A busy week – relatively speaking. We decided that there was more than enough to see in spite of the grey and dreary weather, so on Monday we took off for three tiny villages –Thegonnec, Guimial and Lampaul-Guimial. These three form a rough triangle with the longest side being about 5 kilometers. In spite of their proximity to each other, they, or rather, their religious leaders, decide to compete to see who could erect the finest and most lavishly decorated church. Wonderful, intricate carvings of Biblical scenes and items of local topical interest, all done in the local granite by the Breton sculptors who perfected the art. Topical interest of the 15th to 17th century, of course! Then, inside, there are the glowing stained glass windows to admire. Some have quite obviously been replaced, but there are enough of the originals to make one’s jaw drop in awe. Although it was a hard thing to decide , we thought St Thegonnec was the most likely winner, but we couldn’t find out which one it actually was.
The bad weather had continued to follow us and a light hailstorm accompanied our lunch that day. That was nothing compared to the wind that we endured the following night. Having been caught out, again, by the two-hour closing of shops for the lunch break, we had got far behind in our schedule and ended up in a strange little place called Porspoder which is on the coast of western Brittany. The wind, which had made driving difficult all day, picked up in the evening and turned into gale-force gusts. We had decided to stop in a parking place on the front as driving was getting impossible, which was possibly not the best choice we have ever made. Although we pulled the van in behind a hedge, it didn’t give much protection and Neels got up at about 5 in the morning to turn the van with it’s nose into the wind as he was afraid it would blow over! Then we had to put up with the sound of the front panel of the van being dented in and popping out again, rather like the theatrical sound effects achieved by shaking a sheet of metal. Not much sleep was had by either of us!
So the next night we booked into a proper site and slept very well indeed. It was again a coastal town, Benodet, a little south of Quimper (pronounced Camp-Aire)
The following day was May Day and all of France closed for the day. We took ourselves off to Quimper which has a wonderfully preserved Old Quarter of the town. Lovely old timbered houses, some with the date in the 15th century have been lovingly restored and are probably very modern inside while still presenting an ancient façade. As everything was closed, there were few tourists which was good for us as we could take photographs without always having to wait for strangers to move out of the way.
When we arrived back at Benodet, we discovered a regatta on the go out in the Bay. There must have been at least 150 boats out on the water, in batches of 30 or 50, each batch busy with it’s own race. It was a marvelously colourful sight. I must say we have been amazed at the vast number of small boats moored in simply every estuary, river or cove that we have passed. It seems as if every able-bodied person who lives at the coast has a boat, and uses it.
Our next stop was something I had been looking forward to. We pulled into an ‘Aire’ at a biggish town called Carnac, and for the first time we had loads of company. By the time everyone had settled for the night, there were between 35 and 40 vans parked there. Obviously, I was not the only person with an interest in the ancient megaliths which surround the town. However, after finding ourselves a place to park, we walked into town to go and visit the local cathedral which is dedicated to St Cornelius, the Patron Saint of all Horned Creatures! Had to go and see that one! Also a very old church, it has amazing scenes from St. Cornelius’ life painted on the vaulted wooden ceiling as well as some stunning stained glass from 1645.
There is only one word to describe the megalithic sites though, and that is ‘awesome’. We took a tourist train tour which took us around the town of Carnac as well as down to the sea (where there was another regatta going on and the place was teeming with people, cars and boats) and then drove around the three major sites. I had heard about these stones, but I really didn’t expect to see quite so many of them all arranged in lines as they are. Sadly, one could not walk in amongst them, but even so they are still quite awe-inspiring. And no-one has yet discovered their meaning or purpose. I would like to go back and learn more about them, but I suppose there is always the Internet………!
So we come again to Sunday. We have been on the road for just over a month out of our self allocated six month stay. Have we seen a sixth of what we want to see? The answer can only be ‘No, not even one-hundredth of what we would like to see’ All we can do is look at everything we see; listen to everything we hear; taste everything we eat that is new to us, and just hope that we can remember some of it all.
We are now in Nantes to pick up Jenny when she arrives on the train tomorrow and to start the next phase of the adventure – discovering the chateaux of the Loire.
The bad weather had continued to follow us and a light hailstorm accompanied our lunch that day. That was nothing compared to the wind that we endured the following night. Having been caught out, again, by the two-hour closing of shops for the lunch break, we had got far behind in our schedule and ended up in a strange little place called Porspoder which is on the coast of western Brittany. The wind, which had made driving difficult all day, picked up in the evening and turned into gale-force gusts. We had decided to stop in a parking place on the front as driving was getting impossible, which was possibly not the best choice we have ever made. Although we pulled the van in behind a hedge, it didn’t give much protection and Neels got up at about 5 in the morning to turn the van with it’s nose into the wind as he was afraid it would blow over! Then we had to put up with the sound of the front panel of the van being dented in and popping out again, rather like the theatrical sound effects achieved by shaking a sheet of metal. Not much sleep was had by either of us!
So the next night we booked into a proper site and slept very well indeed. It was again a coastal town, Benodet, a little south of Quimper (pronounced Camp-Aire)
The following day was May Day and all of France closed for the day. We took ourselves off to Quimper which has a wonderfully preserved Old Quarter of the town. Lovely old timbered houses, some with the date in the 15th century have been lovingly restored and are probably very modern inside while still presenting an ancient façade. As everything was closed, there were few tourists which was good for us as we could take photographs without always having to wait for strangers to move out of the way.
When we arrived back at Benodet, we discovered a regatta on the go out in the Bay. There must have been at least 150 boats out on the water, in batches of 30 or 50, each batch busy with it’s own race. It was a marvelously colourful sight. I must say we have been amazed at the vast number of small boats moored in simply every estuary, river or cove that we have passed. It seems as if every able-bodied person who lives at the coast has a boat, and uses it.
Our next stop was something I had been looking forward to. We pulled into an ‘Aire’ at a biggish town called Carnac, and for the first time we had loads of company. By the time everyone had settled for the night, there were between 35 and 40 vans parked there. Obviously, I was not the only person with an interest in the ancient megaliths which surround the town. However, after finding ourselves a place to park, we walked into town to go and visit the local cathedral which is dedicated to St Cornelius, the Patron Saint of all Horned Creatures! Had to go and see that one! Also a very old church, it has amazing scenes from St. Cornelius’ life painted on the vaulted wooden ceiling as well as some stunning stained glass from 1645.
There is only one word to describe the megalithic sites though, and that is ‘awesome’. We took a tourist train tour which took us around the town of Carnac as well as down to the sea (where there was another regatta going on and the place was teeming with people, cars and boats) and then drove around the three major sites. I had heard about these stones, but I really didn’t expect to see quite so many of them all arranged in lines as they are. Sadly, one could not walk in amongst them, but even so they are still quite awe-inspiring. And no-one has yet discovered their meaning or purpose. I would like to go back and learn more about them, but I suppose there is always the Internet………!
So we come again to Sunday. We have been on the road for just over a month out of our self allocated six month stay. Have we seen a sixth of what we want to see? The answer can only be ‘No, not even one-hundredth of what we would like to see’ All we can do is look at everything we see; listen to everything we hear; taste everything we eat that is new to us, and just hope that we can remember some of it all.
We are now in Nantes to pick up Jenny when she arrives on the train tomorrow and to start the next phase of the adventure – discovering the chateaux of the Loire.
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