Brittany

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I arrived in Brittany and found a nice, friendly hotel in Vannes along the south coast. Near Vannes is where you’ll find many megalith stone structures similar to Stonehenge, but on a smaller scale. The most famous of these are the Carnac stones, an array of stones whose meaning has been lost to the mists of time.

After almost a week of perfect weather, as soon as I reached Brittany, the weather turned cold and damp, as is fitting of a region bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. Brittany lies at the same latitude as Victoria, B.C. and Newfoundland with similar weather patterns, mostly cold and wet. I never had the vents open on my stich the whole time. Brittany is inhabited by descendants of the Celts, who came here from Ireland and Cornwall. Up until the time of World War II, there were still a few Bretons who spoke no French, despite the French governments attempts to squelch it. Nowadays, there’s been a revival of Breton culture with Breton music festivals drawing musicians from Ireland, Wales and Galicia in Spain, another Celtic homeland.

As in Galicia in Spain, the westernmost region of Brittany is known as Finisterre, or Land’s End. For some reason, I am always drawn to these end of the world type places. The Finisterre is where the Breton culture is more predominate. One of the delicacies of the region is a butter cake known as Kouign_amann. If you know how delicious the center portion of a cinammon roll is, it tasted like that. As far as I can tell, it is made with lots of butter, flour, eggs, sugar and more butter. I was lucky to escape before my Roadcrafter suit burst its stitches.

In the central part of the Finisterre region lies the hilly Monts d’Arree, evocative of the Yorkshire Dales in the UK. Millions of years ago, they were as tall as the Alps, but over time have been worn down to rounded stumps covered in gorse moors.

The treacherous Breton coastline is dotted with sharp rocks that have meant the end of many ships over the years, the most famous being the oil tanker Amoco Cadiz in 1978. The Brittany coast is also where famous lighthouse photographer Jean Guichard took some of his most memorable pictures.

I spent four days crisscrossing Brittany taking in the sights before heading east towards Normandy.

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Photos

Roscoff
The setting sun silhouettes rocky islands just outside the harbor of Roscoff.

Monts d’Arree
In the Finisterre region lies the hilly Monts d’Arree.

Fort de la Latte
If you’ve seen the movie, “The Vikings” starring Kirk Douglas, you may recognize this as the castle they stormed at the climactic ending. It’s notable in that it has not one, but two drawbridges.

Cap Frehel
The road along Cap Frehel. Brittany had some impressive tides, leaving wide swathes of beach as it receded.

Dinan
The picturesque medieval town of Dinan lies on the Rance River and has winding streets full of timber-framed buildings.