Every Day is a Winding Road(Sheryl Crow)-Heading south to St Nazaire

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We arose this morning just at the right time to see the rather hauntingly rise of the sun from a low angle through the bare trees on the paddock across the road. It gave another aspect to the sight we see from our home in Tauranga where the sun rises over the sea.

With another fine day ahead and over 300km of driving ahead of us we readied ourselves with a hearty breakfast. As yet though we haven’t been able to find the type of toasted muesli that we enjoy at home but we are still getting our fibre so that is good.

The cottage has been a lovely home for us for 3 days with plenty of space and all the amenities we could want for and it would be a great location to come back to or even stay longer, if we didn’t have our family back in NZ.We can be thankful however for Air BnB and finding such a place.

Jean Noel and his wife(we presume the woman he was with the other day was his wife)hadn’t arrived to do the cleaning by the time we were ready to go so we left the cleaning fee on the table and headed on our way back to the N12 for the first GPS checkpoint of Pleyben-Christ, an unusual name we thought. The town dated back to the Knights Templar days and has a Breton meaning of ‘a parish with a lesser known saint’.

The town is at the start of the scenic road shown in our trusty extensive atlas and we had taken a sizeable diversion to take in the scenery it had to offer.

And we weren’t to be disappointed as the land we entered after the town disappeared in the rear view mirror changed dramatically from green fields that we had become accustomed to almost desert like tundra as the road rose up onto a plateau.

The traffic was light although every so often a small number of trucks seemingly in convoy would oppose us and with the slightly narrower road one had to reduce speed to negotiate past them.

The scenic section of this trip was about 30km long and around two thirds of the way along a large lake appeared on the left side of the car with an ominous looking industrial plant in the hazy distance with a massive concrete structure that gave the appearance it was a nuclear power plant.

Ahead on the next hill and probably the highest point around was a more interesting view of a church alone on the top of the hill.

As intrepid as ever we found the road that led up the hill to the car park and walked the last few hundred metres to the very top bracing ourselves against the strong cold wind as we became exposed to the winds direction.

The exercise had been well worth it as the views were excellent and the only disappointing thing was that the doors to the church were firmly shut and there was no information on site that told us the history of the church and subsequent check on Google produced the same result other than to find an entry on one website describing the church as being empty inside. So why it is there and built on such an exposed windy site is anyone’s guess. There were signs of other buildings with foundations but the structures had gone. Perhaps this was somewhere those in the cloth that needed to be straightened out for some misdemeanour where sent until they got back on track!

At the end of the scenic section of the road as we came down off the plateau we stopped for our lunch. It was the now usual baguette,cheese,pate and ham finished off today with sweet treats of éclairs filled with a cold custard and outside covered in a strawberry coating. Why aren’t the French people obese?

The road now took us through farmland where animals, principally cows, were evident in the fields. Presumably with the fine run of weather there is no longer the need to house them in the large barns that are apparent on the farms we passed.

Just before Gourin we came across an example of what happens when one of the Breton style stone houses burns out. The fire had collapsed the roof structure but the walls were very much still in place.

Entering Gourin, a grand looking memorial with a French flag flying defiantly in the breeze was dedicated to those locals killed by the Nazi occupiers in WW2.One has a sensation while driving around France and coming across these memorials frequently that the French will be a long time forgetting the years between 1940 and 1944 when it was occupied.

We had started to notice that the style of houses had changed in a small way as we headed further to the edge of Brittany and the next province. The houses still had a chimney at either end of the oblong shaped structure indicating a fireplace in the living area and perhaps at the other end, the bedroom.

Our out of car sightseeing was planned for Carnac where we had been sent on the advice of C&M(Gretchen’s brother and sister in law).

Gina had plotted a course that looked straightforward until we came across the deviation (road diversion) that even Gina was not up to date with.

We followed the main stream of vehicles along narrow country lanes twisting one way then the other and then out of a stand of trees and there was what we had come to see.

The Carnac stones are a mystery as no one really knows how or why they are where they are or how long they have been there. There are around 3000 stones of various sizes and shapes in 4 sections.

It is believed they have been there for nearly 6000 years although they have not been successfully carbon dated.

While they don’t rank as a ‘wonder of the world’ they are certainly an interesting sight and it was well worth the detour to see them.

What seemed odd was the fact that houses had been built in amongst them many years ago and so the site is disjointed in a way as people go about their daily life amongst them. Strange when during the summer season with so many tourists coming to the sight the public can only enter if you go with a guide. During the low season as it is now the public have free reign to wander where they want.

Time was getting on and it had been a long trip. So at Vannes with still another 90 kilometres or so to go to our destination we reprogrammed Gina to the fastest route to speed up our progress.

We got our way to the right area for the hotel we were staying in for one night only to find we had to contend with a one way system to get to the hotel. To add to that the hotel was relatively new and Gina did not have it in her list of accommodations and nor was the actual street it was on listed either.

On the second circuit of the one way system Gretchen spotted the sign to the hotel and we knew we had made it.

Tonight was our first dinner out since arriving in France and we had thought of a creperie to keep in tune with where locals dine.

However the best we could manage within walking distance of the hotel was another hotels restaurant and creperie will have to wait for another occasion.

Dining out is not a cheap experience and we can’t afford to do it too frequently on the BBA V3 given we will need to have eaten some 180 dinners each by the end of August. Hence the advantage of Air BnB apartments mixed in with others from booking.com etc.where we can cook for ourselves.

For example, for the cost of the 200ml carafe of wine at dinner (which gave us 2 ½ glasses between us) was the cost of 3 bottles of wine from the supermarket or €6!

Such are the experiences of an adventurer and traveller on the BBA V3!









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Comments

[Miltonrabbit]

Carnal and the standing stones
Pleased you made to this interesting site. When we wandered amongst the stones we wondered how many have disappeared to make the many stone houses in the area. If that is the case then in the past there must have been thousands more. Our drive along the scenic road was shrouded in mist and steady rain. Temperatures should start to warm up now you are heading south.

[Whiskers]

Does make one wonder if anyone realised what the history of the stones were when they built the houses.Fine weather continues,no rain for 10 days now.Could be a sprinkle in Lourdes if the forecast is to be believed and max temp 5C a bit of a reversal from 19C yesterday