Mileage 10 from Pointe Brezellec to Audierne
Parking Co-ordinates 48.02726, -4.53652
Today's destination was the town of Audierne which we'd missed out a few days ago because there was a fair on their Aire 😡! Happily today that was mostly cleared away and once again the Aire was being used for it's main purpose which is to provide a temporary home for folk like us! We parked right on the edge of the Goyen tidal estuary, and just a bit further upstream is were the estuary meets meets the open sea. However, at that point it's sheltered from the ravages of the Atlantic by a triangular headland called the Pointe de Lervily.
Once settled we had our usual walk but kept in mind the promised rain for later in the day, and what we found was a beautifully flower bedecked marina, and then walkways that led out towards the mouth of the harbour. Interestingly the town also had lots of info boards (in English) that told of the ports fishing industry, and it seems that it had alternating periods of prosperity and much grimmer times when the catches failed. The 19th Century was the heyday of the sardine industry and saw the town develop at least 20 canning factories to preserve the catches of over 500 ships, but not surprisingly at the beginning of the 20th century the sardines suddenly disappeared from Breton coasts and poverty struck! However, later the fishing crews adapted and their searches for crayfish and tuna saw them prosper again.
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| Looks like someone needed a rest 😴💤💤 |
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| And the street art amused us 😂😂😂 Not quite a Banksy but good!!! |
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| Audierne's protected harbour mouth |
Thursday 29th August 2019 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞
Mileage 25 from Audierne to Loctudy
Parking Co-ordinates 47.82855, -4.16516
Our next destination was another Camping Car Park Aire at Loctudy who's name put me in mind of maybe somewhere in Scotland, and this was further reaffirmed because it's located on the edge of a large lake like river estuary called Pont-l'Abbe that with a bit of imagination could resemble a Scottish Loch! However, once we'd wandered into the busy town I quickly realised it was nothing like Scotland because there were boulangeries, creperies and fish restaurants specialising in Moules and frites all over the place, and another speciality on offer were the 'Demoiselles de Loctudy' which are more commonly called Langoustines!The rest of our time today was spent catching up with the very necessary task of our laundry - I knew it was time to do it because it would no longer fit in it's cupboard 😂😂👕👖👚🧦🧦🧦🧦
Friday 30th August 2019 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞
Mileage 34 on our 🚴🚴
(we seem to do more mileage on bikes than we do in the van at the mo 😂😂)
This morning we packed our picnic and set off towards Pointe de Penmarc'h were Phare d'Eckmuhl stands, and in so doing we passed through the pretty village ports of Lesconil and Guilvinec and also over the dedicated bike track that runs behind the Atlantic sand dunes.
Our guide book called this area 'unattractive with only views of black seaweed strewn rocks at low tide', however although the description of the rocks was true we found it to be a lovely place to ride and picnic, especially later in the day when the water returned to the beaches!
Both the villages that we passed through had busy harbours that provided joint homes for fishing and pleasure craft, but it seems that along this part of Brittany's coast fishing is still very big business because more than 40,000 tons of fish are landed on the Penmarc'h peninsula and that makes it collectively the largest fishery in France!
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| The Phare d'Eckmuhl that beams it's signal for over 30 miles |
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| Our picnic spot on our way home |
And as you can see there was plenty on offer but we already knew what we wanted! It was the very expensive 'Saint Pierre' that in English translates to be half of John's namesake and half the sweet little fish in the film Saving Nemo! John Dory isn't easily available in England so we needed to satisfy our curiosity concerning it's taste while we were here. Therefore we picked out a big one, had it filleted and then coughed up it's price of €21.30 😱! (and all for under a pound of fish)
Back home I cooked it in butter and olive oil and served it with salad and potato wedges which looked very attractive - but was it worth it?
Well! It was a meaty fish with a very delicate but pleasant flavour BUT it definitely needed something to give it a bit of Va Va Voom 🤔! Would I buy it again? Probably not cos at a tenner each a throw it didn't quite WOW us enough - Maybe it's just one of those things that needs to be cooked by a chef 👨🍳.
Saturday 31st August 2019 ⛅⛅⛅⛅⛆⛆⛅⛅
Mileage 26 from Loctudy to Mouesterlin
Parking Co-ordinates 47.85085, -4.04527
Today was one of those days were we dithered in our decision as to whether to stay or should we move on, and one of the deciding factors was the weatherman saying it was going to rain this afternoon! Being the tight fisted souls that we are we decided that if we were going to be stuck inside we may as well do it somewhere that was free (Loctudy was €13/night)! Therefore, we headed for a large free Aire just down the coast at Mouesterlin but when we got there it was full, but that didn't really matter because there was plenty of vacant parking just outside that we took full advantage of 😂😂!
We might move into the Aire later if a space becomes available, but then again, now all our bits are scattered about the van we're probably more likely to just stay where we are! We've been out for a quick 3 miler but now the rain keeps coming and going so I doubt we'll move much further than the loo or our kitchen for the rest of the day! Tomorrow it's on to Concarneau where I'm hoping to find another fishmongers but I'll tell you about that next time!
Cheerio 😙😙
Click here to see all 130 of our French Camping spots
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