Galicia was on our trip itinerary for 2022. It is a region of Spain that is heavily influenced by Celtic culture, and like several other regions has its own language that is commonly used.
It is home to the third most holy city in the Catholic church, Santiago de Compostela. Santiago is a pilgrimage city and every year thousands of people complete walks thru the countryside to the city, there are pilgrimage trails thru out Spain and France that terminate at Santiago.
Outside of Santiago it is not high on the tourist trail for foreigners, so it feels a little more authentic. It is a mountainous region with the mountains often going right down to the Atlantic. We enjoyed our time in Galicia a great deal.
We decided that Santiago deserved another day of exploration. But it was going to be a leisurely exploration so we slept in, and had a nice breakfast before heading towards the town.
A nice stall in the market at Santiago.
We started the day by heading towards the market. Ton had read last night that Santiago was trying to match the Barcelona market. It is a nice market but it has a long way to go to catch Barcelona. We poked around for a while and Ton was thrilled to find a paprika we had bought on our last trip. She loves this paprika and had just run out before we came, so now she is restocked with Tres Hermanas paprika.
This is a Santiago Cake, it is a simple cake made from Almonds. Simple but quite good.
My goal today was a churro. The Churros in Spain are quite a bit different than the ones we have in the US that we imported from Mexico. They are fried bits of dough but without the cinnamon and sugar, what they come with is a thick cup of hot chocolate to dip them in. As I enjoyed my churro two American women came in, one asked for a coffee to go which was greeted with a no problem, the other asked for a red wine to go which confused the girl, but she finally said she could do it, but only in a plastic cup. Ton yelled over to the one lady did you really ask for wine to go, and she came over and said it can’t hurt to ask. We struck up a conversation while there coffee and wine to go was prepared and they are on a Carnival Cruise and were from Indiana. It was a short conversation but the one lady was a character, and we got a couple of tips about places to visit in Portugal.
A nice garden on a square near the cathedral.
We decided to head over to the cathedral for some more pictures as today is much nicer than yesterday. The town is full of school groups visiting the area of all ages from kindergarten to High School. On the way we passed a busker playing a traditional Galician bagpipe just as a group of about 20 kindergarten kids went by. The teacher stopped them and told them to dance to the tune, most of them did a variation of what I guess is a traditional local dance, but one little girl decided that did not suit her and broke into an enthusiastic twerk instead, much to her teachers chagrin. The busker loved it as nothing attracts a crowd like a bunch of cute kids and adds to the tip jar.
An interesting statue in the old town.
After getting more shots of the cathedral, and a quick turn thru the old town we headed back to François for an early dinner.
The highlight of any trip to Galicia is a visit to Santiago de Compostela. The cathedral in Santiago is the end of the pilgrimage for all of the hikers whose paths we have been crossing over the entire trip. It is the third most holy place in the Catholic church after Jerusalem and Rome. The minimum distance you have to walk to be considered a pilgrim is 100km’s, though many walk hundreds of miles, and a few thousands. There are pilgrim trails that originate all over Europe and end up at Santiago de Compostela.
One more picture of the Hercules Tower. I enjoyed my morning coffee looking at the light at the top, but forgot to get a picture.
Our night in A Coruña was quiet with the Atlantic Ocean acting as a very relaxing white noise machine in front of François. We woke up around sunrise to take a look outside and see how the ocean looked, but there was a marine layer in place so the views were not very photogenic so the photographer (Ton) went back to bed, and I went out to enjoy my morning coffee in front of a 2000 year old lighthouse that is still in use. I wonder what the Romans who initially built the lighthouse would think if they new it was still in use 2000 years later. I expect they would be astounded.
Since we were up and ready to go we decided to head over to Santiago early and hope the campground would let us in. After fighting our way thru A Couruña’s rush hour we finally got onto the Autopista for our short 70 km hop to Santiago. We arrived and got our spot early, which turned out to be a good thing as when we arrived back from the city later in the day the place was full and people were trying to stuff very large RV’s into very small spots. It was our evening entertainment.
Groups of pilgrims covering the last few hundred yards to the end of the pilgrimage at the Cathedral.
After a quick breakfast we made the 2km hike into the old town joining in with the pilgrims for the last bit of the walk. The old town is quite large and maintains its medieval feel, but with the addition of modern tourism. There are lots of small shops and restaurants lining the old streets that wind thru town. We wandered around without a plan for a while, before finally consulting the iPhone to guide us to the cathedral square.
Another group of pilgrims near the end of the trail.
Twice a day they close the cathedral to tourists so that a mass can be held for the hikers to celebrate completing their personal pilgrimage. While we were waiting Ton enjoyed wandering around shooting pictures, and I took a rest in the shade.
Bicyclists in the cathedral square, they have to cover 200 km’s to get credit as a pilgrim.
The cathedral is not as large as I expected considering its status in the Catholic church, but I kind of appreciated the relative intimacy. While smaller than a lot of cathedrals we have visited in Europe it is still quite ornate on the inside.
These angels with their gold clothes reminded me of similar figures you often see in Buddhist temples in Thailand.
