::
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On a Sunday pretty much everything is closed, so we didn't do any shopping or touristy thing today. We decided to go and see a Pardon. It was a long bike ride through some very strange dry mist to this small village on the edge of the sea. When we got there, no one was in traditional Breton clothing, and it was very religious and boring so we left.
We tried to buy a crêpe in the village, but the service was so poor we left before placing our order. We cycled home in the failing light and had dinner in the tent instead.
posted 20:42 ::
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Packed up the tent, strapped the bikes on the car and drove to Pont L'Abbeé. Finding the campsite took a while as michelin.fr put it in the totally wrong place. Anyhow after some messing about we found it by accident, as it was the end of the season we were pretty much the only people there. The site has a huge chestnut tree which is just visible on maps.google.com. In you ever want need a campsite in that part of the world Camping Les Châtaigniers is worth checking.
We started the day by walking into town to hunt for a hotel for visiting relatives. In the afternoon we cycled to Sainte-Marine to check out the hotels there.
Though it started nice, in the afternoon poured with rain. It was predicted, so instead of cycling to Quimper we went in the car. The city is very pretty, it has a wonkey cathedral with a 5% bend in the middle. After going about town we stopped off at Carrefour, the Armor-Lux factory shop and Decathlon on the way home.
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Today was a walking day, so we walked along the river Goyen to Pont-Croix a pretty fortified mediaeval town an hours walk from Audierne. It was a gloriously sunny day and an interesting walk along the river bank.
A bit of a damp start so we didn't get out of the tent until lunch time. After lunch it picked up and we went for a bike ride to see the famous "Réserve Naturelle du Goulien Cap Sizun". The sea bird sanctuary is on a pretty piece of coast and is protected from development. Other than one or two seagulls we saw mostly pigeons and jackdaws. August evidently isn't the season for seabirds.
On the bike ride back we passed some impressive wind-turbines before entering appropriately named the village of Quatre Vents (Four Winds).
We cycled to the coastal town of Douarnenez home of French sardine fishing and the Breton Kouign amann cake. It was a bit of a dull start to the day but warmed up after lunch. The port is the home of the excellent Port musée de Douarnenez, a fantastic boat museum - really well worth a visit. An unusable web site though so I've not bothered linking to it.
posted 20:51 ::
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We went south from Audierne to have a look at a restored barrow and a small fishing harbour and beach. We found a large lizard in a bush growing on a sand dune.
We biked to France's Lands End "Pointe du Raz" on Cap-Sizun. A gloriously sunny day and well worth the bike ride and the walk round the point. On the way back we stopped off in a local buicuiterie and got some Breton Palet biscuits.
posted 12:40 ::
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I just came back from my summer holiday in Brittany. As I didn't take any Internet connected device with me, these holiday entries are retrospective.
We drove to Plymouth via the A303/A30. This road combination can only have been designed by an evil genius. It alternates between modern dual-carriage-ways, antique dual-carriage-ways and narrow twisty country lanes. The road is very heavily loaded with slow farm traffic, local and strategic traffic and an enormous number of slow moving car-caravan combinations.
We took the Brittany Ferries Pont L'Abbé ferry to Rosko (Roscoff). Unlike the rest of the fleet the Pont L'Abbé, is an antique second hand ferry and no way near as nice as the rest of the fleet. As a result we arrived partially rested and slightly stirred...
We drove to our first campsite via the well built and maintained French road system. The first campsite suggested we go to our alternate site, because of a nearby fair ground, so we switched to our alternate. We pitched the tent and then went foraging for food.
posted 20:38 ::
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My week off work has gone rather well. I've done 18km per day on the bike, today was a different route, but I stormed up the final hill in a much higher gear than the first day. In the scheme of things my bike rides haven't been long, but just 18km does produce a difference.
posted 13:32 ::
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I'm on holiday this week. I had hoped to be organised an go somewhere warm but I just not organised enough. Instead I plan to get fitter, and complete stuff that has been uncompleted for far too long.
This morning I got up as normal and went for a 18km bike ride round the village before breakfast. The traffic was a bit more annoying than when I do the loop at the weekend, but other than that it went quite well.
Over the weekend I've already completed one article for the British Human-Computer Interaction Group's magazine "Interfaces". Today I will start the process of editing a Perl Success Story for the Perl Review.
posted 12:47 ::
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Over Easter we had family visiting from Paris. Rather than take them to the normal tourist traps like Stonehenge, we took them to Avebury which is much nicer though still very busy. On the way back we had a look at the numerous giant white horses carved into the hillsides. We managed to get a good view of four of them. The horses aren't on the same scale of antiquity as the standing stones in Avebury, but they are still rather fun to look at.
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