John & Lin's Continuing Adventure in Their Caravan: 2019 Tour of Brittany (France) Part 8 - Pleherel Plarge near Cap Frehel

Sunday 28th July 2019 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞
Mileage 30 - but we only ended up 1 and a quarter miles from where we set off!
Parking Co-ordinates 48.65604, -2.32803

This morning we set off with a plan to visit La Latte Fort and then to move on to the town of Erquy but the latter part didn't quite work out as planned!!

Fort La Latte

This picturesque little Fort perches on a rocky promontory guarding the western entrance to the Baie (Bay) de la Frenaye, and lies just a short distance away from Cap Frehel. It dates back to the 14th century but much of it was rebuilt in the 17th, and during it's chequered history it's been host to medieval pirates, English spies during the French Revolution, White Russians and the Old Pretender - James Stuart.

Now, castles aren't usually our thing and we did wonder if it was worth paying the €6.30 each entrance fee, but this one had quite a lot of interesting 'characteristics' so it was worth it and we found it quite entertaining!

One of the first points of interest concerned it's moats! The fort has two Drawbridges that cross 2 natural fissures in the rock so at high tide it is surrounded by sea water - but I forgot to take pics of them!

The Fort had stocks which I had to try for size - but luckily no one threw any rotten eggs or fruit - all I got hit with was a strong breeze😂😂

And secret passages and staircases where I nearly lost my husband 😱😱

We found the 🚻 🚽 but we didn't try that!

And we visited the old central keep which was built in a circular fashion so that any projectiles hurled at it were more likely to be deflected! It's slightly flared at the base to enhance it's stability and it has 4 cardinal points which are represented by sculptured evangelists -

St Marc's Lion - South, St Matthieu's Angel -West,
St Jean's Eagle - East
St Luc's Ox - North.

The steps were steep to the top of the keep but the view was worth the climb - I think John might have thought he was The Grand Old Duke of York!!! However, I doubt Health & Safety would have allowed you to climb up there in England!!!

The Sea Side

And down into the castle grounds. The building is the Master's quarters.

This was quite an interesting gadget! It was sometimes used at the top of the battlements, which was a convenient position to bombard missiles down onto the enemy, or it could also be used outside the castle walls by those trying to get in! The performance of the machine was dependent on the skill of the user, but stories have been told of prisoners being fired back into their camp using it's powers.

But the one we saw wasn't an original - it only dated back to 2007 when it seems it was produced as part of a woodwork project for a high school!

And finally we had a look at the The Cannonball Kiln! This was an original and was used to heat the 'balls' so that they would set fire to the enemies wooden ships.

We'd spent about an hour looking around the Fort and once our visit was complete we set of for the fishing port of Erquy but when we got there we came a bit unstuck. We'd planned to spend a night or two in the town's Aire but it was chaos with about half a dozen motorhomes queuing on the narrow road near the barrier and the barrier refusing to lift to allow any more in! It seems there was no room at the Inn and we hadn't really got a B plan! Some of the vans were waiting in the unlikely hope that a space may become available, but queuing for anything really isn't in John's nature so an alternative had to be quickly decided upon!

In the end we decided to head back the way we'd come to a free Aire that was only a short distance from last nights stopping place, but why worry? We've still got plenty of time to continue our journey, and by going back we were in a good position to walk to a tiny cove called Port Saint-Geran that was almost devoid of people and only had a few individuals bobbing about on the water.

Monday 29th July 2019 🌞🌞🌞🌞⛆☂🌞⛆☂🌞
Mileage 45 from Cap Frehel to Binic
Parking Co-ordinates 48.60037, -2.83558

This mornings debate was whether to go back to Erquy and give it another try, or just to carry on along the coast to the the town of Binic, but as the former may have involved in us getting snarled up in lots of queuing again we did the later. However, just in case Binic was busy John had already devised plan B (as well as plan C, D, E and F 😂😂😂)

This part of our journey required us to leave the Emerald Coast behind and cross over into the The Pink Granite Coast, but we'd read that this would offer more ragged promontories, several deeply cut river valleys, and lots more golden beaches so we were quite happy to go.

Our first stop was at Pointe du Roselier which stands high above Saint Brieuc Bay and gave us fantastic views out into the English Channel and of a little fishing boat trawling the waters.

We also found a memorial to the Betelgeuse Incident which occurred on 8th January 1979. It seems that the oil taker 'The Betelgeuse' ran into trouble and exploded so violently that the vessel broke in half and the oil cargo on board ignited into a huge fire ball that generated temperatures that were estimated to exceed 1000 degrees Celsius. Needless to say many lost their lives in the incident.

