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Friday 31st May
Having arrived back from Nantes this morning, after an early lunch I took my bag and headed off on the train to Rennes, where I picked up a rental car for my tour around Brittany. The car was an Opel Corsa – small car, rival to the VW Polo, but not as good, in my opinion. It was OK but lacked power and even in top gear was revving hard at 110 km/h on the motorways.
I prefer travelling on the back roads as much as possible, when time allows. You see much more and there is often no traffic. The little French villages are very charming but there sure are a lot of them, each with 30 km/h zones, speed bumps, etc to negotiate. Google maps just loves backroads, heading off the main roads onto little farm roads whenever it thinks it can save 30 seconds of travel time.
I I headed into the area known as Brocéliande, which claims to be the backdrop to the Arthurian legends, and has locations such as Merlin's Tomb, the Valley of No Return, etc. I did drive through the very dense and atmospheric Forest of Brocéliande, before
reaching the partly ruined Château de Comper, which houses the Arthurian Centre. There are various locations around the villages and forests of the whole area which have Arthurian legends attached to them. However, having arrived, I realised I didn't have time to visit the castle if I was to visit Josselin, and I chose to head off to see the latter.
Josselin is on the Oust River, forming part of the Nantes-Brest Canal at this point. The beautiful and imposing castle overlooks the river and forms a scene of fairytale beauty, complemented by the surrounding gardens, and pleasure craft dotting the river. Climbing the hill from the river to the town adjoining the castle, one finds a delightful village with many medieval buildings and cobbled streets glistening in the sun.
I visited the Basilica Notre Dame du Roncier, which has beautiful stained glass. It was also possible to climb the spiral stone staircase to the top of the spire, from whence there were great views to be had over the town and the river.
After all the walking and climbing I needed a cool drink, and was again confronted by one of my gripes about France (from
a busy tourist's perspective), that is, how difficult it is to buy a cold drink. Yes, one can go to a restaurant or bar and sit down and order a drink, wait, pay the bill, etc, but except in large towns where there may be a little supermarket, or at larger railway stations, there is nowhere to just pop in and buy a cold drink to take away. So, once again I went away thirsty.
I returned to the car and headed to my overnight stop at a gîte at St Thuriau. This was in an out of the way place well into the farming countryside, very peaceful and quiet (except for the neighbouring roosters). The hosts were a very pleasant English couple who have bought an old place and are turning part of it into some very nice gîtes. It was a great little place, with kitchen, lounge, bedroom and bathroom. The host was keen for some conversation, so we whiled away some time chatting, before I cooked some dinner, relaxed for a while, and went to bed.
Tomorrow I will be heading into Finistère, the westernmost part of Brittany, where Breton is spoken more widely.
The River Oust at Josselin
Forms part of the Nantes-Brest Canal
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