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Published: March 17th 2016
It has now been a week since we last saw rain, so long may the high pressure continue over our travels. This morning there is the usual light mist at ground level but above us the sun is starting to clear away the cloud and todays like being another great day for walking and sightseeing.
We have enjoyed the coastal scenes of both Normandy and Brittany so we will continue the theme today knowing too that eventually our travels will take us inland and away from the coast.
We decided Brest was a bit further than we wanted to travel in a day out so instead we have chosen a circuit that will take us to the coast and then along it before returning home via the interior.
Starting out we again noted on the outskirts of Squiffiec the memorial which has a religious figure that seem to be on the entry to most towns and villages in France that we have passed through. We take it that they are there to give travellers good blessings on their drive and perhaps also commemorate those who have died in traffic accidents. Sometimes they look well cared for and other
times appear in a state of disrepair.
The road signs in Brittany are in two languages, French and Breton. The latter being Celtic and closely related to Cornish and more distantly to Welsh.However while some words on the signs are almost identical in letters, others are completely different making it hard to understand where the comparison can be so closely made.
One road name we picked up as we cruised on through the countryside was ‘Tossen Hat’.Just what that meant when translated back to French or even English is anyone’s guess!
Driving through more market garden country our first stop was in the sizeable town of Lannion for a visit to Leclerc, the supermarket, to purchase a baguette and whatever sweet treats were on offer for lunch and to hunt out the elusive chapelure to save crushing the croutons tonight for our chicken breast dinner.
As luck would have it we found the chapelure on the first shelf we explored. Shame it didn’t stick out like that yesterday.
Back to the car to place the baguette and millefeuille slices in the picnic bag. But wait, in the boot there is no picnic bag!
We
looked at each thinking that one of us had picked up the bag in the kitchen and placed it in the boot before we left.
It was too far to go back home so we opted to re-enter the supermarket and top up our meagre lunch with a packet of ham and orange juice.
That done, it was back to the car and placed the ham and drink in the boot. Opened the rear passenger door to put the handbag away and there was the picnic bag sitting on the rear seat! That will teach us for not checking the car inside as well for missing picnic bags! We now have a wider range of meat, cheese and pate to go with our baguette plus supply of orange juice for another 3 days!
So far we think we have driven around at least 605 roundabouts in a week in France!
Today though, in downtown Lannion I decided to drive across one rather than around! Well it wasn’t your full blown roundabout with kerbing etc etc but just a slightly raised concrete mound in the middle of the intersection and there wasn’t any other traffic in it!
The road out of town took us towards the seaside and the coastal village of St Michel en Greve where we took a stop to admire the very wide sandy beach and coastal views.
There was an interesting church yard to stroll through that overlooked the beach. The church itself was locked but there was a notice board giving some history of the grave yard along with the church. The grave yard boasts it is one of a few maritime grave yards in Europe.
The grave yard also had to be relocated after part of it fell into the sea during a storm in the 1870’s.Perhaps that was why the graves were all neatly arranged in straight rows.
The small settlements we drove through on the way to our lunchtime stop at Point de Primal were deserted although we can imagine that given another few weeks the seaside will be busy with holidaymakers.
After devouring lunch we drove to the other end of the beach and walked out towards a point on which a small stone hut was located.
Upon reaching the hut we found it was empty and didn’t look like it had
been used for a long time other than providing shelter in adverse weather. Today however the sun was shining even if the wind was still a bit chilly.
From the hut we could see another challenge ahead and that was another peak on the furtherest point out towards the ocean and so we headed off with the intention to climb to the top of the small hill at the point and take in the vistas.
We were thwarted by a situation we could not have imagined from the vantage point of the hut.
The sea had carved a 5 metre wide and 20 metre deep channel out of the rock separating the hillock from the mainland and the sea was surging through. There was no way across, at least without some expertise and the right equipment to get across the void.
We hadn’t seen anyone else on our walk out to this point.
Defeated we turned around and headed back to the car.
As we were clambering over the rocks we suddenly noticed a noise behind us and out of the blue came a runner picking his way expertly over the terrain at speed.
Naturally even though we were surprised at not being alone as we had thought we quickly gave way and he disappeared ahead of us at some speed.
On the way out to the point on our walk we had noticed some pine trees and so on our return we sneaked into the property and filled up our beanies and a folded shopping bag Gretchen had on her with pine cones for our fire in the cottage tonight as our firewood supplies are limited after two nights of roaring fires to keep us warm at night. Needless to say the house that was on the property where the pine trees were was shuttered up and we got away without anyone seeing us, or so we think!
Initially we had thought about getting to Roscoff, the port from which ferries depart for Plymouth, England and Cork, Ireland.
However we made do with a view across the bay from Carentec as the afternoon was getting on and we still had a good hour drive once we reached the N12 highway back the turn off to Squiffiec and our cottage.
The illicit pine cones burned very well in the fireplace
and in fact they were so good that Gretchen thought she should throw some water on the fire she had set at one point as the flames curled around behind the glass screen of the fireplace.
However by the time we had watched a bit of Michael McIntyre on YouTube and an episode of Are You Being Served and we were ready for sleep,the fire had calmed down to be left to burn itself out overnight.
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Tim Scott
non-member comment
Yogi bear and the picnic basket?
Tim was wondering if you had seen the French version of Yogi Bear and Boo Boo with their picnic basket stealing machine (aka a helicopter) ?