We spent about an hour walking around looking at the cathedral. They had many side chapels that added a unique character to the cathedral and I think we spent more time in them than the main cathedral.
The scallop shell with a cross is a symbol of the pilgrimage, and you see a lot of the pilgrims with shells attached to their packs or walking sticks.
The Catholic church has learned from theme parks and museums so the exit from the cathedral is thru the attached gift shop. Ton decided that our tourist gifts should come from there as the proceeds help preserve the cathedral so we spent some time picking up a few gifts before heading out.
The entrance to the cathedral.
We decided that a lunch was in order and Ton wanted to try a local specialty which is pulpo (octopus). There were multiple restaurants to pick from so we spent about 30 minutes window shopping before settling on a place.
Grilled octopus which is a local specialty.
We have tried a few meals now in northern Spain and have found the food to lean towards hearty. Things are simply cooked with minimal spices and often both meats and seafood are grilled. Meals are served with heaping amounts of potatoes. It serves the purpose but we think other regions of Spain have more interesting food.
Razor clams grilled in olive oil, simple but delicious.
Today we reached our second target for this trip. When we were looking at options for this trip it turns out both of us had Galicia in mind, so today we jumped on the freeway and headed to one of the most famous places in Galicia.
The Tower of Hercules. The rectangular part of the tower is about 120 feet tall and is Roman. The smaller part on top is from the 1700’s.
The Tower of Hercules in A Coruña is the oldest Roman light house still in use today. It is a UNESCO world heritage site. The lighthouse was built around 100 AD, and has been in continuous use since. It is built on Cape Finisterre, which the Romans believed was the end of the world. Since it has been in continuous use for 2000 years it has gone thru multiple modernizations, but the core of the first 120 feet of the tower is the Roman construction. It got its name from the myth of Hercules who is said to have slain a giant named Geryon who was preying on the local people. Geryon’s head was buried at the site of the tower and Hercules told the people to build a town here and A Coruña was born.
A sculpture of Geryon, the giant killed by Hercules.
The grounds are nice around the lighthouse with some artwork, and lots of wildflowers. A Coruña itself is not particularly inspiring architecturally, and most of the buildings look like they are from the late 20th century. The main square looks like it is from the 1800’s.
The main square in A Coruña.Part of the “road’ Greta Garmin decided to send us down today. We fit pretty easily.
We are parked in a parking lot tonight facing the ocean adjacent to the Tower of Hercules. Getting here was a bit of an adventure. The total trip was 278 km’s and the first 274 km’s were a breeze on a good Spanish freeway. The freeway ended near the city center and we were following Greta Garmins directions when I suddenly noticed all of the cars turned left. The lane we were in looked ok, but I suspected it might be a bus lane, but at that point we were committed so I continued on, she had us making a left in 150m’s (for an American think 150 yards). When we got to her left turn it was a pedestrian mall so we couldn’t go there! Luckily there was a roundabout just in front of us, and as we came to it I saw a sign saying buses only in 50m’s, so we went around the roundabout and doubled back to where all of the cars had turned left. As we approached the turn there were three cops near the intersection so I thought we might be in trouble, but they ignored us. Just as I was thinking everything was ok, Greta demanded a quick right turn. The road was narrow but one way, but I had a bad feeling. As soon as I looked at the map on Greta I knew the turn was a mistake as it was clear she had directed us into the medieval part of the city, where we had no business. Fortunately after ziging and zaging around and squeezing down one narrow ally we finally made it to the nice modern road we should have been on from the beginning and arrived at our parking place. Greta has been struggling the last couple of days, as the only way she would send us to the campground yesterday was the wrong way down a one way road. I’m going to have to keep an eye on her in the future.
Our free view for today from the front of François. Definitely worth the trouble.
Yesterday was a day that we had low expectations for and it turned out to be a great day. The walk to the market was strenuous but the return was fun because of the moving sidewalk. The drive over to Gijon was quick and easy. The campground lunch was cheap and we learned about another kind of cider, and it ended with us meeting a great couple that we spent several hours talking about travel and life in general. Because we had so much fun we decided to extend here another day.
The view going up to the cidery was beautiful, though I didn’t get to enjoy it much as the road was a bit narrow and the drop offs caused a few gasps from Ton.
The plan was to visit a local cidery that had good reviews to learn more about cider and have a lunch. It didn’t open until noon so we planned to sleep in. Yesterday afternoon there were a couple of pieces of construction equipment on site in the afternoon and it was a little noisy. Today about 9 am an entire road construction crew showed up to begin resurfacing the roads. On top of that they were doing a lot of maintenance on the shrubbery around the pitches so our quiet morning was interrupted by the sounds of heavy equipment, and power tools around us.
We headed over to the cidery a little early to get away from the bustle of the campground. It was a nice drive up into the mountains, though the last couple of km’s were on pretty steep roads. The place occupies multiple buildings in a small village. We wandered around for a while until we found the restaurant. We asked the first person we saw if they were serving lunch, she said yes and pointed us into the dining room. When we entered, there were a couple of waiters scurrying around, but when we asked about lunch we were told no. So we were a little confused, so we moved on. Ton said that there was supposed to be a store on site so we went off looking for it, and eventually found it. In the store we found a helpful person who told us that the tour we were hoping to see was only done on the weekend this time of year, and that the restaurant should be open. We bought a couple of bottles of cider from her, and then debated whether to go back up to the restaurant or give up for the day.
