Bretagne III
We spent our last days in Brittany mainly hiking on vaarious parts of the coast, which continued to be truly spectacular. Now we did visit some towns in between, too, but really, the landscape is where it‘s at, so I‘ll only mention a few.
This is Camaret-sur-mer, which started out as a small fishing town and, with the additon of tourism, still is relatively small. It‘s located on the Isle de Crozon.
The main church in Camaret’s harbor is a seaman‘s church,and the interior reflects it charmingly.
There‘s also a tower built by Vaubon in case of evil English attacks. Very similar in design to what Henry VIII was plastering Cornwell with in case of French attacks, I found.
Today‘s visitors are either sailors:
Or they‘re into hiking like yours truly and her APs. There is an awesome trail starting about ten metres from our hotel away leading up to the cliffs to the Pointe de Pen-Hir and further. The other thing Camaret-sur-mer and surrounding villages and towns are sort of known for is that in WWII, a lot of bunkers were built to fight off the Allies (who, as you all know, invaded in Normandy instead). It‘s a bit odd and eerie, walking around ruins of concrete which are leftovers from a spectacularly vicious dictatorship, manned by one‘s countrymen and located in a breathtaking landscape. But the landscape is worth any number of creepy feelings, because:
A somewhat larger town is St. Malo. Famous, among other things, for French privateers such as Robert Surcouf, of whom more in a moment, and for birthing so many successful French seamen in general that supposedly Louis XIV degreed every French Captain had to be a St. Malo man. Today‘s main reason for visiting are the completely preserved town battlements. Of whom you can view sites such as this one, including a sea water swimming pool next to the actual ocean:
As for Robert Surcouf, most successful French pirate privateer during the Revolution and the Empire, he‘s a local boy and thus I encountered inns and places named after him all over Brittany. He‘s what would have happened if the Hornblower and the Master and Commander books would have been written by a Frenchman, only in reality. Starring Britain as the evil empire, of course. My favourite Surcouf anecdote this time around is that a Britsh navy officer supposedly told him: „You French fight for money, whereas an Englishman fights for honour“, to which Surcouf replied: „Well, everyone fights for what they don‘t have.“ Here is his statue at St. Malo:
More views from the battlements:
The competition is really tough in Brittany, but all in all, I think my favourite trail to hike was the one we took yesterday, at the Cote de Granite Rose, the coast of pink granite, the „sentier des douaniers“ - the trail of the customers. Because all those small bays just invite smugglers, I presume. We started at Perros-Guirec and walked till Tregastel. And were constantly greeted with views like these at every corner:
Those granite stones are up to 20 metres high and formed by time and tides in all manner of shapes.
And of course there‘s also a lighthouse.
Each bay prettier than the next.
And the entire coast is like this.
Here were are shortly before Ploumanac‘h.
Harbor of Ploumanac‘h
And Tregastel, complete with detail on a stone which would‘t look out of place in US-American canyons I‘ve visited before:
Since the one downside of the Breton coast is that it is far, very far away from my hometown, I‘m still sitting in the car as I write this, and will do so for many hours to come. The entirety of today is spent by driving back to Germany. And chatting about the wonderful experience we‘ve had these last ten days!
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1344040.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
This is Camaret-sur-mer, which started out as a small fishing town and, with the additon of tourism, still is relatively small. It‘s located on the Isle de Crozon.
The main church in Camaret’s harbor is a seaman‘s church,and the interior reflects it charmingly.
There‘s also a tower built by Vaubon in case of evil English attacks. Very similar in design to what Henry VIII was plastering Cornwell with in case of French attacks, I found.
Today‘s visitors are either sailors:
Or they‘re into hiking like yours truly and her APs. There is an awesome trail starting about ten metres from our hotel away leading up to the cliffs to the Pointe de Pen-Hir and further. The other thing Camaret-sur-mer and surrounding villages and towns are sort of known for is that in WWII, a lot of bunkers were built to fight off the Allies (who, as you all know, invaded in Normandy instead). It‘s a bit odd and eerie, walking around ruins of concrete which are leftovers from a spectacularly vicious dictatorship, manned by one‘s countrymen and located in a breathtaking landscape. But the landscape is worth any number of creepy feelings, because:
A somewhat larger town is St. Malo. Famous, among other things, for French privateers such as Robert Surcouf, of whom more in a moment, and for birthing so many successful French seamen in general that supposedly Louis XIV degreed every French Captain had to be a St. Malo man. Today‘s main reason for visiting are the completely preserved town battlements. Of whom you can view sites such as this one, including a sea water swimming pool next to the actual ocean:
As for Robert Surcouf, most successful French pirate privateer during the Revolution and the Empire, he‘s a local boy and thus I encountered inns and places named after him all over Brittany. He‘s what would have happened if the Hornblower and the Master and Commander books would have been written by a Frenchman, only in reality. Starring Britain as the evil empire, of course. My favourite Surcouf anecdote this time around is that a Britsh navy officer supposedly told him: „You French fight for money, whereas an Englishman fights for honour“, to which Surcouf replied: „Well, everyone fights for what they don‘t have.“ Here is his statue at St. Malo:
More views from the battlements:
The competition is really tough in Brittany, but all in all, I think my favourite trail to hike was the one we took yesterday, at the Cote de Granite Rose, the coast of pink granite, the „sentier des douaniers“ - the trail of the customers. Because all those small bays just invite smugglers, I presume. We started at Perros-Guirec and walked till Tregastel. And were constantly greeted with views like these at every corner:
Those granite stones are up to 20 metres high and formed by time and tides in all manner of shapes.
And of course there‘s also a lighthouse.
Each bay prettier than the next.
And the entire coast is like this.
Here were are shortly before Ploumanac‘h.
Harbor of Ploumanac‘h
And Tregastel, complete with detail on a stone which would‘t look out of place in US-American canyons I‘ve visited before:
Since the one downside of the Breton coast is that it is far, very far away from my hometown, I‘m still sitting in the car as I write this, and will do so for many hours to come. The entirety of today is spent by driving back to Germany. And chatting about the wonderful experience we‘ve had these last ten days!
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1344040.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.