BRETAGNE – FINISTERRE

LATE MAY/EARLY JUNE 2017

After leaving La Ferme de Lann Hoedic near Sarzeau I moved on, first to Querrien and then to St-Pol-de-Léon near Roscoff.

QUERRIEN 

I first met Doug, Sarah and their first-born in 2003 when we sailed and anchored in company from Panama to the Galapagos and Marquesa Islands – all as recorded in Grandpa's Voyages.

Being much younger than I they had to limit their time at sea and moved to Yorkshire not far from Sarah's parents.     I once visited them there, probably in 2006,  by which time a second daughter had been born.

Thereafter I lost touch until receiving a Christmas Greeting in 2016 when I learned among other things they now had four children and had bought a rather run down farm in Brittany they had been working hard and successfully to restore to a well-kept state.        It was natural therefore to contact them and arrange a visit in 2017.

I had a wonderful 10 days staying on the farm but didn't do much cycling because I preferred the unaccustomed social benefits of spending time with other people.      I did get out one day for a couple of short laps on the dead-end lane serving their farm and a few other properties but the area was pretty hilly and even the smaller roads had quite a lot of fast cars zooming along them.

Doug and Sarah cultivate their land using traditional methods including crop rotation and leaving fields fallow from time to time, but necessarily use tractors that consume large volumes of diesel. They are dedicated to organic methods eschewing the chemical fertilisers and pesticides some of their neighbours prefer to use to obtain higher yields at the expense of environmental damage.

Here are a couple of photos to illustrate the beautiful result of the enormously hard work that keeps Doug super-fit and allows Sarah to use her veterinary knowledge and skills on the cows, sheep, and hens raised on the farm – not forgetting the bees though I doubt much surgery is performed on them!

Extensive fields

Curious cows with crops and sheep in the fields beyond

Another consequence of adopting this lifestyle is that the entire family is self-supporting in food and generates a surplus of all products that is sold to a now-established customer list.

It was great to be able to share this pastoral life during my visit.

Another interesting expedition came about because the two youngest children belonged to a group that had been practicing song and dance performances in traditional Breton costumes for an annual festival held during my visit at the seaside town of Pont l'Abbé just south of Quimper. 

Teams from other villages and towns all over Brittany take part and parade through the town streets before performing in a large local hall. In fact there were so many entrants there were two halls in use for most of the afternoon.

The performers assemble

And Parade through the town

SAINT-POL-DE-LÉON

I chose to return to England on the Roscoff -Plymouth route for another social reason.      John, who sailed on Alchemi in South Africa and Panama/Ecuador (Grandpa's Voyages 2007 and 2010), and his wife Pam live near Plymouth and I had arranged to call on them on the way to my home in Kent.

I found a very conveniently located campsite at Saint-Pol-de-Léon just 4 or 5 miles from the Ferry Terminal at Roscoff.     This site is perched quite high on a cliff at the edge of the Bay of Morlaix with splendid views across the water and overlooking the small Ilot Sainte Anne and its causeway.

Ilot Sainte Anne

Looking East over the Bay of Morlaix

The pitches were rather small, and relatively expensive, but it certainly provided a very convenient spot at which to stay for a few days whilst waiting for the ferry . 

 But I have to add that though there is a formally designated cycle path from Roscoff to the interior I didn't fancy using it because there was far too much traffic for my type of bike riding to be enjoyable (but the cycle path is used by many cross-channel cycle tourists arriving or leaving with their bikes on the ferry).

BRETAGNE – MORBIHAN

MAY 2017

GOLFE DU MORBIHAN

The eastern end of the southern coast of Brittany lies in the Département of Morbihan and has an extensive inland sea called the Golfe du Morbihan formed by the near approach of the tips of two peninsulae. (Wikipedia tells us the single word Morbihan is a better designation as it is derived from the Breton “Ar Mor Bihan”, very similar to the Welsh equivalent with both meaning “Little Sea”)

For the most part the sea is very shallow but there is a deep water channel at the entrance where currents reach over 9 knots at times. Nevertheless, with careful timing, boats have passed between Morbihan and the Atlantic Ocean for thousands of years.

The region was inhabited in neolithic times and there are large numbers of megaliths created by people from that period with some dating back beyond 3,000 BC and thus being older than Stonehenge.     They are not so impressive in size but there are many more of them and they cover a much larger area.

Vannes is the main city on the Gulf's coast and is named after the Veneti tribe of Celtic people who traded by sea with Great Britain for many years before the birth of Christ. They were defeated and killed or enslaved by Julius Ceasar in 56 BC whose troops founded the city of Darioritum at the confluence of two rivers where they debouched into the Gulf. The present name was adapted from the Celtic for the city to become known as Vannes when the Roman occupation ended around 300-400 AD. Soon after a Christian Cathedral with its own Bishop was created.

Today, Vannes is a modern large city with far too much traffic.

Sarzeau, towards the end of the southern peninsula is much smaller but at the centre of what has become a popular region for holiday homes and entertainments of all sorts. Those include several campsites and I chose one called Camping La Ferme de Lann Hoedic about three miles south of Sarzeau and one mile from the Atlantic Beaches to the south.

This provided easy access to the tip of the peninsula near Arzon whence ferries and excursion boats leave for Vannes and the islands in the Gulf, and to both the flat land around the Gulf's southern coast and the somewhat hillier land of the Atlantic coast.

I made my own excursions by car and by bike and sometimes using both.

One of the most interesting (and long) rides was to Penvins via the Chateau de Suscinio.

Construction of the Chateau began in the early 1200s on the order of Pierre de Dreux, the Duke of Brittany ruling at the time. At first it was designed to be a country retreat at which the court could entertain themselves with hunting in the lands around filled with Game of all sorts.

But it was progressively fortified over the next 300 years as first tensions and then outright warfare arose between Brittany and France until they were formally unified as a single State in 1532.

Duke Francis II of Brittany played an important role in the history of England for 12 years in the late 15th Century by accommodating Henry Tudor, later Henry VII, and his uncle Jasper, with about 500 of their Lancastrian supporters and soldiers in the castle and surrounding villages.The Castle escaped most of the damage and destruction afflicting many other medieval fortresses and modern restoration has sought to reproduce its late 15th Century condition as closely as possible.  

It certainly makes an impressive sight from all sides, though it is difficult to get a good photo of the Gatehouse and Towers due to public access and views being obstructed by other private property opposite.

Suscinio castle entrance and gatehouse tower

Another view

The north east wall

Western walls

South western gatehouse tower

My ride continued along minor roads past holiday homes, campsites and small villages until I reached the Pointe de Penvins with its Yacht Cub and Promenade.

The seabed here slopes very gently so although there is a significant rise and fall of tide the water is either near or far from the high tide mark – a factor that meant dinghy sailors sometimes had a long trek to make over sand, and weed-covered rocks in order to reach their craft.

Beach at Pointe Penvins

A long way to reach the water at low tide.

There was easier riding on the southern shore of the Gulf once far enough away from the built-up area north and east of Sarzeau. Here there was flat land, small villages, salt marshes with walkers' paths crossing them and shallow bays, again with a great distance between high and low water marks.

Shallow Bays Abound

Moored Craft at Pointe de Passage

The manageress at the campsite was very helpful and friendly so when I told her something of my earlier life she promptly insisted on taking a couple of photographs of me relaxing with a book outside my caravan.

Relaxing after a hard day's ride

Little did I guess this would appear on her Facebook Page