Three towns on the ocean - 4 November 19

This morning we started out with a rough plan but no real idea of how the day would go exactly. We head back south a tiny bit and towards the ocean to Pont Aven. Gauguin spent a lot of time here and apparently some of the scenes he painted are much the same. Dodging waves of rain and reveling in the sunlight when it came, we wandered the city for a bit. I can see why painters were and are enamored with this city.

We then headed up the coast to Trevignon. This is clearly a summer town as many of the homes appear to be battened down for the winter and most of the businesses appeared closed (to be fair, they may also have been closed because it was a Monday.) We headed to the breakwater and watched the waves of storms and sun play over the ocean. The wind was so strong it felt like it was stealing breath from my lungs. The sea was wild and angry and beautiful all at once.

After taking in the sights and sounds for spiritual nourishment, we decided we needed some physical sustenance as well. Since most of Trevignon appeared closed, we decided to head to our loosely planned third city - Concarneau.

Since this is a fishing port city, we decided fish was in order. Lunch at Le Chantier was fabulous! We then headed to the walled portion of the city and wandered the quiet streets. I can imagine in summer this place is a madhouse!

Night seems to fall quickly here, so rather than get caught on winding back country roads, we decided to pick our way back to Quimper. Shortly after leaving Concarneau, I spied a small sign indicating a scenic overlook. After a short hike in which we past a crew of men with leaf blowers and rakes clearing the trail, we were rewarded with a breathtaking view.

While we were tempted to set up camp here for good, a new storm was brewing (You can see it there on the horizon!) We headed back to the car and resumed our trip back to the city. We will head to St. Malo tomorrow.

Steampunk, Carnac, and crepes - 3 November 19

First stop this morning was Les Machines de I'lle. Basically, it's Jules Verne's notebooks and ideas, come to life. This includes a 3 story tall steampunk elephant that carries up to 50 people for a stroll around the shipping yards. It's a weird combination of engineering and puppetry. Most the exhibit/show is in French so we didn't understand a ton, but it's still worth a visit.

Around the corner we stopped off for a coffee and the local Breton pastry, kouign amann a sort of sugary, buttery, laminated bread/croissant thing. This one was pretty pale but very tasty. My understanding is that they are supposed to be fairly dark - almost burnt looking.

Breakfast complete, we started on our trip to Carnac and ultimately on to Quimper. We picked our way to the seaside and drove through Porchinet. This sea side resort reminded me of a very cold looking Miami Beach from the 40s and 50s. We saw many kite and sail boarders taking advantage of the winds left over from the tropical storm that apparently blew through just south of us.

We arrived in Carnac just in time for the sprinkles to start again. We headed into the monolith visitors center to learn more about this area. Carnac is the largest monolithic collection in the world and pre-dates the pyramids. It's an amazing collection of stones and experts still aren't sure why it was built.

We spent the rest of the afternoon traipsing through the country side, taking in the amazing number and precision of these stone markers. We headed back to the car and were less than 800M from safety when the heavens opened and winds started howling. The winds were strong enough that at one point, Kris fully leaned into it and was almost blown over backwards. Amazingly, although the storm was intense, it had abated by the time we closed the distance to our car.

Breton sheep

A bit worse for wear, we piled into our trusty Pugeot and headed to Quimper. We checked into our hotel just outside the city limits and we're pretty sure we're the only ones here (Which is only a tiny bit creepy.) On the plus side, we did score the upgrade to the Junior Suite which is huge, so assuming we aren't murdered in our sleep, it's a steal!

We headed into the city for dinner at Creperie An Diskuiz. Breton is known for their buckwheat crepes and cider and we enjoyed both tonight. A humble little restaurant, but everything was amazing. Especially that they were able to turn out everything from this tiny little kitchen!

A galley style kitchen

Tomorrow we explore the seaside in all it's autumnal glory.