Next we moved onto a small cove at Tournemine and sat on the beach to devour our lunch - but we had a guest! He invaded our space because John had spilt a few crisps but it took him quite a while to pluck up enough courage to come and get them and his antics did make us laugh!

A tern doing a turn!

Our final stop for the day was at Binic but we didn't quite see the town at it's best! In our guide book it was described as an attractive low key resort with a large port. It went on to say that in times gone by seafarers would leave their homes in April for six month stints searching for cod in the waters of Newfoundland or Iceland.

However, today there didn't seem to be any fishing vessels in evidence but what there was was the remains of the town's Rock and Blues festival which had been held over the weekend. People had obviously been camped out and there was a definite aroma of 'O d'pee' along some of the hedge rows! Additionally the town was still very busy with many of the festival goers, so that along with occasional heavy downpours and strong gusting wind didn't make it feel overly inviting! However, the Aire we stayed in was okay and as it was just for one night we weren't complaining.

Binic Port

And a shop front that made us smile.

Tuesday 30th July 2019 ⛆⛆⛅⛅⛅⛆⛆☂⛅⛅
Mileage 27 from Binic to Pointe de l'Arcouest

Well, the weather overnight and today has been a right old mixed bag of goodies and we've seen the first proper rain that's fallen since we've been in France (nearly a month). We left Binic behind and paused to do a bit of shopping (at Lidl of course) before dropping down into another cove called Le Palus (near Plouha). Here our exploration had to be delayed because wind blown heavy rain stopped play for a while, but if your going to be cabin bound this was a lovely place for it to happen because 'Grand Views' filled our windscreen once again, and eventually the rain ceased allowed us to take a short walk along the front of the narrow cove.

Next another decision had to be made!! Should we spend our night in the town of Paimpol which had a description in our book that sounded much the same as Binic (and the Aire was hidden away in the back of a car park)! Or should we push on a bit further and stay on the Pointe de l'Arcouest with views of the Ile de Brehat? As you might guess we chose the latter, and as we went we I was treated to tantalising glimpses of the islands and archipelago that we would have magnificent views of when we got there.

It was wild, blustery and beautiful and the sea was strewn with hundreds of rocky islets and reefs.

Unfortunately, it was also quite busy because loads of folk come here to cross over to the car free Island of Brehat which is located about a mile off shore.

The ferry chugging across to Ile de Brehat.

However, nothing could take away from the spectacular seascape views that we have from our door, and once away from the little ferry port you almost feel as if you have the place to yourself!

An evening pic of the view from our door

Much better than any campsite could ever be and all for €8/24 hours!!!

Wednesday 31st July 2019 ⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅
Mileage 12 from Pointe de l'Arcouest to Treguier
Parking Co-ordinates 48.78988, -3.23152

The first thing we had to do this morning was to come back down to earth with a bit of a bump!! To say the least the site at l'Arcouest was a bit wonky so to get T4rdis2 anything like level we'd had to rise up onto the 4th level of our Milenco levelling ramps and this had resulted in a drop of about 28 inches from our door - thus requiring extreme care when exiting 🤕!

However, we soon got safely underway but only to travel the short distance to Treguier and in so doing we crossed both the Trieux and the Jaudy Estuaries. We arrived in the town at about 10.30 am to find it in full swing with a huge market, and because it was so busy we thought it was unlikely that we'd find a place to park in their quaintly named 'Poet's Wood' Aire, but once again we managed to nip into one of the last available waterside spaces.

Parked for free right on the banks of the River Guindy

After a quick cuppa we set off to explore the town and entered it's historic streets by passing between two tall gateway towers that are all that remain of it's old fortifications.

And beyond them was were we found the atmospheric market that was selling everything you can imagine including food, clothing, textiles etc, etc, and also holistic therapies such as herbs, magnets and potions if you wanted them!!

I did debate if we should have fish for supper tonight but I didn't think my pan was big enough😂😂😂
And we wouldn't have been able to fit many chips on our plates either!

And the pink granite cathedral was very beautiful but difficult to get near because it was surrounded by
market stalls. However it's spire was like lace work with the granite being fretted with
multiple symmetrical holes to reduce wind resistance.

But as usual for us the town wasn't really what we'd come to see, and after a short while we headed out of it and up to the Kerdalo Gardens which cover about 25 acres on the edge of the Jaudy Estuary. The gardens were the creation of the Russian born Prince Peter Wolkonsky who started them in 1965 on terrain that had once been an old farm. Today we found formal flower beds, ponds, cascades, a canal, a grotto and lots of hydrangea bedecked woodland were we spent a very pleasant afternoon.