A sample of the sausage aisle in Al Campo.
We decided that we would use today to go shopping instead. We found a giant Al Campo supermarket where we killed about an hour shopping around, before heading back to the campground/construction site. We were both famished having had a very light breakfast expecting a huge Spanish lunch, so Ton whipped up a wonderful early supper and we settled in for the day.
No one does ham like the Spanish.
Yesterday far exceeded our expectations, and today missed our expectations. I guess that is life on the road.
We were really enjoying Santander and were somewhat reluctant to leave even though we need to get moving towards Galicia and Portugal, so we compromised by deciding to go to the market here, and doing our driving in the afternoon.
Our destination for the morning the market in downtown Santander. We didn’t realize it involved a 4oo foot climb and then descent to get here.
They have one of the old markets here in town that includes fresh fruit, meat, and fish stalls. Ton really loves these markets, so we decided to head there for the morning. Ton always asks how far things are away when we are walking, and Google maps told me it was 1.8 kilometers which is not too bad.
What Google maps didn’t show was it was 1 km straight up a steep hill, and .8 km down the same steep hill. It was a pretty invigorating way to start the day, but we eventually made it there.
A meat stall, you can tell this is Spain by all of the hams hanging. The Spanish love their ham.
A lot of these old cast iron marketplaces have been turned into major tourist attractions, with more tourists than locals looking at the wares for sale. But the one in Santander is not on the tourist itinerary. I would guess we were the only non-locals in the place. It is a little worn down, but we did enjoy browsing around looking at the different cuts of meat, and interesting vegetables.
Cheese selection, luckily for us you can tell the type of cheese by the animal on the label.
On the way down the hill I had noticed on one road they had embedded escalators in the sidewalk to move you up the hill, so on the return trip to François we rode most of the way up the hill on an out door escalator. Ton thought this was brilliant.
Thanks to the city government of Santander for the moving sidewalk on our return trip uphill.
Our destination today was based on traveling a good distance, and we selected a campground based on convenient access to the freeway. Greta struggled to find the entrance to the campground, but after some circling and a short dash down a narrow ally we arrived, just in time for a late Spanish lunch.
Todays 3 course lunch set us back €10 each. Again when asked what we wanted to drink with it we asked for red wine expecting a glass, and again today we received a bottle. So for €20 for the two of us we received a 3 course meal consisting of a seafood soup, or a ham salad as the starters. Calamari or a pork cutlet for the main course, and cheesecake or ice cream for desert, plus a bottle of water, a bottle of wine, and a coffee. I’m not sure where you could get a deal like that at home.
The starters for our €10 lunch.
This is cider country also, and while we were eating we noticed everyone else had cider with their meal. In Asturia you pour the cider by holding the bottle at arms length from the glass as you pour it. We were guessing it was to aerate the cider, but it just might be a cool thing to do.
A couple of local ciders.
Ton found a cidery near the campground we can visit, so we decided to spend another day in the area to check iy out. In the evening we went down to the bar at the campground where I tried pouring the cider at arms length, most of it made the glass.
As we were walking back to François for the night we ran into an Irish couple we had exchanged Holas and then Hellos with earlier. They waved us over for a chat, and the next thing we new it was 11pm, and we had made new friends while solving many of the worlds problems.
We enjoyed our break in Orio but it was time to move on. After a couple of days of debate we decided to head to Santander as it looked interesting to both of us. The drive was uneventful, though the Autoway thru the mountains was very impressive with several long tunnels thru mountains.
Ton loved the colors in this little lagoon.
Our parking app warned us that the very well located aire here fills up early, and they were right. When we arrived there were only 2 spots available out of 24. After a quick break to finish our coffee we headed into town.
A statue to Neptuno Nino (baby Neptune) off the beach in Santander.
In a country of great beach side promenades, we think Santanders might be the best we have seen. The area behind the beach that is usually filled with hotels and expensive condos is a park here. So not only do you have the view of the beach but you have trees and various art projects on the shore side of the promenade. Combined with glorious weather this was one of the best walks we have taken.
One of the 4 beaches we strolled along today.
At the end of the beach on a bluff overlooking the harbor is an old royal palace with its grounds intact. We climbed to the top to take in a super view of the coast with cliffs down to the sea, and long beaches in between the cliffs. Ton mentioned that this place does not seem to get the international visitors that the Mediterranean beaches get and she can’t figure out why, though I suspect it has something to do with the weather.
More days like this and all of the foreigners will show up in this part of Spain too.
