Staycation Jottings, Days 1, 2, & 3

Tuesday 31st July and our 'staycation' begins with a warm, sunny morning: more laundry pegged out and a bit of weeding done before we head into Rostrenen where it's market day, with the added bonus of Breton/Senegalese musicians performing in the Place de la Fontaine, which is also home to a children's play area and a boulodrome. Lots of people wandering in the sunshine, sitting on the grass, picnicking, walking their dogs, browsing the market stalls... a nice relaxed atmosphere. 

We didn't find any of the herb plants we still need for the raised potager beds, but we did enjoy a galette and a cup of local cider in the relatively new creperie La Rozell - nice food, although a surprisingly urban red/black/white décor. Back home and The William is busy baking a loaf for tomorrow, which is Lammas, the first of the three harvests, being the harvest of grain  - all 'safely gathered in'.

Wednesday 1st August, and we head west for a day at the seaside! Almost due west, in fact, to Camaret-sur-Mer, a nice little town at the far end of the Crozon peninsula, with a harbour and lots of yachts moored in the marina. 

We had a coffee at the Café de la Marine, bought postcards and a triskele pendant (my holiday souvenir!) and ate our picnic lunch sitting comfortably on a bench by the Tour Vauban, looking out over the blue sea, with seagulls sweeping across the sky. The 18 metre high polygonal tower, also known as the Tour Dorée (Golden Tower) was built in 1693 as part of the fortifications of Brest, and to guard the harbour, and is listed (along with twelve other Vauban sites) as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Vauban, the foremost military engineer of his time, who was commissioned by Louis XIV as a Marshal of France, was himself in command of the garrison on 18th June 1694, when an Anglo-Dutch attack was repelled, putting several British vessels out of action and scattering the British troops that had landed: the British estimate was a loss of 700 soldiers and 400 other men who were aboard the ships.

Sadly for us, and especially for Shadow, we were stymied by the fact that the tide was in, and, in any case, dogs are not allowed on the beaches. At Camaret itself that didn't matter too much, as the beach was shingly and sea-weedy, but we would have liked a walk along the amazing beach at the Anse (Cove) de Dinan - a huge stretch of flat sand, being enjoyed by relatively few family groups and surfers... Another time, maybe, out of season. Meanwhile we had a little leg stretch up to the top of the headland overlooking the beach: lots of heather in flower, and even more very prickly gorse!

We came home via the fabulous Pont de Terenez, a cable-stayed bridge over the river Aulne which 'connects Brittany with the Crozon peninsula' (which makes it sound like a separate state!) The cables are arranged as asymmetrical fans, and the bridge has a curved deck - and admiring it is rather a distraction from the view of the river!

The Aulne itself is actually part of the Nantes-Brest canal, which is no longer navigable over part of its length, due to the hydro-electric dam at Guerledan, which submerged some of the original locks. Aulne means 'alder', but the river is said to have been known to the Romans as the Alaunus. Alaunus was the name of the Gaulish god of the sun, healing and prophecy, who came to be associated with the (Roman/Greek) god Sol/Helios-Apollo, but there was also a Breton river goddess, Alauna. Her name derives from 'alanous', meaning both nourisher and wanderer/nomad, and is also the origin of the names of the Allen River in Scotland, called Alauna in Ptolemy's Geography, as is the river Aln at Alnwick, Northumberland. I do like these links between 'Lesser' and 'Greater' Britain, as well as the recognition of the essential nurture provided by the wandering rivers... And what a lot from one short day out! :-)

Thursday 2nd August, and today we spend a sunny morning at Huelgoat...

… browsing round the market, watching the world go by as we enjoy coffee and the local specialty patisserie (made of flour, sugar and butter, and served warm), wandering along the lakeside, and, finally, discovering Le Chaos de Roches -  a jumbled mass of hundreds of huge mossy boulders at one end of the dammed lake, next to an 18th century watermill which used to help in the extraction of silver lead from the valley. 

The William bravely descended 10 metres down a dark narrow rock step-ladder to reach the riverbank and the Grotte de Diablo. 

One Celtic legend suggests that the rocks were thrown here by a giant, and another that the Virgin Mary had a home here. A few metres beyond the tumbled rocks is a clearing with an outdoor amphitheatre, above which is an art gallery housed in a former school. Further into the Huelgoat forest, the name 'Huelgoat' meaning 'high wood' in Breton, and which is part of the Parc d'Armorique, is the Grotte d'Artus, where Arthur is said to have slept and hidden a hoard of treasure before arriving at the Camp d'Artus. Less romantic archaeologists, including Sir Mortimer Wheeler who excavated the site, suggest that in fact the ancient defences were probably created by a local Celtic tribe, and long pre-date Arthurian times, and it was used as a refuge by the Osisme Gauls against the Roman invasion in 57 B.C.E.