19/09/09

Day 11 – September 19
Sadly the good weather didn’t continue and we had a late start this morning in heavy cloud. We went to Pointe de Penhir quite close to Camaret, for even more dramatic coastline. The waves really crash in here amongst rugged cliffs and rocks. On the way we passed the Museum of the Battle of the Atlantic, in memory of the merchant ships involved. The museum is marked by a series of huge black anchors each with a plaque bearing a poignant passage from French literature, and the site comprises a series of German concrete bunkers and partially entrenched buildings covering quite a large area. Of slightly greater age, we also passed the Alignments de Lagatjar, a huge area of upright prehistoric stones which have been rather unsympathetically surrounded by modern housing.
Our next destination was Quimper, a pretty town with an imposing cathedral, complete with wedding, half timbered houses and a river running through with a series of parallel flower-bedecked bridges and masses of unidentified fish – possibly carp, but we have photos for the expert that is Irvin to verify!
Onwards from here to Douarnenez via McDonalds to post the blog and check the weather forecast! This port is mainly a maritime museum now, and we hit it on the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the museum and witnessed boats in the process of construction, mackerel and haddock smoking and a series of interesting exhibitions for the occasion.
The final part of the day we headed for Pointe de Van on the peninsula just above the most westerly point of both France and Europe, this being Pointe de Raz. Much of the clifftop heathland here is fenced to protect and try to re-establish the flora of the area, and the colours of the heather and various intermittent wild flowers and shrubs are a striking contrast to the blue-green of the Atlantic and its white capped waves. We walked all around the cliffs and came across a tiny church overlooking the sea and two lighthouses in the bay. Several motorhomes seemed to have settled here for the night, so we have decided to join them. We enjoyed a spectacular sunset in what turned out to be a beautiful evening despite such heavy cloud all day - bliss!

We would like to add a few personal messages today, (in no particular order) as we seem to be having some difficulty with emails and other communication!

1. Sophie & Ross – good to have you “with” us. Love you both lots. Hope you are both okay and not messing the house up too much, and look after each other please!
2. Jean – thanks for your emails, and keeping in touch
3. Chris & Gary – thanks for keeping in touch and look forward to boring you with the photos!
4. Glynn & Susan – thanks for all your efforts and becoming followers! For your enlightenment an “aire” is a designated parking place provided by some municipals which provide water etc and allow motorhomes to park for a night or so. Hope the map is helping to keep you informed of where we are! Congrats on the novelty of an Oldham home win!
5. Alex – not much opportunity to buy football shirts so far, but we have 3 weeks left!
6. Nick – thanks for all your messages, lovely to hear from you.
7. Dave & Mark – where are you??
8. Lynn & Irvin – hope all is well, look forward to seeing you somewhere around the Loire!