Having put in a good walk we decided we would treat ourselves to our first big meal of the trip, and settled on a 3 course set piece lunch. At first we were dealing in Spanish, and when he asked us what we wanted I answered in Spanish that I wanted a beer and Ton wanted a red wine. The waiter came back with a small beer for me, but a full bottle of wine for Ton! He must of knew it was mothers day in the US. Later in the meal Ton saw a cask on the wall and asked me what I thought it was and I told her it looked like vermouth. The manager/owner saw our interest and confirmed it was vermouth and asked if she wanted one. Ton laughed and pointed at her wine bottle, so he decided to pour her a sample which was half a wine glass. When all was said and done we had a three course meal, a beer, a vermouth, and a bottle of wine for €40, which was the advertised price, so all of the alcohol was included for no extra charge. This is the Spain we remember and love.
The old Royal Palace overlooking Santander.
After lunch was done we weren’t up for much besides a rest, so we headed back to François for a well deserved siesta. While I was resting both of the boys called Ton to wish her a happy mothers day.
Today is going to be short and sweet. We decided to take advantage of the excellent facilities here at Orio Kanpina to take care of some chores. So today consisted of cleaning the inside of François, and wash our clothes.
Ton liked this Basque fellow in town.
The highlight of the day was a trip into town to pick up a light load of groceries. Otherwise we spent the remainder of the day lounging around watching the Spanish families enjoying their weekend, and watching movies on Netflix.
We picked Orio for our destination because we like the campground, but also because it is a convenient place to visit San Sebastian-Donostia. This is our second time here, last time San Sebastian was one of our surprises of Spain. Neither of us had really heard much about it, and we really enjoyed it. It was our first exposure to the Basque Pinxtos, which are small bite sized sandwiches which we really enjoyed. Ton remembers the Pinxtos in San Sebastian as the best she had in Spain. Ton often says that the real test of a place is if the second visit is as good as the memories of the first. We were going to test that today.
The harbor at San Sebastian-Donostia.
The weather was much better than forecast so that was a good first step in the test. The stroll down to the waterfront was pleasant, and the beach was pretty, though less crowded than last time because it is about 15 degrees cooler. To make up for the lack of crowds there was some cool beach art in the sand. Our primary target for the day was the old town and Pinxtos. We spent about an hour exploring the old town looking for the perfect Pinxto spot. The old town here has a very nice character and is a great place to stroll and people watch. We enjoyed ourselves, and both of us noticed that for the first time since we left Paris, we heard other Americans as we walked down the street.
We really liked strolling around the streets of the old town searching for the perfect Pinxtos bar.
The place we settled on for Pinxtos did not disappoint. The big change from last time is that they no longer put the Pinxtos right on the bar and you go along and pick what you want self-service. Now they are under plexiglass, and someone has to pick them for you. We assume this is because of covid.
The entrance to our Pinxtos bar, it was as delicious as we remembered.
The bottom line on San Sebastian, is that it passed the second visit test. We were not as aggressive in our plans as the first trip when we explored both sides of the river, and climbed the hill above town to the fort. But, we enjoyed strolling through downtown and the old town, and the Pinxtos were still delicious.
The church in the old town of San Sebastian. Ton took the street photo above with the Cathedral in the background from the steps of this church.
Mission accomplished we headed back to the campground. What a difference a day makes. When we left the campground it was mostly empty. Today is Friday and when we got back from our trip to San Sebastian the place was rapidly filling with Spanish families. By the end of the evening the place was nearly full. There is a live band playing on the beach, the population has gone from mostly seniors, to young families with kids, and all of the grills at the campground are going full tilt at 9pm.
Cool street art in Orio, the scales of the fish are Sardine cans, and the gold heads and tails of the fish are from the tops of the sardine cans.
We are enjoying it, so we are planning to spend another day to enjoy the weekend scene.
In honor of Cinco de Mayo we decided to move to a Spanish speaking country. The next stop on our plan is Galicia in Northern Spain. Last night we had a debate as to whether to get on the road and jump down to Spain where rain is forecast for the next couple of days, or stay in the Bourdeaux region in France where the weather is supposed to be perfect. After a lot of debate Spain won.
François departing Chateau Marquis de Vauban.
The drive today was about 330km’s that was uneventful. It took a little longer than planned because we ran into a full on urban traffic jam getting around Bourdeaux. It took roughly an hour to cover about 18km’s (12 miles). After getting out of Bourdeaux our route followed the A63 which is like an interstate, but with tolls. The key is that it is only tolled in some areas. So Greta would jump on the A63 when it was free and then have us use local roads that ran parallel when it was tolled. By doing that it saved us €27 in tolls over about 200km’s. Just as I congratulated her for doing a good job, she suddenly decided to route us right thru the heart of Bayonne and Biarritz where we slowed down to a crawl. When I chastised her for her bad judgement, she retorted that if I wasn’t such a cheap skate and willing to pay a toll we would be tooling down the A63 at 95kph instead of crawling thru Biarritz at 15kph.
A nice side road in France on our trip to Spain today.
We arrived in Orio Spain about 3pm. We are in a campground that we had fond memories from our first trip to Spain. It is a small town with a nice beach and a relatively modern city center. The old town is quite small and completely dominated by modern buildings and infrastructure all around it. Despite that we enjoy the vibe of the place.
