Saturday, April 21, 2012 – We are leaving the Western Loire Valley today to head up to Brittany to a rural location just outside of Callac. Basically we’ll head northwest passing Angers, Rennes, and St. Brieuc (very close to the English Channel) and then southwest to Callac. Samantha and Lionel arrived at 10:30 to collect the keys and return to us the remainder of our damage deposit after having to pay to replace the washer. A drag, but these things happen.
We’re on the road by 10:45, driving through Verantes, shortly later getting onto the autoroute to take us along the outskirts of Angers eventually into Rennes. The landscape changed north of Angers to be basically crop and cattle.
The housing materials of the older buildings also changed from the tarfeau rock (smooth cream/caramel color) to darker round rock. The architecture of the newer homes is quite similar wherever we’ve traveled through France. Usually the newer homes are one story with a peaked roof, no basement and not big in size.
We decided to stop in Rennes for lunch. Having no idea where restaurants were, we drove around until we found something promising. The parts of the center we saw had some wonderful old buildings and gardens. It made us wonder about this city – why were there so many? Going down one major street we saw some pedestrian only streets that had restaurants along them. We found a place to park and headed for one of these streets. We came across the Café Bains Restaurant and had yet another fabulous leisure French lunch. All three of us enjoyed our selections. The restaurant had a bath décor, the restroom came complete with a shower system on the wall – definitely a first. On the way back to the carpark, we stopped at a boulangerie to pick up a treat for tomorrow morning’s coffee. We’ve become enamored with the little sweet in the AM with espresso.
Just over an hour and a half later, we are on our way out of town to St. Brieuc where we stopped to buy some groceries for the next few days. We had a hard time finding the Super U, we were trying to follow the signs, but instead of an address, it states how many minutes ahead. Somewhat confusing for us, as there are not always signs saying where to go when you reach a roundabout. Eventually we did find another set of signs that helped finding it. Back onto the highway we drove another 40 min and we found our way to the little village outside of Callac.
We are staying in a gite (former farm building) that was totally restored by our hosts. They are originally from the UK but moved here fulltime in 2005 after they restored this place and then restored the former barn attached to this gite to have a beautifully designed place. They did a wonderful job restoring, we’ll be very comfortable this week.
After a taco dinner (with real beef), we sat in the lounge with a fire lit in the woodstove and watched satellite TV. An enjoyable evening for the three of us.
Sunday, April 22, 2012 – Today was a mixed day of weather. We spent time figuring out where we wanted to visit while we were in Brittany. We had a late breakfast and then we went for a walk. It began to rain heavily, so we turned around. It wasn’t long after we returned that again it cleared, so went for a second walk, this time the rain holding off. Our gite is located in a rural area with individual homes alongside fields of crops as well as some pastureland. The views are wonderful with rolling fields with stands of trees bordering fields. We enjoyed walking along the country roads. Windy and wet weather in Bretagne is not uncommon for this time of year. So, we won’t let that hinder our exploration! Later after dinner we went for another wonderful walk, enjoying the fresh air and great scenery. We even saw some wholly sheep, my their coats looked heavy!
Monday, April 23, 2012 – We’re going to explore some of the southern parts of Bretagne today. There aren’t any toll roads in this area, so we’ll be traveling on some rural two lane roads as well as some double lane. It rained off and on during our drive. Lost track of how many times we exchanged our sun glasses for normal ones!
Our travels took us from our gite, south east of Callac to Pontivy through dairy and cattle territory as well as some hog farms. It’s a very nice drive. We continued south to Vannes, a fairly big city near the coast.
We turned west to head to Auray for lunch and a walkabout. Auray is a pretty city with it’s older section with one laned cobbled streets and timbered buildings, some dating back to the 16th century. It is very picturesque. We found a restaurant to have lunch, all three of us chose the merlu with a provencal sauce (tomato) with amazing mashed potatoes and carrotes vichy along with the prerequisite verre du vin. We went in search of Eglise St. Guliana, made of granite, walking along in the blustery wind. This church was from the 16th century and had benches that looked that old as well!
We made our way back to our vehicle and headed back onto the autoroute to Quimper. Another fairly large city with its old center preserved. It’s really cool how European cities have preserved the old sections. They often provide a wonderful step back in time. It took us a while to find a parking spot, finally finding one at a theatre complex near the old section. It drizzled at first, then, it poured. We walked amongst pedestrian only areas lined with a number of buildings that had timber frames and shops.
Along the way we encountered a really big crowd, bearing Hollande signs – he’s running for French President, and is here today. This is a rally commencing the first day of campaigning leading up to round 2 of election. M told J to go ask him a question, but J declined.
We made a detour up one block and hardly any one was walking along this street. We came out at the plaza outside of Cathédrale St – Corentin. We found our way through the assembled crowd waiting for the rally to begin and entered the church. The exterior is incredibly ornately carved granite – amazing spires that tower over the surrounding buildings. History of the church says it was started in early 1200’s but was added onto several times during later centuries, the last being the 19th century. When we arrive inside, we see right away that the nave doesn’t line up with the main aisle of the church, it’s said to be because of construction issues. It is quite apparent as we gaze down the main aisle. The ceilings are domed and very high. The windows are all 15th century stained glass and they are wonderful. There are many scenes depicted in the windows. Some are up high, and some are lower and we don’t have to raise our necks to look at them. It was a wonderful visit.
