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Saturday 1st June Guilvinec
This morning I headed off from my overnight stop in the country and deliberately stayed off the main roads, taking more interesting byways. Before long I came across the charming town of St-Nicholas-des-Eaux, on the Blavet River. It was cool, but still and quiet there in the morning sunshine. There was a lock on the river and a pleasant park and hillside overlooking. From there I drove up the hill to an historic lookout. At this place the river does an almost complete loop, and the lookout has views down both sides of the bluff to the river. There is an historic railway bridge down there, but it was not possible to see it due to the trees – one could see part of the old railway line on the other side of the river.
Continuing on I stopped for a walk around the village of Guémené sur Scorff, which features some remnants of the old town walls and castle, as well as a newer, non-defensive château which is now the Hôtel de Ville.
I then hastened on to Quimper, the main city of southern Finistère, and a magnificent one. After eventually finding a
parking spot, I headed off on foot to explore, and to get some lunch, for which I chose Indian food. There was a brocade market in the streets (bric-a-brac) and I browsed there for a while, and wandered the medieval streets, before visiting the impressive doubled-spired Cathedral of St Corentin. It has a beautiful interior, with magnificent stained glass and an interesting ambulatory. More interesting still is the bend in the cathedral – the axes of the nave and the choir are not parallel, there is a kink where they join. This apparently is an historical circumstance due to the cathedral being built in stages and partly on the site of a previous church.
Quimper is on the River Odet, which is canalised through the city centre, and features an enormous cluster of passerelles across it (pedestrian bridges). There are about 15 or 20 of them, often only ten metres apart. Apparently they were previously private bridges into private estates across the river. Unfortunately I failed to get a good photograph of them!
From Quimper I headed down towards the south coast of Brittany, stopping at Pont l'Abbé, which features another medieval streetscape and an interesting church, and
then arriving on the coast at Loctudy. On the way down the bay to Loctudy, I had spotted on Google maps the Menhir de Penglaouic, just off the coast. I was keen to see a megalith, so after a bit of navigation and a bushwalk, I located it. Much of the coast of Brittany is very tidal – there are huge tides and sometimes kilometres of flats appear when the tide is out (a bit like Kiribati). Luckily the tide was in and I was able to photograph the menhir with water around it.
It was quite a warm day, and at Loctudy I managed to purchase an ice cream (in a bar!), which I ate sitting overlooking the beach, and the bay across to the Île Tudy, crowded with houses.
I then headed along the coast road, past more beaches and swimmers, eventually reaching Guilvinec, my overnight stop. When I had been looking for accommodation in this area (less than a week ago), most places were full (being a holiday weekend) and I had ended up choosing a holiday apartment which was a bit more expensive than the average gîte. As it turns out it was really
worth it because this was a really nice resort, with ocean views and a fabulous swimming pool which I soon used, as it was a hot day. Then a walk along the coast and past the port to visit the supermarket. This part of Brittany is a really nice beach holiday area. After dinner I went out to capture the sunset over the water (around 10pm), the end of a very enjoyable sunny day touring Brittany.
Tomorrow I will be exploring more of the west coast.
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