One of our favorite things about Spain is the sense of family and community you see when everyone comes out in the evening for a stroll and conversation.
This is Basque country thru and thru. There are virtually no Spanish signs in town. The conversations are again almost exclusively in Basque, even amongst the children and walking around town we heard as much English as Spanish being spoken. Basque is a tongue twister of a language and Ton and I had fun trying to pronounce the names on the signs.
Ton said the laundry on the balconies reminded her of Hong Kong. The sign is for a fruit stand.
The next couple days will be a lot of driving. We are looking at covering about 300km’s per day as we aim for Galicia. Today we covered that distance in about 5 hours. I have been getting cocky about squeezing down tight roads in François, today we came around a corner on a narrow road and there were 4 work vans in a row coming at us, the second van and I tapped wing mirrors as we passed each other. The damage was really minimal, but it woke me up for the rest of the drive.
The Chateau Marquis de Vaubin our campground for the night.
We did have a place in mind for the end of the day. Ton rarely wants to revisit a place, but she did ask that we return to the Chateau Marquis de Vauban winery in Blaye. On our second trip to France we stumbled by here. It is a nice winery that allows about 20 RV’s to stay on site. We settled in facing the vineyards, and then attended a tasting.
One of our favorite plants. This one is approximately 50 years old.
Blaye is famous as the site of a giant fort that for 300 years defended the river approach to Bordeaux. Ton agreed to walk down there but did not want to spend a lot of time as she has had enough of forts.
Part of the fort. It is really immense.
We settled in early and watched the ducks and geese in the stream behind the van.
The designer of the fort. He is said to have stayed in the chateau at the winery while he supervised the construction.
After a wonderful time in Brittany it was time to begin setting south for Spain. We are not in a big hurry so today we headed south 200 km’s to Nourmoutier en Ille. Today was the day of deviations, which is French for detour. We encountered 3 in the drive. Like the US the French are hit or miss on marking the detour. Today one was poorly marked but my instinct and Greta Garmin got us thru it perfectly. The last two were pretty well marked, one was a bit narrow going thru a town, the other was easy once I circled a roundabout 3 times while Ton interpreted signs for me to find the right exit .
Some of the salt marshes near Nourmentier.
Nourmoutier en Ille is out on a prominent peninsula into the Atlantic, but surrounded by miles of salt marshes. There is an island on the peninsula that is accessible by road at low tide, but the road is covered by water at high tide. They have an annual race where runners race the tide as it comes in to cross the road before it is covered by water. I assume they have rescue boats standing by to pick up the losers.
Tractor hauling oysters from the managed beds at the end of the estuary.
It is a nice town and we enjoyed a long walk along a jetty out into the bay with salt making fields on one side and the estuary on the other. The jetty is about 1 mile long and topped with a road where tractors hauling oysters from the oyster beds in the estuary to the processing plants in town pass every few minutes. When we walked in the afternoon the tide was out and the boats in the harbor were sitting on mud, the estuary leading into the harbor was all mud and not very pretty. We decided to take an evening walk and the tide had come in and all of the boats in the harbor were floating and the estuary when covered with water was beautiful .
The view of the harbor when the tide is out.The same harbor 6 hours later with the tide in.
The aire in town is a big parking lot with about 35 other RV’s tonight. The other deviation today was that when I went to pay the €8 for the aire the machine would not take any of our credit cards. We run into this problem occasionally at gas stations because American credit cards still require a signature, European ones do not. This means sometimes at self-service machines our cards are rejected because no one can take the signature. It does not happen often but is a pain when it does. I assumed that was the problem, but when I went back to try with a debit card there were three French people there having the same problem. Finally one of them declared Le Aire est Libre aujourd’hui (the parking is free today). We all cheered and headed back to our RV’s with €8 extra in our pockets!
We have going pretty hard since we got here almost two weeks ago and had planned today as a rest day for us and François. So last night as we settled into bed when we heard rain on the roof we were not too concerned. I told Ton it was probably just showers, but it rained all night and was still raining hard when we got up. So the timing was perfect for our day of rest.
Because we had some time on our hands this morning Ton decided to try to duplicate a Breton crepe she had seen in several of the restaurants. It turned out delicious and was really a treat for me.
The egg and sausage are Breton, the vegetable garnish is the Thai in Ton coming out.
We lazed around until about 1pm when the rain started to let up. We decided to walk over to the alignment museum which was closed yesterday. The museum was small but interesting.
The only way you can go onto the grounds of the alignment is as part of a guided tour.
We debated whether to go back to the beach, but after about 10 seconds decided to instead head on back to François to enjoy an early evening and some Netflix.
The sheep were back to work taking care of the grass, though they have a lot of work to do.
Brittany has turned into one of our favorite places in France. For France it is off the beaten path a bit, but still incredibly beautiful. We were really lucky with the weather as it was almost perfect for the whole trip. The culture is a mixture of Celtic and French and we fell in love with Breton Cider. If you are traveling and want to see a very beautiful coastline and experience a fun laid back region, make sure you allow plenty of time for Brittany.
