Mastel Family History
Mastel Family History
Brittany 2018
It has been a while since we have been able to go on holiday at all, and this year we decided to stay fairly close to home, so we returned to Brittany - an old 'family favourite' destination and one that is very easy to get to via Brittany Ferries! We were very late booking up, so the only crossing we could get the car on was from
Portsmouth to Caen, even though we were actually going to be staying much further west near Roscoff ... but that gave us the opportunity to revisit several of our favourite places en route!
Our first week was spent in a super little house at Carantec - which is a small town located on a headland in the Bay of Morlaix, just to the east of Roscoff (click map to open a larger version). We chose this place mainly because of the golf course (which runs alongside the largest sandy bay in the east of the map), but the area turned out to have a fascinating history in addition to wonderful scenery.
So, while my other half was entertained hitting little white balls, I was able to explore the entire headland courtesy of the wonderful free bus service - the circular route weaves back and forth, stopping right outside our house and at pretty much every beach and various points in the town (plus one of the out-of-town supermarkets). So I could hop off, walk around the coast path for few kilometres and return to the road to pick up the bus to return home. The photos below show just some of the wonderful beaches and cliff walks around Carantec (click to enlarge):
The first image was taken at 'Le Port' (which had one of the best restaurants we visited) and where there was a 'submerged road' leading out to the 'Ile Callot' - which could only be accessed by foot or car for a few hours each day - making life quite complicated for the small number of inhabitants!
The last few photos were taken on a walk down the river estuary to Locquenole, a small traditional Breton village (the final photo was taken from a display in the church showing village life in the 19thC).
Because of different changeover days, we then stayed one night in St Pol de Leon, which gave us the opportunity to visit the 'Jardin Exotique de Roscoff" - see images left - and also watch the World Cup Final on a big screen in the main square with several hundred French supporters! The whole experienced was enhanced by the appearance of several vintage tractors which had participated in the 'Artichoke Festival' earlier in the day!!
France wins the Football World Cup!
If you click the link, a short movie should download to your pc.
Carantec photos:
Tropical Garden photos:
Guisseny photos:
Our next week was spent in the village of Guisseny - much further west in Finistere, and also located on the edge of a river estuary. We were delighted with the location of this house, just a couple of hundred metres walk to the stunning (and practically deserted!) beach on the estuary and about the same distance via a footpath into the village centre.
There was also a coastal path here, and at low tide it was possible to just walk across to the other side of the estuary - the whole area was covered in huge piles of granite boulders, which seemed to have been dropped from the heavens into the most unlikely formations.
The fourth photo on the left shows the Customs Lookout: it seems smuggling was as much of a problem here as across the channel in Devon and Cornwall!
When we walked to the bar in the village on our first evening, we were puzzled by the man loading up a WOODEN shed on wheels with logs and setting them alight!
We discovered why the next morning at the weekly market when he was baking the most delicious bread in his portable oven!
The final photo shows nearby Brignogan-Plages, but though also beautiful, unlike Guisseny this place was packed with holidaymakers, making it almost impossible to find anywhere to park. However there seemed to be lots of restaurants and bars on the main waterfront here, so perhaps this is a place to visit outside of school holidays!