Thursday 1st August 2019 ⛅⛅⛅🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞 🐇🐰🐇
Mileage 27 from Treguier to Tregastel
Parking Co-ordinates 48.82424, -3.49936
Today we got our first proper taste of The Pink Granite Coast, and it certainly rivalled The Emerald Coast in terms of dramatic beauty!! Our first stop was to see 'La Maison Gouffre' - The House Between Two Rocks.
It was built in 1861 at a time when building permits did not exist, and the current occupant is the Granddaughter of the first Master of the house and has lived there since 2004. It has it's back facing the sea and is protected in a cradle between the two rocks to shield it from the violent storms that often occur here. Previously you could walk right up to the house but when some Japanese tourists climbed on the roof and caused damage the owner built a perimeter wall around the property and prohibited access.
But the house wasn't the only point of interest here, there was a coastal path that offered spectacular scenery and both the land and The English Channel were strewn with jagged rock formations and reefs.
But even more was to come when we got to Tregastel. There we parked in the town's indifferent and tightly packed Aire but we were quite happy to put up with that so that we could take today and tomorrow to explore more of the coast line.
Today's walk took us onto Ile Renote which is not really an island but a little peninsula connected to the mainland by a narrow sandy isthmus. It's also a fairly unique masterpiece of nature that has huge slabs of smoothish rounded pink granite scattered about in the most bizarre combinations. The path treks over, under and between the formations and as you walk you're never far from the sparkling blue sea that is every bit as beautiful as any part of the Mediterranean we've ever seen! And this has resulted in my being at a loss for words because it's so mysterious and lovely that my vocabulary really hasn't got the adjectives to describe it - you just had to be there.
Additionally the precariousness of some of the huge slabs made you wonder how they'd come to be in their positions in the first place, and I had quite a fanciful theory about that !! I thought maybe heaven and hell had gone into battle and lobbed gigantic chunks of rock at each other resulting in them landing haphazardly to form this amazing landscape! However, John's hypothesis was much more sensible 😂😂 but no where near as whimsical😏. He suggested that they had probably been in their positions since the last Ice Age and that over time the smaller rocks and sediment that lay between them had been washed away by the actions of the sea and weather. Thus they'd been left as we see them today. |
| The Star Ship Enterprise came to mind |
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| And how did this one get it's hole? |
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| Maybe seals on the beach? |
Friday 2nd August 2019 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞
About 8 👣👣 miles
Today we indulged in a much long walk - the purple marker is where our Aire is situated and we walked from there and around the Tourony, Saint Guirec and Ploumanac'h peninsulas. And most of it was another almost magical experience when the views and vistas we encountered were taken into consideration.
Our first stop was at the Tidal Mills that sit on the dams between Tourony and Randreuz. The idea was that the resevoir behind the dam would fill at high tide and then as the tide receded the water was allowed to gush back through to drive the mill wheel. It must have worked very well because the mill was originally built in 1764 but it's active working life didn't cease until 1932!
From there we left the town behind and continued on a coastal path where we found more weird rock formations strewn chaotically over the seafront, and not surprisingly, many of them were given fanciful names such as the Turtles, the Pancakes and Napoleon's Hat but it was almost impossible to identify which was what!
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| This one is called 'Chateau du Diable - The Devil's Castle |
We finished our walk by visiting Tregastel's Park of Sculptures and there we met the Bogeyman 😱
His name was Ankou and he was greatly feared by many Bretons! (The Bogeyman is the one on the left😂😂)
Friday 3rd August 2019 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞
Mileage 15 from Tregastel to Lannion
Parking Co-ordinates 48.72432, -3.44978
Today our destination was Lannion which is the second largest town in the Cotes-d'Armor region, but before we got there we made a stop off at Gaulois - an area that is named after Asterix whose full name was Asterix Gaulois! There, a Gaulish village has been created along the lines of those made famous in the Asterix cartoons, however it all seemed very much geared towards kids younger than us 😂😂 so we gave it a miss!
But I did manage to grab these 2 pics from the road! Folks messing about on the big pond in front of the village and a little flock of geese who were trying very hard to shoo the traffic away altogether!
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| A Giant White Puffball!!! |
So, quite quickly we continued on our way to Lannion where we found quite a bit to see and do!
We admired the lovely old 15th and 16th century turreted houses
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| The beautiful old Brelevenez Church that took 5 Centuries to complete |
And the sign said we'd only have to climb 142 steps to visit the church but on the way up I counted 164!
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| On the way up John commented that the postman must have been very fit! But before we'd started to ascend we'd said 'Bonjour 'to an elderly gentleman (at least 80) at the bottom of the steps, and later when when we started to descend he'd managed to climb to the top dragging his shopping trolley with him!! |
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| Of course we had to explore inside the church and while John wasn't looking I nipped down into the crypt with a plan to jump out and scare him 😂😂😂! But I think it was me that got the scare when I came across this little display down there! |
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| And John wondered if this was an Airship! |
Now, where historic building styles are concerned both John and I are 'challenged' but this church obviously had many different ones but before I could name any of them I'd have to do some homework! (unless I copied from a book 😂😂😂)
Next, near the River Leguer (or was that part of the Estuary), we found a lovely Exposition displaying games, flowers, and maze made out of corn.
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| The Expo was on the far side of the river |
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| It certainly looks as if it's been replaced again since 1881! |
Sunday 4th August 2019 ☁☁☁⛅☂☁☁
Mileage 54 from Lannion to St Pol-de-Leon
Parking Co-ordinates 48.68306, -3.97077
Today our plan was to leave The Pink Granite coast behind and move on into North Finistere with an end point to our journey at Morlaix - but in the end we went a bit further than that! For much of our journey we followed the 42 miles of The Armorique Cornishe Route which straddles the coastal borderlands between the two departments, and in so doing we passed through a varied landscape of sandy beaches, rocky headlands and fishing ports. However, as you'd imagine in this high season period there was very little parking to be had in the villages so other than a coffee stop at a cliff top view point we had to keep going until we reached an Aire on the Port of Le Diben. |
| The fishing boats were lined up against the quay possibly resting because it was Sunday. |
And it was there that we watched the procession for The 'Pardon de la Mer' - 'A Pardon of the Sea'! I wasn't really sure what a 'Pardon' was but it seems it's a Breton form of pilgrimage and one of the most traditional demonstrations of Catholicism in Brittany. Today's procession carried a model trawler but as the service was in the Breton dialect we couldn't really gain any understanding of it.
Our next stop was at Morlaix - but it was very brief! We'd gone there to see the huge granite viaduct that dates back to 1863 and has public access to it's first level (but not the second because that's a train line). However, the Aire where we could have stopped turned out to be in the back of a supermarket car-park and it was cramped and scruffy to say the least. Therefore, as we'd already seen the viaduct as we passed through the town we decided to move on to St. Pol-de-Leon where we knew there was a water-front Aire on the Morlaix Bay
Now, it has to be said that after all the dramatic-ness of both The Emerald and The Pink Granite coasts this northern section of muddy estuaries didn't quite float our boat!! But maybe it will later 😱 because as you can see from the pic above we're right on the sea front and John reliably tells me that the tide is going to rise by over 30 feet tonight 😱(due to a spring tide which occurs when the earth moon and sun are in a line)! Therefore, we're keeping everything crossed that T4rdis2 will still have dry tyres in the morning.
Tomorrow we're going to move on to a Camping Car Park Aire because we need to get settled for a few days so that we can get essential chores (washing) done and also do some cycle exploring in the area, but that will be next times story!
Bye for now 😙😙
Click here to see our French Camping spots
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