Plymouth - Roscoff - Christmas Shopping 2008

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Daph and I had a winter weekend in France. We boarded the Bretagne Friday night at 9pm with trepidation due to the high winds. A ferry had been cancelled the previous night. We finally set sail about 11.30pm. We'd already checked out our cabin on floor 2, possibly below water level. After a couple of Chardonnay we decided to call it a night and 'try' to get some sleep.

The night wasn't too bad, a bit bumpy at times, but we both agreed that we must have got some sleep.
So slightly bleary eyed, and after waiting for some time, we were allowed down to deck 5 to retrieve the car. Driving off the ferry was exciting and the weekend begun, although not quite light it was promising to be a calm day.

We drove as far as the Geant and stopped for shopping first, wondering if it might get busy later, being a Saturday. Of course, first stop was a coffee and croissant, now it was time to realise we couldn't speak much french between us. No problem...

Then we shopped, perfume shop, to the big hypermarket, where chocolates, underwear and shoes took our attention. Not to mention a carton of rose wine each, at 1.50 euro, can't help but wonder how hideous that may be....

I was so excited, to have in my basket a beautiful pair of shoes, not something I usually have much fun buying, as I don't often see shoes I really like that aren't too high, look stylish, and feel relatively comfortable.

Onto Morlaix, which we had to circumnavigate several times for a parking space. Having finally got one on a hill near some houses, we decided to eat the lunch I'd packed (just in case), to give our self some much needed energy. It was beautiful and sunny and we walked all around the town, the markets, and later found a nice coffee shop near Yves rocher shop on a side street.

All shopped (and Morlaix'd) out, we decided to head for the coast and see some of the nearby beaches. The tricky thing was to find the right road out of town, as my map was too small, a scale taking in all of France, therefore some of the smaller roads were not on my map. Driving out past the hotel du port took us to Carantec - all along the beautiful coast road, it was very pretty. We sat on a bench by the beach and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine.

I still wanted to find Locquirec, so we headed back to Morlaix and took the road out towards Lannion, D786, up the hill opposite the hotel du port. It was correct and we were on our way. Driving through the beautiful little villages on the way. I absolutely adore the houses in this part of France, chunky little houses of local stone, all individual by design.

Loquirec was also very pretty, much nicer beach and some fantastic cliff top houses that looked empty, all shuttered up, I would guess for the winter. We walked along the cliff and I could see that this was not the place I'd been looking for, with the unusual stones that reminded me of prehistoric animals, and so next time I go - I must head for Lannion again - and maybe Tregastel is the place to look at.

The day was getting cold by now, so we headed back for Roscoff - had a little wander around the shops at Roscoff that were just closing, and the restaurants not yet opening. We got in the queue for the ferry and not too long to wait. We boarded - this time on floor 4 and took our same cabin. We shopped some more in the duty free shop, and Daph treated me to a meal. After one wine we were shattered and not long after the ferry set sail, we made our way to our cabin, and to bed.

Daph seemed to sleep well - I found it hard to settle, with the noisy air con, that was also decidedly chilly. Up at 5.30am the next day, I gave up trying to sleep, got up, dressed and went up for a look on deck. I could not resist an early morning cupper with croissant as we neared Plymouth.

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Photos

Road by Hotel du port
left side takes off to Carantec, right up hill to Loquirec