Brittany is living up to our expectations. Today we had a great day with beautiful medieval towns, and incredible beaches. When we planned the itinerary
Our destination today was Carnac. On the way to Carnac we made two brief stops that were recommended to us. Today is labor day in France so we were not expecting a lot to be open, but as we were driving we noticed that most of the stores that would be open on Sunday were open.
The bridge over the Elle River in Quimperle.
Our first stop for the day was Quimperle, a small town where two rivers come together. The first thing we noticed was that at every street corners there were little girls and some boys selling small bouquets of flowers. The flowers are Lilly of the Valley and they are considered good luck. The reason kids sell them on May 1st is because today wild flowers can be sold without a license or paying taxes on the receipts. So it is a chance for kids to practice a little free enterprise. We were finally cornered by two cute sisters about 8 and 10 and ended up with a sprig of Lillys.
The Lillys of the Valley, our good luck charm for the day.
The town itself was nice with some older half timbered buildings and a couple of stone archways, one of which fronted a parking lot for a grocery store. The town is subjected to frequent flash floods so they have built high walls along the rivers to help contain them when they happen.
Some whimsical traffic bollards in Port Louis.
Our next stop was Port Louis. It is another port town, that is famous for its Citadelle. It is a 17th century fort and is impressive. During WWII it was used as a prison by the Germans, and a lot of French resistance fighters were executed there. Along the walk there were signs showing photos of the Martyrs of the Citadelle, the photos were accomplished by the age and the occupation of the person who had died there. Most of them were 18 to 23 and their occupations were pretty mundane such as farmer, mechanic, and sailor. To me that made it even more touching, as these guys without any real military training laid down their lives for France.
The Citadelle in Port Louis.
Our last stop for the day was Carnac. Carnac is another beautiful Breton port city with a great beach. But the primary reason we came here was for the Alignments of Carnac. These are stones called Menhirs are laid out in three fields stretching over 4 km’s (2.5 miles approximately). There are over 3000 stones cut from granite, some weighing as much as 20 tons laid out in lines. There are also a few circular formations. Each of the sites has the largest stones at the western end of the field.
Some of the Mehirs at the alignment of Carnac.
These stones were laid out approximately 4500 bc to 3000 bc by the pre-celtic people of Brittany. They are roughly contemporary with Stonehenge, but laid out quite differently. Also in the immediate area are several burial mounds that are 410 ft by 200ft and 39 ft. high. When they were excavated they found a main burial chamber and 5 sub-chambers off of the main chamber.
These stones are part of a burial site.
The work to build such a massive site with the tools available at that time is incredible. This is the pre-history equivalent of a giant cathedral, or the pyramids. No one is completely certain as to the purpose of the alignments or the motivation to devote so much work to building the site, but the most common theory was that it was part of a religious site.
Our first drive of the day was a relatively long 80 km’s to Cocarneau, the problem is we are still nearly 1000 miles (1500km’s) from Portugal, and we are 12 days into our trip. So if we are going to spend a lot of time in Portugal at some point we are probably going to have to get on the Autoroute and suck up some tolls. But not today, or tomorrow for that matter as we still have plans for Brittany.
Ton took this from the bakery the top flag is Brittany, the bottom flag is a composite of all of the Celtic nations.
Before we left we decided to revisit the bakery we had stopped in briefly the day before to pick up a Kouign-Amann. Brittany is famous for this desert that literally means Butter Cake. The area we are in is close to where it originated. We had tried it on our previous trip and thought it was ok. Yesterday when we visited the bakery near the campground they gave us a taste of some of theirs and we both thought it was fantastic, the problem is that we did not tell each other until we got to the campground.
Kouign-Amann the delicious local pastry, and Chouchenn a local honey based liquor. They make a great combination to end a meal.
While we were driving Ton researched another specialty of Brittany called Chouchenn. It is a mead like drink made from buckwheat honey with apple juice used to initiate the fermentation. It is supposed to have come over to Brittany from Scotland with the Druids. We picked up a bottle and used it as an aperitif with our Kouign-Amann. They were both delicious and complemented each other well.
Part of the walls that surround the old town in Concarneau.
Our first stop for the day was Concarneau which is another port town. The old town is on an island in the middle of the bay and is surrounded by 14th century walls. As we were walking to the old town we came across a line of very nice sailboats flying a bunch of company flags. It is a professional sail racing circuit that operates in France. The boats were really high tech compared to the typical pleasure cruiser.
Racing boats in town for week long race starting tomorrow.
The old town was nice and we enjoyed walking along the old walls of the town looking out on the port and in on the old town. In addition to the professional racers there was also an Argentine Navy vessel visiting town.
A street scene from old town Concarneau.Argentine Naval vessel visiting the port of Concarneau.
After a couple of hours of enjoying Concarneau we headed to our main destination for the day, Pont Aven. It was made famous in the late 19th and early 20th century when Gauguin settled here and a bunch of other French and foreign impressionist artists moved in. Today it is still a center for art with a lot of galleries and boutiques.
One of the many bridges across the Aven river in Pont Aven.
