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Published: July 24th 2013
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Vauban Castle (Fort)
The Vauban Tower is 18 meters (59 Ft) tall and had 3 floors was started in 1693 was finished in 1696. Camaret is the perfect landfall – not too large of a town, but large enough to have all that is needed – nice restaurants, a good grocery store, lots of places to hike and bike, and a couple of buses to take you to nearby towns. But most importantly it looks and feels so different from Spain and Portugal. It is located in Brittany, France and is a semi-autonomous cultural region located in north-west France. It was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Lesser or Little Britain as it is considered one of the 6 Celtic nations. Here you find there is a strong connection to the Celtic heritage. The Briton flag is flown everywhere and is far more common than the French flag.
Along with the language, food and architecture another major difference here is the height of the tides (19 feet). Along with this incredible tidal difference comes fast moving currents. Now not only do we have to concern ourselves with wind and waves, before our next move we have to consider the tide and the currents it creates. You may want to move at a
It is Summer Time!
It is definitely summer here with lots of boats coming & going – most evenings boats are rafted up as least 2 deep in the marina as you can see here. certain time but if the current is against you you’re not going anywhere - we will talk more about this in a later blog.
Another thing we have noticed is that summer is here and with it has come tourists (it’s funny we don’t really consider ourselves tourists). The vast majority of the tourists we see are French, (surprise, surprise) with a few Brits, Germans and Dutch thrown in for good measure.
Camaret is apparently a well-known stopover on the tour bus circuit and it’s obvious why. The village is very picturesque and the harbor is lined with sailboats with a strong artistic community. We were very lucky and arrived just before the weekend when the village was hosting a traditional sailboat regatta. The boats come in all sizes but they are wooden and gaff rigged, the mainsail has an upper and a lower boom. We had a wonderful time watching these beautiful old boats maneuver around the bay and the harbor. Our boat is in a marina which is built outside of the town harbor. It’s a short walk into town along the break wall. Very close to our Marina is the Rocamadour Chapel constructed between 1610
Traditional Sailboat Regatta
We enjoyed seeing all the traditional sailboats coming in to Camaret at the end of their regatta. This is one of many we saw that day. -1683. This church has a strong connection to the sea and the fishermen of the area. The interior has a number of life rings and boat models decorating it. Legend states the bell tower was damaged in a battle in 1694 and it was decided to never repair it to commemorate the victory of that day. The reason the church steeple was damaged is because about 100 yards away stands a small but very impressive fortification called the Vauban tower. This fortification is over 300 years old and was built here to defend the entrance to Brest, a military stronghold. Never completed it underwent its baptism of fire on 18 June 1694, when it fought off an attack by 147 Anglo Dutch vessels that were attempting to land troops for a siege on Brest.
The traditional foods of this region are crepes and hard cider. Seafood is readily available and very fresh. We had the opportunity to eat out on a number of occasions and Bob did his best to help support the local mussel fishermen while Janice decided to sample the crepes. The mussels were outstanding in a wine, garlic and cream sauce and the crepes were delightful.
Some Traditional Boats
One Saturday there was a regatta with the traditional sailing boats which entered in Camaret so we got a chance to see them all sail into the finish line. They were in all sizes from the very small with only 1 sailor to the large with a crew of 10. Both of us sampled cider and found it light and refreshing. Recognizing the fact we are in a tourist town prices were higher but not outrageous. The one exception to that is the price of beverages purchased in restaurants. In one restaurant we shared a bottle of carbonated lemonade and were amazed to discover that the price was over six euros for a 1 L bottle. The next day we purchased the same lemonade in the grocery store for under two euros. In Spain and Portugal beer and wine was regularly under two euros in France, it is regularly over three euros. But we have to keep reminding ourselves that we are at the height of the summer season and should be expecting this kind of increase in prices. The price of marinas is also going up although not exorbitant, in this marina the price for a one night stay is €32 which includes water and electricity, however because we were planning on staying more than a week we got a reduced rate which brought the price down to €28. People have been warning us along the way that as we go north the price of marinas will continue to
Recycled Bicycle Wheels
Not positive what this was used for but it was definitely using recycled bicycle tires. rise. In this marina the showers are in an underground building and although they are cramped they are clean and cost about two euros per shower. Luckily our boat has a separate shower and with the electricity being included our water heater works perfectly for showers onboard.
This town has some excellent hiking trails and bike routes so we took our bikes and headed out along the coastline. As you’ll see by the photographs the coastline is spectacular and we were very lucky to have excellent weather. On one of our bike rides we came across some of the German bunkers built to defend this area. We found out later that the major city nearby Brest was an important shipbuilding area prior to World War II and was taken over by the Germans and used to maintain its Atlantic submarines. The bunker complex we visited was interesting because it was originally built during the Napoleonic wars to support a number of mortar emplacements designed to keep the British at bay. When the Germans arrived they used slave labor to modify the original fortifications to meet their needs. The size and massiveness of the German bunkers is amazing. They are
Sunset In Camaret
We have been enjoying the sunsets we have been seeing from the marina in Camaret. all made of concrete and the walls are several feet thick. The area we visited had a large observation bunker for massive gun emplacements. This area is all now part of the national Park system of France.
A second bike ride that we took was along the Western part of the coast of Brittany. Again the scenery is amazing with the ocean crashing on to the rugged shoreline, but every once in a while we would find a small bay with a sand beach in it. We completely understand why this is a favorite vacation area for the French, the countryside is beautiful and green, the homes are the typical country cottage you would picture and they are lovingly maintained by their owners.
We have lots more to tell you about as we took a couple of bus trips and have moved a couple of times since Camaret, but are breaking these up into other blog entries to try to get at least something posted now. We will continue to work on bringing you up to date in further entries.
Just for your information, we had left France and went to Guernsey in the Channel Islands and
Sidewalk or Not??
Notice that the restaurants/cafes use the sidewalks for their business and the “sidewalk” actually has been set off from part of the road. today (7/23) we sailed back to France and are now in Cherbourg to explore Normandy. Will keep working on trying to bring you up to date. Best wishes to all.
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Lynn
non-member comment
Hi, Good to hear from you and as always thanks for sharing your journey. Have safe travel and keep in touch when you can!