Our Brittany Vacation, Week Two, Part Two

After St. Malo we went inland to the nearby city of Dinan. This was a partially walled city, with an incredibly charming older town, with many timbered medieval homes.  Even back in medieval times this city attracted many visitors doing pilgramages.  

Genia and Gary at a main gate to the ramparts, followed by pictures of them walking along a particularly scenic street that lead down to the river.

Our home for two nights, found through airbnb.  It was very charming, on the third floor.  Our favorite stay of the trip.

The view from our front window.  That's Tom waving hello next to our illegally parked Fiat and the creperie we ate at.

The view from our kitchen window of the medieval village bell tower.  There are only two left in France - one in this town, and one in Fougers, that we visited the next day. 

The gothic cathedral in the village, followed by an interesting house with a cat.

A mailbox in the old section of town, followed by some more town pictures.

Arriving at the riverfront after having walked through the old section of town, we found a bustling late afternoon scene.  After are some pictures from the top of the ramparts, looking over the old bridge.

Now we are at Fougers, another city with a medieval castle. 

We ate at this creperie twice. One woman did everything waited on tables cooked and washed the dishes the restaurant sat about 20 people.

Every time Genia orders at a restaurant it is somethings different here a curry shrimp crepe. Tom and Gary always order the same thing. 

Now we are in Mt. St. Michel.  We had a glorious sunny day.  They have made a lot of changes since the last time we visited 14 years ago.  At that time, we drove to the base of the island, and parked on the tidal flats.  That created problems with sedimentation building around the island, and it would have eventually become part of the mainland.  To solve this, they eliminated the parking at the base of the island, and build a beautiful new causeway and bridge.  We parked on the mainland, and took a shuttle out.  On the way back, we walked the entire distance.  (2.4 km). 

Below is a ship inside the cathedral.  It is customary in churches near the ocean to have a model ship hanging inside.  The purpose is to keep the ship safe at sea. 

Gary admiring the vista from the top.

Another view from the top.  If you look carefully, you can see Genia and Rex on the bench in the lower right.  (dogs were not allowed on the tour)

 

Our Vacation in Brittany, Week Two, Part One

We were leaving Ile Grande.  

This is a house on the island that Genia particularly loved. 

On Saturday we did a day trip on the coast west of Ile Grand.  This is a very old section of Brittany, with lots of very interesting churches and architecture.  Here is a church in the village of Ti-Ker.

Here are a couple additional church spires we saw while driving around.

Now we are arriving in St. Michel de Greve, a town that had an expansive sandy beach, and a very picturesque village driving down to it.   














We were surprised to see a horse being trained on the sandy beach.  
The second picture is Genia and Gary at the end of the beach.  

  

 

Below are some pictures of Locquirec, another town we visited.  Note the shape of the granite behind Genia and Rex.  It is much more jagged here, and no longer pink. 

Tom, Gary and Rex had a race on the beach. 

Of course Rex won! 

Gary continued to enjoy climbing on the rocks, 
and Genia enjoyed exploring the village. 




Another steeple in the little village, with the traditional trimming done on the trees.

A scarecrow we encountered on the way out of town.

All over France you see little shrines in the streets and in the countryside.  In Brittany they were particularly old, dating from the Middle Ages.

St. Effium on the coast was part of a pilgramige site with many very old churches and shrines.  Some of these had been turned into houses.  

St. Effiam's Spring dates from the 16th century and had a reputation for predictions.  Young people wanting to get married would throw three stolen pieces of bread into the spring.  If two joined, it would indicate a good marriage to come.  We didn't steal any bread, but did find a big salamander! 

 This was a church that was also on the pilgrimage tour.

 

A beautiful view of Plougasnou. 

Sunday we headed east from Ile Grande along the coast.  Our first stop was a mushroom festival in Treglamus.  Below is a poster from the festival, and a picture of the church in the town.

Centerpiece from the festival. They were very clever with their displays. 
They made this one look like a picnic basket.

These are dioramas.  They put all the appropriate mushrooms that would be found in a grassy meadow or in pine trees etc.  All the mushrooms were real.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were long tables filled with different types of mushrooms by category that people from the mushroom club brought in.

Now we are in St. Malo, a medieval walled city on the coast.  Genia had just finished reading a book called "All the Light We Cannot See" (author Anthony Doerr), which takes place in St. Malo and gives a good feeling for the city. 

Every four years it is also the start of the Route du Rhum solo transatlantic sailboat race.  We arrived in town a week before the race.  The town was packed.

Below are some pictures walking around the ramparts and of the interior of the church.  

 

Genia and Gary looking out at the sailboats that will leave in a week.  There are two classes of boats:  trimarans and monohulls.  The trimarans are particularly fast, and have crossed the ocean in as little as 7 days. Here is a video showing one of the trimarans.

 

 

There were also lots of old wooden ships on exhibit.