The unexpected adventure of the day was trying to gain entry to the aire in town. When we arrived there was a gate and a machine that you paid your entrance fee at. These are usually pretty straight forward and I have mastered them. This one even offered English, everything was going smoothly and after I entered a lot of information it spit out a card that I was to use at future aires managed by this company, (the card cost an extra €5 which I was not happy about). When everything was done and my credit card was processed, the gate should open. But it didn’t. I double checked everything and no go. Muttering some bad words I tripled checked and still no go. At this point a French gentleman came over, he double checked everything and said it should be good. After a while another French couple came over and tried their luck, they confirmed everything should be good, but no luck with the gate opening. Finally, the lady went and got her cell phone and called the help line, and after some explanation and confirmation of my name, the company opened the gate remotely. Now I have a €5 card that I am not sure works if I come to another aire run by this company, but I am in the aire. Once again the kindness of strangers got us out of trouble despite no common language.
Scenes like this made us quickly forget the misadventure with the entrance at the Aire.
The highlight of the town is strolling down the river promenade. The river runs thru the center of town with shops and beautiful homes on either side of it. There are several picturesque watermills and bridges across the river. Near the bottom of town the river opens up to a port surrounded by mansions and a very thick forest of trees. It is a pretty magical place.
A Breton gaff rigged work boat that is part of the maritime museum in town.
At one point Ton and I were relaxing and enjoying a nice view of the river and the town from a bench when we found ourselves suddenly in the middle of a large group of tourists who were getting a guided tour of the town. The spot we had chosen was the place where Gauguin had painted one of his famous pictures from the area. They were very nice and told us not to bother, but we were clearly in the way and decided to move on.
The view Ton and I were enjoying when we suddenly became part of a Gauguin tour.
Pont Aven is a really beautiful town and the port and the river combine to make a really beautiful landscape. We strolled around for quite awhile and Ton took so many pictures it took her over an hour to narrow it down to 15 to send to me to post in the blog.
The first thatched roof we have seen in Brittany.The point where the Aven river reaches the port.One of the many galleries that are in Pont Aven.Closing todays post with a door.
We only had one fun stop planned for today as we wanted to take care of some of the routine things you have to do when living out of a RV. We began by visiting a Lidl to pick up some groceries.
I get to enjoy the food from our morning Lidl stop.
After shopping was completed we headed off to Pointe du Raz which as the name says is a prominent point sticking out into the English Channel. It is a regional park, and is a moorland sitting on top of 200 foot cliffs above the ocean. It was only about a 20 km drive from Douarnenez, so despite our late start we arrived before noon. The weather has been about the same every day, mid 60’s with a good breeze and sun. For this time of year it is great.
Blue sky and a brisk breeze welcomed us to Pointe
About 10 km’s from the Pointe we suddenly left the forests and emerged onto the windswept moorlands that the region is famous for. Suddenly you could see all the way to the ocean.
The park had great long views to enjoy.
They had a designated Campervan parking lot that you could overnight in for €20, or park for the day for €8. The parking cost also covers the admission price for the park. There are several trails that lead you to the top of the cliffs. The moors are covered with wildflowers, though the dominant plant looks like a type of gorse with yellow flowers. Ton was in her element as she loves wild flowers and I kept leaving her behind as she would see something else she wanted to photograph and suddenly stop.
The main trail to the point. The building in the front is a French Navy surveillance installation.
When we reached the end of the point the view out to sea was spectacular. We scrambled thru some rocks to get a good view. By the time we got there it was lunch time and most of the French were sitting down to their lunch among the rocks. The French take their lunches seriously and they do it with elegance even when the table is a rock.
The rocky point at the end of the trail.We only saw these red flowers in this one spot, but it was a great spot.
We were enjoying the walk so we decided to follow a cliff side trail back. This got us away from the crowds, and it was quite a nice walk.
The cliff side trail we followed.More wildflowers.
We had picked a campground on a farm near the point for our stop today. We arrived in time to give the inside of François a good scrubbing before settling down for some well earned Breton Cider.
We have developed a taste for Breton cider so we decided to acquire a couple of proper cider cups.
Today was a little more of a chore than other days this trip. The good news is that it ended well and our final stop of the day made up for the trouble. The day began with a longish drive to get around Brest which is a large industrial port. There is probably a lot to do in Brest but we are avoiding big cities at this point on the trip.
A lot of the buildings in Brittany are covered in wisteria, it symbolizes long life. Wisteria plants live over 100 years.
We have now transitioned from the north coast to the south coast of Brittany. Brittany is a large peninsula sticking out from the mainland of France and at some point is the point furthest west on the French mainland. As we moved south the land became a little different and the weather warmed up a bit. Today started out as the coldest morning so far on the trip and by the end of the day it was the warmest we have been on the trip.
The church steeples in Brittany are really interesting. This one is from Sizun.
The first stop of the day was a small village called Sizun. It had an interesting church, but otherwise a little less than we expected. After taking a quick walk around we decided to head on.
These arches are connected to the church in Sizun. Arches coming off churches at an angle seem to be a common feature in Brittany.