Since the sky opened up even more with water streaming down, we took cover at a café for a break and coffee. Once the rain subsided, we made our way to the car. It took us about an hour to return back to the gite. We returned after 6:15 and had a late dinner, then J completed some school work before watching some TV.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 – The rain in Spain is falling mainly in France it seems to us! Another day, when one has to look up at the sky to go out for a walk in between the next shower arrives. The creeks are beginning to swell with the amount of rain that has arrived in the last week or so. We had to retreat inside before we had taken 10 steps as the sky opened up just after we had lunch. We returned inside for 10 or so minutes and the rain stopped and low and behold blue sky was beginning to emerge. Not to be defeated, we quickly put on our gear and headed for a walk to Callac, about a km away. The sun graced us with its presence so we took off our raincoats and enjoyed the warmth. We enjoyed walking by the beautiful gardens and picturesque homes along the way. We are certainly getting lots of ideas to try at our place in BC. The French people take great pride in their yards – it’s truly a treat. We’ve decided that France has the prettiest countryside of the countries we have visited, then Switzerland and Germany. Rural France has these wonderful farmhouses distinctive to the regions we were in. We managed to get our 50 minute walk in before the next shower arrived.
Talk about a cool place overlooking the sea.
We saw some ladies that sure knew how to make designs in the sand. They were FAST!
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 – Today we wanted to check out the western coastal city of Brest. It was about 100 km from here, basically west then north along the coast. It’s windy today, supposed to have gusts up to 85 kph and at times while we’re driving, we can feel the wind moving the vehicle. At one time, the rain becomes so heavy, everyone on the highway put their hazard lights on (Europeans do this for an slow down in traffic on roadways to warn driver behind you - a safe practice we have adopted) and slowed right down – somewhat nerve wracking!
Brest is a modern French city, having been rebuilt after WWII because it was almost totally destroyed by Allied bombing. The Germans had captured this area during that time. They did a great job rebuilding the city with wide boulevards with lots of greenery. It’s a very busy port city with naval ship building. The fortress overlooking the waterway survived and has a prominent spot housing a maritime museum. We found a restaurant to have some seafood as fishing is big along the coast.
The wind and rain deterred us from wanting to get out to explore the city. We drove around and took some shots and then headed out of town to a couple of little villages that had 15th century religious carvings out of wood and granite unique to Brittany. Back then, community life centered around the parishes. We stopped in Lampaul-Guimiliau to check out the interior of the church that was awash with colored religious scenes. For example, the passion of our Lord, with 80 characters carved, scenes of the beheading of St. John as well as the history of the rosary with painted carvings. Even one of the main support beams of the church was carved and decorated. The exterior of the church is granite, aged over the centuries with some carved granite statues.
Our next stop was to the quaint village of Guimiliau to see the calvary depicting the life of Jesus and from His Passion with 200 characters carved into the arrangement. There are also sculptures carved of the twelve apostles as we are getting ready to enter the church. The time and effort that went into these two sites is amazing. This was their way of relaying the teachings of the Christianity to the illiterate populace at the time. What fabulous works of art! While visiting the weather changed a few times, allowing us to get shots with different lighting and background. When we first arrived the wind was incredibly gusty, we were fighting to keep our hoods up, not get ourselves wet and trying to catch a few photos without getting the cameras too wet. After the visit within, we arrive outside (maybe 10 minutes later) to sunshine and no wind. We took a whole new round of photos as the lighting was improved. The weather certainly influenced the mood of the scene.
We left here and traveled to the city of Morlaix in search of an art gallery to see if we can find another French painting. We arrived at this city that is at the bottom of a river valley back dropped by a towering viaduct with long arches. The viaduct was built in the late 1800’s for a route spanning the valley enroute to Paris. Again the old part of the city has buildings dating back several hundreds of years like in some of the other towns we visited in this region of the country. The river has a number of boats moored along the banks ready to be used. We struck out in finding the art gallery, but enjoyed the diversion just the same. We returned to our gite via a new route enjoying the rural landscape.
Thursday, April 26, 2012 – Today we hung out at the gite in the morning – worked out, listened to music and did laundry. We went for a walk in the sunshine today! We took yet another route into town and took a few pictures of quaint houses and gardens. We have noticed how well the people care for their places and love to garden.
This afternoon T got the boys to agree to head north to Cote de Granit Rose to see one of France’s beautiful coastline. Sun was shining, so no time like the present to check out the coastline. The drive north to the resort town of Perros-Guirec took about an hour. Our route took us along the outskirts of Lannoin that was 9km from the coast and then onto the coast. It was low tide so a number of the boats were beached on their sides or keels, waiting for the return of the tide. There were some great beaches as well as some wonderful red granite rock formations. Of the coast are the Sept Iles, a reserve for puffins, seals and gannets. It was a delight to get out of the car and enjoy the views of the beaches, rocks and enjoy the smell of salt air in the sunshine! There were also some pretty amazing rock faced homes with incredible spots to enjoy the seascape. The scenes must be quite spectacular when there’s a storm. This is a spot that is different from anywhere else we’ve been on our trip.
Talk about a cool place overlooking the sea.
We saw some ladies that sure knew how to make designs in the sand. They were FAST!
Friday, April 27, 2012 – Down day today, just hanging out and getting everything organized for tomorrow’s departure. We recognized that the places we have left on our list to see in Brittany are to the east, so to avoid retracing our steps twice, and spending even more time in the car this week, we will adjust our drive back to the Loire valley. We go for a walk to enjoy the countryside, then we go for a drive to pick up a couple things at the grocery store. J officially finishes his schoolwork for the year today, so a celebration is in order!
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