We were thinking about staying in a town called Le Faou, it had a nice waterfront, but not much else caught our eye. So we decided to carry on.
Ton liked this boat propped up on the mud flats in La Faou.
Ton was really looking forward to the next town on our agenda as it was used to film the movie Tess in 1979. Locronan is one of the beautiful villages of France and it is a pretty town, but felt like one of the most touristy places we have stopped at. We gave it a good look, but after about 40 minutes we both agreed it was time to move on. Up to this point the weather had been a little dreary, but just as we were leaving the sun came out and it warmed up.
The Celtic words on top are a kind of dessert. It tastes good, but it is very difficult to order.The village square in Locronan.
Our last stop today was Douarnenez. You may have noticed that the city names today do not seem so French. On this end of the peninsula the place names reflect the Celtic past much more. The signs as you go further west on the peninsula shift from French only to French and Brezh (Bretagne)in the Celtic language.
A mixture of French and Bretagne on the front of this creperie.
We were looking forward to Douarnenez as it is a center for the sardine trade which is famous, and a beautiful port town. The problem is that Greta Garmin decided to go on strike as we entered town. I had punched in a camp ground in town that was in her data base. After directing us down a series of increasing narrow roads she announced we had arrived. The problem was we were sitting in front of a building that most definitely was not a campground, it turned out to be a restaurant. Using the Camper Contact app I punched in the GPS coordinates for the campground and Greta took us to the campground, but we did not like the like the location. I told Ton that there was another campground closer into town, but there was a warning in Camper Contact that the street approaching it was a bit narrow (remember this warning was coming from Europeans who have a much different definition of narrow roads than Americans do). Again this campground was in Greta’s data base, and off we went. This time Greta couldn’t decide on a good route in and had us going in circles between two roundabouts. Fortunately Ton saw a sign for the campground and we followed the signs down a very narrow urban street that I assumed was one way but is actually two way, fortunately we didn’t run into anyone before we arrived at the campground.
The view of Douarnenez from near our campground.
There was one more hurdle before we were home free. The Grand Mere of the family was manning the front desk and she doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak French. At first I thought she was telling me that they didn’t have any space. But than she led me outside and was pointing and trying to explain something to me, but I was not getting it. Finally one of the guests came to our aid and it turns out she was trying to tell me to go pick a spot and come back and tell her which one we were in.
The entrance to the port of Douarnenez.
We walked into town and it was a really beautiful port formed where the Pouldavid River enters the Atlantic. The river is down in a bit of gorge so most of the city is a hundred feet or so above the port which makes the port pretty dramatic. It is full of pleasure vessels now, though it once was the center of the Sardine industry in France.
Some of the hundreds of pleasure boats in the harbor.
After spending a couple of hours poking around we headed back to the campground because Ton had found a tempting washer and dryer and decided to get our laundry done. When I went to get the tokens needed for the washer and dryer Grand Mere was still manning the desk, but I managed to explain what I wanted and she managed to understand my mangled pronunciation of French, in the end we were both a little proud of ourselves for pulling off the transaction unaided.
Another view of the port with the old Sardine wharves in the background.
Brittany is living up to our expectations. Today we had a great day with beautiful medieval towns, and incredible beaches.
A street of half timbered homes in the beautiful town of Treguier.
When we planned the itinerary yesterday our first stop was Treguier which was described as a beautiful riverfront port. Since about half of the towns in Brittany are riverfront ports I was prepared for a quick stop before we moved on.
It was market day in Treguier.
When we pulled into town it was market day which is always a treat in France so I knew it would not be a quick stop. This was a large market and there were all kinds of interesting vegetables, cheeses, and meats to look at. We spent some time in the lower market by the port, before heading to the upper market next to the cathedral.
People walking up and down the hill between the upper and lower markets with their shopping bags and baskets.
The upper market was more clothes and other stuff than food. We enjoyed looking around there as well as popping into a couple of the stores on the main square of town.
Some of the beautiful half timbered buildings around the main square of town.
The cathedral in town was also interesting. To our amateur eyes it appears to be a little more austere than typical French cathedrals.
The cathedral in Treguier had a very unique steeple.
Our next stop for the day was Tregastel Plage, which is a beach renown for its pink sand and interesting rock formations. The place was fantastic and only Ton’s pictures can do it justice.
Incredible giant rock formations on Tregastel Plage.More rock formations in the background with the pink sand, which today didn’t come thru, but is still really pretty.Kelp covered rocks, tidal pools and more giant boulders shaped by water. What a cool place.More rocks from an incredible beach.
Our last stop for the day was Trebeurden. After checking into our campground for the night we debated whether to go to the beach right away or way for sunset, after checking sunset and finding out it was not until 9:25 we decided to go right away.
The beach at Trebeurden which is nice but we were a little spoiled from earlier in the day.
Walking back we were trying to figure out why sunset was so late here. The latitude is about the same as Portland but the sunset is much later right now. Our friend Kathy Howe supplied the answer, the issue is not latitude but longitude. By all rights Brittany should be in the same time zone as England, but since France only has one time zone sunrise and sunset are about an hour earlier on the clock than they should be.
